CEMETERY EXTENSION.

Evening Star, Issue 8769, 9 March 1892, Page 1

CEMETERY EXTENSION.

We had certainly very little hope that the Hon. Mr Reynolds would be turned from the error of his ways in regard to the extension of the North Dunedin Cemetery by any arguments which could be advanced; and we are not surprised, therefore, that our article of the Ist instant should have elicited an expression of his determination to stick to his guns. It would be satisfactory, indeed, if he would listen to reason, and aid by his influence the obtaining legislative authority for including within the cemetery the few acres of the Town Belt, useless for any other purpose, which is so urgently required; but it is evident that he must be regarded as distinctly hostile. Should the Bill be reintroduced, as we hope will be the case, it will be for his colleagues in the Legislative Council who voted with him last session to consider whether they have not been very considerably misled, and whether they are justified in a matter of this nature in persisting in opposing the wishes of the people really concerned—the residents of the city and suburbs—distinctly expressed through the City Council, the members for the several electoral districts in the House of Representatives, and very directly by petition to Parliament. Mr Reynolds, it is to be noted, in his letter which appeared in our correspondence columns on Friday, harps on the old strings. The Town Belt, he avers, was, " by agreement with the " New Zealand Company and the " Otago Association, dedicated in per- " petuity as a reserve for the recrea- " tion and amusement of all the purchasers of land in Dunedin and "suburbs." Possibly he might like the Belt, after the fashion of some of the old squares in London, railed in from the profane public, and landowners alone furnished with keys to the ever-locked gates. This really would be the logical sequence of his contention. He entirely ignores what is notoriously a matter of fact—namely, that the present cemetery is more used for what may be termed recreative purposes than any other part of the Belt. The small area desired to be taken in would not be tended object of the^^^^^^^^^H pret^^^^^^^^^^^^H be r^ -posed t>y TTie~citfl^^^^^^^^^^H has point over and the statement that have money in hand purchase a suitable site for a new cemetery, since the sum of £3,445 10s 9d stands to the credit of the cemetery account. He must, however, be well aware that the money has been expended year by year as it accrued towards meeting the ordinary expenditure, and thus practically to the relief of the rates. When in due course the loans raised at high interest mature, and the finance of the Corporation becomes more elastic, the amount standing to this credit will no doubt be available for obtaining, a suitable and convenient site for the cemetery of the future. The arguments of the honorable gentleman are, in truth, lamentably weak; and his speeches against the Bill of last year, as reported in 'Hansard,' induce a feeling of astonishment that they should have had the effect of influencing members, who have no knowledge of local circumstances, to vote against the second reading. We could quite understand objections to the extension of a cemetery which was in any respect so situated as to involve even the risk of being detrimental to health, but this cannot even be pretended ; whilst the few acres proposed to be included in order to meet the requirements of the next few years are most favorably located, the drainage being entirely towards Pelichetßay. The bugbear, we are aware, has been raised that this proposal of the City Council is but the thin end of the wedge, and that, if carried into effect, would but prelude the establishment in perpetuo of the cemetery of the future on the Belt —extension being made from time to time. There is no ground whatever for such an assumption. The distinct intention is to acquire, so soon as the Corporation are in funds—in eight or nine years at the outside—a site beyond the @ity boundaries. Such a site, hygienically suitable and within a reasonable distance, cannot, as a matter of fact, be obtained at present for an amount at all within the means at the disposal of the City Council. In the meantime, the necessity is urgent for additional provision being made for interments. No doubt land fulfilling the essential conditions of hygiene might be obtained at a moderate cost at some distance from Dunedin, and possibly contiguous to a railway line; but there must be considered not only the enhanced expense of funerals, but the practically cutting off of the poorer classes from the opportunities, which are valued so highly, of visiting the graves of relatives and friends. The site in the Taieri, for instance, which has been suggested, would, it may be estimated, involve an addition of at least 50 per cent., possibly as much as 100 percent., on the cost of ordinary funerals; whilst to the great majority of people the cemetery would be as inaccessible as if it was in the Wakatip. The Council have rightly determined to "bide their time," and, if practicable, make temporary arrangements which will tide over the difficulty until funds are available for securing a site which shall be in every

respect a proper one, and within such a distance as to be always accessible.

It is notable that the Hon. Robeet Pharazyn, of Wellington, the chairman of the Local Bills Committee, warmly supported the recommendation of that Committee, to the effect that it was expedient that the Bill should be allowed to proceed. He quite sympathised, he said, with Mr Reynolds in his disinclination to allow reserves to be taken for any purpose whatever, and confessed that, when he first saw the Bill, his feeling was very much adverse to it; but "when he listened "to the evidence and read the Bill " carefully he came to the conclusion " that quite a fair ca6e had been made "out for applying a portion of the " reserve to purposes required." The cemetery, when extended as proposed, would be, he said, sufficient for the next ten or twelve years, and by that time sufficient funds would be obtained for acquiring a Bite further removed from the City. That being the case, he thought it woirkl be a hardship to refuse the people of Dunedin the extension which they asked for. "It " was not an extension which diverted " the reserve in any proper sense from " the purpose for which it was origi- " nally intended. It would still remain "an open space and a place of public "resort, and that was a totally dif- " ferent thing from using a portion of " the reserve for building purposes or " other purposes, from which the people " would be shut out."