REMOVAL OF THE CEMETERY.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3803, 13 May 1873, Page 3

REMOVAL OF THE CEMETERY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE INDEPENDENT. Sir, — I hold a veiy different opinion to that of the Cemetery Commissioners, as 1 believe that the cemetery is not a nuisance, and will not be a nuisance for the next hundred years. Many speak on this matter with the thought before them of the crowded cemeteries of large cities in England, as if our uncrowded cemetery, attached to a small city, were in the same position. The comparison should be between ours and the burial places of villages, where, as here, there is plenty of ground unoccupied, and plenty of fresh air. This malaria from the cemetery cannot be so prejudicial as it is said to be, or surely Mr Futter, the late sexton, would not be so old a3 he is. The present curators enjoy very good health. Again, the cemetery is covered with thick scrub, and the roots would soon consume any possible drainage from any grave. There is, too, no better deodorizer than clay. Cover a putrid mass Avith one foot of clay, and all sniell is at once destroyed. One foot of earth covering the Turkish cemetery at Balaclava stopped the evil there which arose from the half-buried dead. I know as much about the cemetery as most people, for I have been through it, on my way to the observatory, at all hours of the day and night. I have never smelt any corpse smell, and only in hot weather, and in one place, the smell of decaying leaves. It is a great pity that there should have been a Cemetery Commission. Let the worst evils, if the cemetery be an evil, be attacked first. Let every cesspool be at once filled up, and earth-closets be introduced, and the main cause of our fever will be removed. It is the drainage through a cesspool saturated soil into the wells that has caused it. The wells being low from the hot weather the poison has been more undiluted than is usual in ordinary weather. But if the cemetery is to be removed, surely the Council will not place the new one at the ELorokoro. The expense of a funeral for a poor man would be largely increased, and the time of the officiating ministers unduly occupied. The Hutt railway is not yet finished. There are many better sites near town. I would choose the sloping ground above the Baths and towards Oriental Bay. If the cemetery were placed here, and the land planted with trees and shrubs the city would soon have a new attraction. I wish that the cemetery report had been published. I know that Dr Boor has said that the present cemetery is no evil. Two of our doctors have also told me the same thing. — I am, &c, A. Stock. Wellington, May 12.