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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9016, 31 March 1888, Page 4

It cannot be denied that there is a deep-seated and general sense of dissatisfaction with Waikomiti as the seat of the general cemetery. The feeling has not been a sudden or ephemeral one; but has had its origin in the great inconvenience of the distance, and the cost imposed on the relatives of deceased persons, especially those with humble means, as well as the singularly bleak and dreary aspect of this new city of the dead. The City Council have, indeed, spared no expense in the endeavour to strip the place of its air of desolation, and everyone will commend the anxiety of the Council to do every thing to remove the places of interment of the dead far away from the abodes of the living : but the feeling against Waikomiti is .so strong, and the efforts to found other and more convenient cemeteries so persistent, that it is evident the demand will sooner or later be attended to. Auckland is singularly unfortunate in the limitation of positions within reasonable distance which might be selected for a cemetery. Bounded on one side by the sea, the city is surrounded on almost every other side by "water supply," and from St. John's Lake round to the Western Springs, there is hardly any place where a site for a cemetery can lie proposed but objection is raised that its drainage will affect the sources of springs. That-this view is combated we know ; but the existence of the feeling seems to oppose difficulties in the way of relief being given to those who complain of the objectionable character of the site at Waikomiti. One of the ill results of the unsettled position of this question is that several of the suburban cemeteries, to which the principle of closing intramural cemeteries has not been applied, are being rapidly tilled up by burials from districts with which they are properly in no way connected. For example, the pretty little cemetery at Devonport, though in the vicinity of considerably dense population, is every day or two made a place to bury strangers in"; and though inhospitality in such cases would be ungracious, it is manifest that great inconvenience must arise, if every district of the city and surrounding suburbs is not placed within reasonable distance of a place to bury its dead. We believe it is coming to it that the City Council must relax its determination to force Waikomiti on an evidently unwilling people; and attention should be given to see whether it is not possible to have some supplementary site for a general cemetery found, which will be more convenient to the people, and generally less repugnant to their feelings than Waikomiti appears to be.