CEMETERY PLANNING

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 146, 16 March 1939, Page 8

CEMETERY PLANNING

Conversion Into Parks Suggested PRESENT SYSTEM HELD TO BE OBSOLETE At the annual conference of the Municipal Association of New Zealand a year ago, a remit was adopted which had for its object the securing of legislation to impose bylaws restricting the height of monuments and headstones erected in cemeteries, and also to provide that the materials used be ofTtn approved colour. This remit, which had an aesthetic backing, was approved by the conference, but for some unknown reason failed to meet with the approval of the Health Department. That knowledge came to hand too late for it to be discussed at last week’s conference, but it is understood that the matter is not being allowed to drop.

Mr. J. O’Shea, Wellington, solicitor to the association, expressed the opinion that the time had arrived when some of the modern and extremely beautiful ideas on cemetery planning should be adopted in this country, instead of the close packing of graves and headstones of every imaginable size and design, which negatived any idea of beauty. Mr. O’Shea referred particularly to the manner in which the cemeteries in the United States of America were now being laid out; in such a manner that the burial grounds ■bore the appearance of spacious parks, relieved wjth trees, gardens, and here and there statuary and a lovely monument embodying some beautiful thought. These places were regarded and used as cool, restful, yet cheerful parks and playgrounds. Particular mention was made of the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California, which consisted of green acres -of sweeping lawns unmarred 'by a collection of inartistic monuments, though here and there were small bronze tablets set level with the lawn. This did not prevent people walking or children playing over the graves, any more than it did walking down the aisles of Westminster Abbey, which are built over the graves of great men of the past. Village Churchyard Idea. Mr. O’Shea sai<| that the same idea which had been perfected in America was coming into favour in England. Actually our cemeteries were a.perpetuation of the old village churchyard idea, with all its lopsided tombstones and rotting boards, a dismal place calculated to engender morbid feelings in the ultra-sensitive. “I know of many people,” said Mr. O’Shea, “who would not dream of living within sight of a cemetery, as they consider the continual view of the headstones is too depressing. And there is really no need for these ancient burial places. With all reverence the headstones could be removed, and probably used for fences, and except where people wished to lay down tablets on a level with the ground, the cemeteries could be transformed into lovely parks. That could be done at the old Sydney Street'’Cemetery. Its hills and valleys lend themselves ad-, mirably to artistic treatment. There could be a general monument here and there as a memorial to the pioneers who lie there.”

Another sight that offends many is the Taita Cemetery, a cluster of white stones on the hill, which can be seen for miles, reminding one grimly of the inevitable without a gleam of artistic beauty, or even the thought of it. Another case is 'the old cemetery in Auckland, which spreads out on either side of Symond Street, near the Grafton Road bridge. This is an eyesore, which could in a few months be converted into a charming and restful park for the benefit of the living, without any irreverence to the dead. Mr. J. W. Andrews, mayor of Lower Hutt, approved of the remit referred to, and said he thought that much could be done to make cemeteries beautiful.