LAST INTERMENT

Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1935, Page 4

LAST INTERMENT

ST. MARY’S CHURCHYARD DEATH OF A PRESCRIPTIVE RIGHT. BURIAL OF MR. R. C. HUGHES. UNDER TREES PLANTED IN 1847. The last of a company of illustrious citizens of old New Plymouth having that right by prescription, the late Mr. Robert Clinton Hughes was buried in the calm and old-world grace of the churchyard of St. Mary’s parish church yesterday afternoon. As the summer sun warmed the old grey stones of the church the last rites were performed over a grave sheltered by the branches of two flourishing cypress trees, planted in 1847, the year that Mr. Hughes was born. There.are many of the leaders of the town during the troublous early days who are interred under the green lawns and old world trees of the churchyard, but it is many years since a burial last took place. With the passing of Mr. Hughes there also passes the final prescriptive right to a last resting place in the shadow Of the old parish Church. Time was when Christian churches of all denominations had their own burial grounds. As the town grew with the march of progress those of other churches became drawn into the expanding residential districts. Then there was established in 1862 or 1863 the public cemetery at Te Henui, and the right of burials elsewhere was cancelled. St. Mary’s, however, secluded and surrounded by tradition, was not so greatly affected, and so there existed a prescriptive right to the close relations of families already possessed of plots. Mr. Hughes was the last of those with such a right and no more such ceremonies will take place in the dignified surroundings Of the parish church, so much like the country churches of England. There were few members of the generations of later days to know, as they paid their last respects to a man who had lived with them and also with many of the revered figures of Taranaki’s history, that the shade in which they stood was spread by two cypress trees planted in 1847, the year of Mr.. Hughes’ birth. Nearly 88 years ago died the Rev. W. Bolland, first vicar of the parish, and the cypresses were planted in. his memory. To-day their shade has spread, adding to the grace of the churchyard, till they over-reach the grave of Mr. Hughes, and in that way are truly expressive of the benign influence of the old pioneer through so long a period of service to his town.