SOLDIERS' GRAVES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17649, 9 December 1920, Page 8

SOLDIERS' GRAVES.

INTENTIONS OF ' GOVERNMENT.

Temporary crosses will be erected by the Government over all unmarked soldiers' graves in the cemeteries at O'Neill's Point, Purewa, Waikaraka, Waikumete, Otahuhu, Hamilton, Te Aroha, and Rotorua. This decision was conveyed in a letter from the New Zealand vVar Graves Committee to the hon. secretary- of the Soldiers' Mothers' League, Mrs. Emily Nicol, in reply to recent complaints regarding the state of the soldiers' graves at Waikumete. The letter stated that the Government had not yet definitely decided upon a scheme in regard to the formation of soldiers' cemeteries and the -erection of memorials. It was possible, however, that in special soldiers' cemeteries two memorials,." The. Great War Cross" (Cross of Sacrifice), and the " Great War Stone " (Altar of Duty), would be erected in addition to a permanent headstone over each grave. The New Zealand Architects' Association was dealing with ; the layout and arrangement of such cemeteries, and some little time would probably elapse before this question and others of equal importance had been determined. The committee further indicated the possibility of the Government following the policy of the Imperial War Commission in offering to concentrate the bodies into burial grounds. For instance, soldiers buried at O'Neill's Point, Waikaraka, Purewa, Birkenhead, Otahuhu, and other cemeteries within reasonable distance of Auckland,, might be moved to a soldiers' ground at Waikumete, where the graves would be cared for even after the relatives of the men had themselves crossed the Great- Divide. Under such, conditions the possibility of graves. now isolated being encroached upon or obliterated in the years to come, would be entirely removed. In the meantime crosses would be erected in the various cemeteries similar to those' placed over soldiers' graves at the Soldiers' Memorial Cemetery at Karon, Wellington, and would in time be replaced by permanent headstone* to be erected by the Government.