COMBINED FUNERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20791, 6 February 1931, Page 12

COMBINED FUNERAL.

DISTRESSING SCENES.

GRAVE OF 52 VICTIMS.

GRIM TASK NOT FINISHED, MORE BODIES RECOVERED, (Special Reporter.—By Wireless.—H.M.S. Veronica to H.M.S. Philomel). NAPIER, Thursday.

There were distressing scenes in the Park Island Cemetery this afternoon when the combined funeral of identified and unidentified victims of the earthquake was held.

The huge pit which was to serve as a grave could not be dug owing to the hardness of the ground. Consequently a party of men worker! with explosives to prepare the last, resting place of many of those who had perished.

Shortly after 3 o'clock the funeral left the courthouse, Marine Parade. There were no hearses followed by mourners. Instead, rough wooden coffins, some with names chalked on their tops, were loaded on to lorries and transported to the

cemetery. ~** A number of private burials were carried out at the express wish of relatives, but into the huge common grave 52 coffins were lowered and placed in orderly rows.

The number of mourners was not large owing to the fact that many people had left the town. Others were busy on relief work in the most seriously damaged areas. However, a small crowd of mourners stood with clergymen of all denominations around the edge of the grave. A few women broke down and wept, but for the most part tho mourners still wore the dazed, hopeless expression which has been noticed so frequently since the disaster. The burial service was conducted by ministers of tho several denominations. The Minister of Public Works, tho W. B. Taverner, and Commodore Geoffrey Blake represented the Government and tho Navy respectively. Throughout yesterday and to-day the flags on the three warships in port were flown at half-mast. The* burial of the dead has not by any means been completed. Even while the combined funeral was being held to-day more bodies were being recovered from the ruins in the main business block and elsewhere.

These were taken to the mortuary to be identified if possible and later were placed in rough wooden coffins which are being constructed literally by the score.

HUGE CRACKS ON ROAD.

ROUTE NORTH OF NAPIER.

CARS FALL INTO GAPS. In the embankment road leading north from Napier there are cracks and subsidences all the way and beyond for at least 25 miles there is no possibility of wheel A road foreman took a day and a night to cover 25 miles from Tutira.

Just before the big bridge just out of Napier there are cracks in which three cars fell and are lying with the top of the h'oods level with the roadway. The foreman says there are depressions further on below sea-level. The cracks appear to have widened.

ANXIETY IN LONDON.

RADIO TELEPHONE SERVICE.

MANY REQUESTS FOR USE.

LONDON. Feb. 4.

In connection with the earthquake in New Zealand, requests for the use of the wireless telephone service to the Dominion poured into the* Post Office to-day, but the circuit was not considered to be good enough for communication. Officials who are carrying out tests and experiments daily conversed for 20 minutes to-day with Wellington. They were told of the estimated death roll- and that the whole Dominion was in mourning.