CEMETERY IMPROVEMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4545, 8 June 1876, Page 2

CEMETERY IMPROVEMENTS.

We regret to learn that the movement set on foot some months ago to improve that portion of the burial-ground known as " the general cemetery," and which is principally used by the Wesleyau, Methodist, Congregational, and Baptist denominations (a3 well as by those of no creed at all,) is not, financially speaking, in so satisfactory a position as could be wished. The delapidated wall, the broken fences, and" unsightly footpaths with their rauk undergrowth of weeds and fern, were the salient features of a cemetery, which, by courtes}', was called "God's acre." This state of things was threatening to become a positive scandal to the denominations concerned, when a few earnest men, "provoked to good works" by the example of their Presbyterian brethren on the other side oE Symondsstreet, took the matter in hand, got trustees appointed from the several communions interested, and commenced operations. Footpaths have been cut and formed, and the rubbish cleared away from the enclosure. A contract was lately accepted for the construction of a boundary wall, and the work is now in hand. The present position of the Trust may be summed up shortly as follows : —The total amount collected and paid in to the treasurer is only £150, of which about £45 has been expended in some improvements, such as clearing ground, forming walks, draining, &c, leaving a balance in hand of £105. When outstanding promised subscriptions (about £75) are collected, the gross amount available will be but £180. The liabilities already contracted by the trustees are : fencing, £16 ; cemetery gates, £28 ; boundary wall, £230 ; survey of ground and plans, £10; treeplanting, £26 ; sundries, £12—in all, £322 thus shewing a deficit of £142. We regret to hear that in some cases where the trustees had a right to expect substantial pecuniary aid—owing to the fact that the persons concerned had many of "their dead' , lying there, and had enclosed considerable areas of ground—they have met with no response to their appeal. We are quite as ashamed to make such a humiliating statement, as the parties ought to be who make such reference possible, where honour, reverence, and good feeling should have made no stimulus necessary. Surely a community which gladly gives more than £142 for a single evening's amusement will not leave these trustees to bear much longer the financial responsibilities they have incurred, in their generous efforts to remove the opprobrium hanging over this portion of our " silent city of the dead?" The famous Jim Fisk, of Erie Uailrorid celebrity, was once asked by a deputation for a subscription to fence in the Brattleboro' cemetery, in which Jim's father was laid at rest, and on the strength of which circumstance they had confidently approached the great financial " operator." With the glib logic whichcomes trippingly to the tongue of avarice, Jim replied, '' Those who are in there don't want to s;et out, and those who are out don't want to break in— not a red cent!" By-and-bye a legal gentleman, in a most illegal way, put a hole in Jim " that the tailor couldn't mend," and he, equally with his victims, had in turn to "peg out." By a strauge fatality and coincidence, the Brattleboro' cemetery, into which he "didn't want to break in," holds all that is earthly of the " spleudid sinner"; and De Witte Talmage, with true Dutch courage, preached his funeral sermon from the well-known passage in Jeremiah : '' He shall be buried with the burial of au ass!" Here is a "frightful example," which we recount for the benefit of the defaulters referred to ; if it does not "fetch" them, we have worse in store, before invoking the last dread alternative—an appeal to their "finer feelings." In our advertising columns will be found a notice by the trustees, inviting contributions of shiubs—these gentlemen, with that charity which " hopeth all things," believing it to be possible that some who will not give their " mites," may still be induced to yield up their "plants" for the general improvement of the cemetery.