COLLINGWOOD STREET CEMETERY.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 14157, 20 April 1916, Page 5

COLLINGWOOD STREET CEMETERY.

(To the Editor of "The Colonist.")

Sir, —Your report of the Town School Committee's monthly meeting held last evening makes it very clear that tho relatives of tnose old pioneers buried in the Collingwood Street Cemetery wiH have to bestir themselves if they wish to prevent the desecration of the graves beiug proceeded with. Our Prime Minister must have had a onesided version o£ the proposed proceedings put before him or I am sure ho would not have sanctioned the changing of the purpose of the site from that of a cemetery to that of a school. The chairman of the Schools Committee is reported to have said that to his knowledge not a flower Ivad been planted in nor a weed pulled from the cemetery, but he should remember that many of the relatives are dead and others in an aged condition, and he should know that the City Council let the for horses to run on for some years. I think it is the duty of the citizens to look after and keep in order the last resting place- of our old pioneers. What is the City Council going to do in the matter? Do they acquiesce in the proposed desecration? The School Committee should be the last body of men in the world to show such disrespect to the men who in fighting the fight of life in the early and strenuous days of settlement are just as worthy of respect as our present day heroes who arc giving their lives for the present generation. Also the committee should know that tho v.orst thing thov can teach the. children of to-day is disrespect for our , dead. The children will wonder why respect should be shown to the d'^id in onr new Cemetery O r any other i cemetery when their governors—the committee-men—show no respect for tho dead nioncprs whose bodies were committed to the grave at this Coilingwood 'Street Cemetery. Looking back through the corridors of time. I can aoo tho forrrss of those old worthies who were the citizens of Nelson when I was a mere lad. I stood at the graveside and saw some of thorn loworer! into their last resting place with n'l the eereniinia.l n.vri solemnity of tho Church ritual, and little did we think that our dpfid who wpre interred in that first Nelson cemetery would after a lanse of CO or 70 voars be unceremoniously exhume^—nil that remained of then"!—and bundled out of the way and out of tho city they helped to make, into a new resting place, Rnve the. coimnitteerfien no bowels of romrmsion? Is sentiment entirely lacking in their coinnosition ? I intimnterT in my former let-tor that one of mv parents wns hru-WI there, and I agni'n protest against the exhumation of "tho remains, and I call on n-y fellow citizens for help to TDako "my nro+eph effective.. T hope that nnv' relatives who have tlieiv dead buried there will immodin+.pli- make, a nrotest to tho Prime "AfiniVer. ard also to t^e Hot*. Mr. llnsspll. Minister for Tnt-M^ii Affairs, against the. nroryvsod desecra- | tion. Tt is vnt too lntr» if thex- vvitn n->ii-iedia.tpli-. but ?m t-i'r.p i"nupt l>e Ins-. Will not t T-r. ri+^oi-m r>rnf^-i----■l'-ai'l^ tlip disturbing of the remains o.' f.'if-i:' f«ro'-iinnr-r^, in the work of fi + i/piiship? One eon-m-ittw""!' ed Tilenspd that oniv qjy t-wiln.fnn^ | "Oilld r^rri'vf* Tnnyirio;. H" mv'-i'l,--'■■»nv;<; that in the wrh- rlo--<: +^«ye v"s I'^tle moil"- to sr>"nd on t/'-'-nbsf^-io'-! Xv th''-'-<" U'Ol'+mioc; who f-iyp l.]l<i!-- ?-■;-».'- x". •rnrikinf ihi* city fit ?')•• l-l^i r^id -M fP lie i. n lire in. Mw r.m ])nriod t'""~-;ie witbn"fc nnv n'sP T'iovi:';l stonp. T,;^_ worsbin ef thA eld nionp^r^ is <-'her<"> and co"-!-no-v b"+. r> !itt> ?-$■ v^-.nor't- pi the fli'T-^tion of helni'if +o ..■•fwput t l-^ c.o.erile"-" ;vn^'] h" i^vinif^l-' 1.,,+ f,.,. t], nv . mrvn fnlk. Who will I am. p.t'-.. CFIRTSTIAX. April I?t1i.