EDITORIALS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 907, 19 July 1889, Page 27

EDITORIALS.

Some weeks ago we sounded the note of alarm as to the Trustees’ intention to extend the

THE CEMETERY QUESTION.

Wellington Cemetery tile present ebdosure, and to take in for biirial ptirposeS part of the pretty wooded gully lit the head Of Sydfiey-Btr6et; We Urged prompt action to prevent any further cemletery extension within the city, especially as this would involve the sacrifice of a picturesque corner which ought to be preserved for recreation purposes. Gradually the public have become awake to what is threatened, and a depuration of citizens to the City Council last evening week was ihe first of what we hope will be many vigorous steps to pre vent the menaced evil. But, as the Mayor very clearly and fwrcibly pointed out to the deputation, the case “ is by no means an easy one to deal with. In the first place the Cemetery Trustees are driven to their wit’s end to find room for fresh inter-nenrs. The present cemetery is crowded in every part. Public sentiment, to say nothing of sanitary considerations, will hardly tolerate the piling up of bodies one above another in the style described by Dickens in “ Bleak House.” Yet what is to be done with our dead? In a population of 30,000 the annual death-roll must necessarily be a heavy one, and the corpses have to be buried somewhere, the more cleanly and sanitary and reverent practice of cremation not yet having become usual. Clearly another cemetery will have to be provided, and that with the least possible delay. But how? That is the trouble. If the City Council had a site in every way suitable offered to them to-morrow they could not buy it for lack of means. There are no funds available ~ for such an object, and the citizens refused to sanction a loan for this purpose, inter alia. If the Council remodel their loan proposals, as we understand they intend doing, what security is there that the ratepayers may not even then be led away by some eloquent agitator into once more withholding approval ? ; This is not at all improbable. Nor does it need active opposition to defeat a new loan proposal. Nothing more is needed than apathy on the part of the public, so that an absolute majority may not be returned. A l»au scheme can easily he thus killed. That was the fate which befell the last proposal, and the experience may be repeated. Even if the loan should be unanimously approved by the ratepayers, it is by no means certain that a suitable site will then be easily procurable. "Where is it to be got? An eligible area bad been looked out at Melrose, but now Melrose is a borough, and so it cannot legally have a cemetery within its bounds. Driven from South Wellington, if the City Council go to the north they find the new compound borough which is about to be formed out of Johnsonville, Kaiwhara, Ngauranga, &c., straggling over a large space of country, and excluding the possibility of a cemetery being established there either. If they go westward they will discover that Karori likewise is seeking incorporation, and that there will soon be no opening there. What is to be done? Evidently the situation is so serious that prompt legislative interference is imperatively needed. Mr Izard’s Bill ought to bo passed with all convenient Bpeed, and in committee a new clause should be inserted empowering a council in case of special emergency like this to take - under the Public Works Act such land as may be needed for a cemetery, even in a suburban borough if necessary, and to raise a special loan to pay for it, without a poll of the ratepayers being required. Otherwise there is imminent peril of the City of Wellington being placed in the position of having an overcrowded cemetery in its midst ; being surrounded by suburban boroughs, in none of which can a cemetery be lawfully placed ; and being without legal means of raising the requisite funds for the purpose of procuring a fresh cemetery, even were sites available. The situation threatens to become a total deadlock unless something be _ done and that very promptly. The opposition offered to Mr Izard s Bill on the ground that it is in Wellington interests alone, is utterly puerile and unreasonable. Even if "the Bill will only be useful to Wellington —which is

no.t, at all proved—surely the urgent difficulty of a .eity^of,3o,ooo people is a matter of quite dufficieiit importance to warrant Parliamentary rsetioA It is imperative that the question be dealt with during the present session, otherwise the difficulty may be immensely enhanced. It is quite right that power should be given to other authorities to intervene if a City Couneil does cot do its duty in providing a hew; cemetery, but it is eqdjilljr right fciiafi id shotild be furnished tfith the iiie&nS of doing its duty, ahd i6' this end it is essential that a council should be empowered to raise such money as may be needed, and then to take a suitable site, even should this be in a suburban borough. The matter is growing exceedingly serious, and can no longer be triffed with.