SOLDIERS’ GRAVES

Evening Star, Issue 19844, 18 April 1928, Page 9

SOLDIERS’ GRAVES

R.S.A. AS TRUSTEES At last night’s meeting of the executive of the Dunedin Returned Soldiers’ Association, the secretary (Mr J, M. AVhito) reported that lie had been proached by the Rev. V. G. Bryan King with the request that 1 tlio association act as trustees for any moneys handed to them for the erection of headstones pn those graves not deemed war graves in the soldiers’ plot in the Anderson’s Bay Cemetery. Mr King had handed them the sum of about £ls, and Mr "White had promised that the association would ho only too pleilscd to act as trustees and do anything for the furtherance of this very desirable object. The secretary’s action was approved by tlio committee, and the object was commended by various members of the committee. As far back as 1924 an endeavour was made by the association to provide headstones for the graves, then thirteen in number, which were not accepted by the War Graves Division as a charge on its department. Most of these were men who had died in Dunedin without anyone to make funeral arrangements, or at the time of death it was considered that their deaths were caused hy war service, and the department would eventually hear the cost of providing headstones. A local organisation which was concerned in the administration of funds for Die benefit of ex-service men had volunteered to donate the required amount, hut this course was not approved of hv the Minister of Internal ait* irs. Since that time the number of graves not deemed war graves had increased, and at present there were probably between twenty and thirty which bad not been accepted by the Pensions Department as a charge because their deaths were not attributed to war service. These formed a blot on the otherwise beautiful plot of soldiers’ graves. The erection of headstones would probably cost approximately £7 each, so that the amount necessary to complete the soldiers’ plot would be in the neighborhood of £2OO. The association itself hopes that at a later stage it can assist in the collection of the necessary amount.