CEMETERY EXTENSION.

Evening Star, Issue 8612, 4 September 1891, Page 1

CEMETERY EXTENSION.

The question of providing additional cemetery accommodation was again before the City Council at their meeting on Wednesday evening, when professional reports were submitted by the Reserves Committee in relation to certain proposed sites. The reports of the City Surveyor and Mr Robert Hay are so distinctly unfavorable that the idea of acquiring either of the sites mentioned must necessarily be abandoned. Mr Mirams has suggested that, if it should be found impracticable to obtain suitable ground within easy distance of the city and ■suburbs, the attention of the Council 'might be directed to a fifty-acrei section belonging to the Corporation, situated half a mile beyond the station at Mosgiel, which, he thinks, would be suitable and convenient, as the railway passes through it. The objections, however, against a distant cemetery, which would involve, under the most advantageous circumstances, a material addition to the expense of interment, are very serious ; whilst the consideration cannot be overlooked that the sentiment of surviving relatives and friends induces visits to the graves of the departed, which would then only be few and far between. The Legislative Council, we cannot but think, acted somewhat hastily in throwing out the North Dunedin Cemetery Extension Bill on the second reading; and we are inclined to think that had the adjournment of the debate, proposed by Mr J. B, Whyte, been acceded to, the result might have been different. The arguments against the Bill were, indeed, so weak that we are surprised that they should have had any weight with the Council. We feel convinced that if members consider the case upon its merits, as fully set forth in the reports of the proceedings on the Bill in both Houses, they will be inclined to reverse their judgment should it be reintroduced next session. The difficulties of finding, we will not say a suitable, but a possible, site are, to all appearances, so great that it will be well, we think, for the City Council to make one more attempt to obtain legislative authority to extend the present Northern. Cemetery. The ‘ Hansard ’ report of the discussion in the Legislative Council shows that the Bill was promoted with great ability by Mr Downie Stewart; whilst the opposition was marked by an utter abeexuua nf valid reasoning. Mr Stewart, in moving the second reading, pointed out, in the first place, in respect to the portion of the Town Belt authorised in 1872 to be taken as the present cemetery, that what had previously been a wilderness, and practically totally inaccessible, had been converted into “one of the “greatest attractions to be found “ around Dunedin, and was now more “ frequented than any other place “about the City.” He quoted Dr Stuart to the effect that “the opera- “ tions of the Council on the portion “ of the Belt to-day used as a ceme- “ tery had converted what for years “ had been a waste into one of the plea- “ santest and most healthful resorts of “ the public, and that the improvements “ which had been carried out had made “ this plot the favorite haunt of thou- “ sands of people in seasonable “ weather. The cemetery was a place “of recreation in the widest sense “of the word, and three-fourths of “the people of Dunedin shared his “ opinion.” The contiguous portion of the Town Belt purported by the Bill to be taken in, Mr Stewart affirmed, could never be utilised for any other purpose, and, if utilised as a cemetery, would not affect the drainage, which was towards Pclichet Bay. The grounds on which he asked the Council, he said, to concur with the House of Representatives in passing the Bill were, first, that the Dunedin City Council, the local governing body, the members of which were “ the best exponents of “what was in the interests of the « citizens,” were unanimously in favor of the proposed extension. Next, all the city and suburban members of the House, the representatives of the people generally, were of the same opinion. In respect to the Bill, the honorable gentleman directed attention to the fact that it had been submitted to a select committee of the House, and, after a strict inquiry into the circumstances which induced its introduction, favorably reported upon. On being transmitted to the Council it had been referred to a thoroughly impartial tribunal—the Local Bills Committee—who had considered all petitions presented for and against, and, after taking a great deal of evidence, had recommended that it should be proceeded with. The presumption clearly was, he affirmed, that there could be nothing really objectionable in what was intended to be effected, and that the Council would not be justified in rejecting a measure which was not only almost universally approved by the community immediately interested, but had passed the ordeal of very strict specific inquiry in both the House and the Council. Mr Reynolds, who was the head and front of the opposition to the Bill, made a lengthy but conspicuously inconsequential speech. He commenced by denying - that the land desired to be added to the cemetery was absolutely useless for other purposes, and to this effect cited the opinion of “a great number of “ gentlemen'resident in Dunedin who “ were in the habit of visiting that “ place, and who said that it was the “most beautiful plane in creation”! He then proceeded, with a few' preliminary complimentary! ■ remarks as to corporations generally, to

remark that the Dunedin Corporation “ were by no means ‘ scrupulous as to bow they rode f 1 through an Act of Parliament and expressed his belief that “if they had “their will they would take in the “whole of the Town Belt before “acquiring a. cemetery elsewhere.” Then- he harked back upon the old story .of the diversion of the cemetery funds to general purposes, his argument being that there ought to be money in hapd to purchase a site elsewhere. ' ite also condemned the Bill as having been brought in by a private member, which, as an argument against its purpose, is somewhat feeble. Another reason he advanced was that lif this.encroachment on the Town Belt was authorised, “ the next thing probably would be that in order to get “ revenue they (the City Council) would “ ask Parliament to allow them to have “ the whole of the Town Belt for the “purpose of cutting it up into building “.sites.”

The reports by Mr Miiums and Mr Hay', published in our issue of yesterday, make it sufficiently evident that the sites which, at a price, are available in the immediate neighborhood of the City would be altogether unsuitable for ! cemetery purposes. If the Legislative Council cannot be induced to give way in. the matter, there will be nothing for it, we apprehend, but to take the Mosgiel section suggested by Mr Mirams, or other ground on one of the railway lines. Before finally deciding upon this course another attempt should certainly be made to obtain the necessary legal authority to extend the Northern Cemetery.