KARORO CEMETERY

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 November 1939, Page 5

KARORO CEMETERY

PETITION AGAINST EXTENSION.

A petition was received at last evening’s meeting of the Greymouth Borough Council from 57 residents and propertv owners of the southern end of Greymouth. appealing to the Council to acquire a new burial ground, close the present one at Karoro for ,all except existing family plots, and not encroach on the acquired Borough land behind the residences and facing the sea.

The petition added: “We feel that the time has come when God’s acre is too near the general residential area, and is unhealthy and has a depressing effect, on sohle of the inhabitants. One resident, has offered 100 lausoniana trees to shut out the view of the cemetery from the main road.” The Mayor said the unfortunate part about the petition was that it did not mention any alternative site for. a cemetery. This question had given the Council many headaches in the past. Cr. F. F. Boustridge said lie had been told of an area of land that might be suitable for a cemetery’ and Also for an abattoir. (Laughter/. Cr. Boustridge: I don’t mean that we should put the two together, but there might be room on the area for both. I do not think it would be advisable to say where this area is, but the question of shifting the 1 abattoir and of new land for cemetery purposes will have to be faced in the near future, so the question of buying this area, for both or either purpose might be considered. The Mayor: The trouble is that we may want more land for the cemetery almost immediately’. j Cr. G .R. Harker said that one trouble was that the 1 Karoro cemetery was the burial ground for a wide district.

The Mayor: On one occasion, when we asked the County’ Council to establish burial grounds- in the country, one councillor said that funerals were a good thing for Greymouth, since they brought people into town.

Cr. H. Herring said that people who had bought sections near the cemetery knew the cemetery’ was there, and that the Council had acquired additional land with a view to extending the cemetery. This additional land was not much use' for anything else, since it would be difficult to get road access to it, and it would not he in much demand for' building sites, since it was right up against the cemetery. The Mayor said that the l question of screening the cemetery’ from the main road 'was- under consideration, and, when, that job was done, he thought there would be much less objection to the cemetery. It was decided, on the motion of Cr. .1. B. Kent, seconded by Cr. Herring, to reply’ to the petitioners that, the matter had been gone into, and that the present site was the only’ one available for cemetery purposes.