THE CEMETERY.

Waikato Independent, Volume V, Issue 327, 22 January 1907, Page 5

THE CEMETERY.

(to the editor.)

Sir, —An English visitor' approaching Cambridge by train catches the gentle gleam of marble tombstones within a mile and a half from the town, and thinks "Yes, there is God's Acre, a Valley of Baca to many; but faith in the " Man of Sorrows " "may make it a well, springing up into everlasting life." Associations awaken within him and he recalls some beautifully arranged and impressive ' public cemetery in the dear Homeland, such as that at Norwood, where reverence has spared no cost, or skill of art and monumental handicraft or daily care, to express its homage and fidelity to the departed. I regret to think any visitor familiar with cemeteries in England would be somewhat painfully surprised when he paid a visit to the Cambridge cemetery. The position, he might think, could hardly be improved ; the monumental work, too, he might deem good, but he would be surprised to find no chapel, the pathways rough and all overgrown with grass, and a general aspect of neglect and forlornness. He would not for a moment assume that the relatives and friends of those whose remains were there interred were more forgetful of those they had "lost awhile," than all the dwellers in other towns, and \et he could not refrain the wonder, why it is so unkempt and so iocomplete. Such, I confess, were the thoughts that arose in me when yesterday afternoon for the first time I visited it. Yet I saw it in the warmth and brilliance of a summer's day, under a dome of cloudless blue, whilst the winds played softly over the fields, and all Nature seemed glad and loving and kind. And still they could not dispel the " dolorosa " that lay over this place of the dead and that .seemed to exclude both faith and hope, or banish the question. " Is there here some unfulfilled responsibility, and, if so, at whose door does it lie '?" If, as I assume, gthe cemetery is for the district as well as the Borough of Cambridge, the responsibility lies upon each and all of the several townships, and I will'not btlieve that any one of them would decline to contribute its just share to put and keep the cemetery in as clean, neat and complete a condition as possible. That would, I presume, include the thorough clearing, levelling, tarring and cementing of the principal pathways, keeping the grass cut and trimmed, the supply of several seats and a mortuary chapel. One other question I could not repel. As I rested for a few minutes on the grass I thought how the recent heavy rains must have saturated the soil around, and how when they had ceased and the hot'sun set up everywhere the process of evaporation, from this, as from other graveyards, there must come more or less contaminating exhalations, and that, consequently, on the one most important ground of sanitation. The ancient and now reviving custom of cremation is decidedly preferable. I am how this proposal offends old and time-honored practices, but nevertheless, if I mistake not, the trend of modern scientific thought is in the direction of cremation.—l am, etc., Edwin Cox. . January 21st, 1907.