KARORI CEMETERY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 195, 7 May 1918, Page 9

KARORI CEMETERY

EXTENSION NOT PERMITTED. lteserved judgment' was delivered by the Appeal Court yesterday m the case ol the Wellington Corporation v, karori Borougu Council. On the .bench were His Honour the Chief Justice (Sir Hubert Stout), Mr. Justice Cooper, and Air. Justice bim. I'lie Karon Borough Cuuucil objected to the Wellington Cny Corporation extondiiii' the urea of its cemetery at Karori, and thi> dispute was referred to the. Supremo Court, when His Honour Mr. Justice Chapman decided against tho ehiins of the City Corporation, and from tins decision tho Corporation appealed. Mr. J. O'Shea, who appeared lor tho City Council, contended mat a very difficult question had arisen cut of the "construction of tlic complicated Act concerned with tho establishment of tho Karori Cemetery. Tho New Zealand Act was a consolidation of various English Acta relating to burial grounds, 'the restriction of burials in England originated iu an Act of \6b'i, and tho Mew Zealand Act of I'M wn.< in effect a consolidation of the English Act of ISS2. Jn New Zealand there was an absoluto restriction of burials—that was, that no cemetery should bo established in a borough or town district. The English Acts of 1852 and 185U prohibited buriuls in certain districts in tho interests of public health, burial grounds could Do closed iu tne interests of public health. The question was whether uu old cunetery could bu added to. Tho new cemetery adjoined the old, and ho contended flat it was merely an expausion of the old one and could not be said to tit in with the definition of "establishing a cemetery." For the respondent borough, Mr. A. de B. Brandon contended that the underlying policy of the Cemeteries Act was to prevent the burial of the dead in localities where there was likely to be a uumbtr of inhabitants. No question could arise as to tho niceties of .tho meaning of the words in the Act. He cited two cases under the English Act (an Act very similar to tho New Zealand Act) where it was decided that au additional piece of land acquired for the purpose of a burial ground was a new burial ground; further, tliat an extension of an old burial ground constituted the opening of li new burial ground. Tho clt'ecc of the judgment delivered. I yesterday is that the . Wellington City. Council is restrained from using tho land acquired by it at Karori as a burial ground, on tho ground that it was within the borotish, it not being competent for a local body to purchase land for a cemetery within a borough.