OUR CEMETERY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5480, 27 September 1929, Page 2

OUR CEMETERY.

NEGLECTED STATE CONDEMNED

REMARKS BY FATHER TAYLOR.

In the course of an address over the grave of the late Mrs Bertelsen on Tuesday the Rev. Father Taylor had some pointed things to say regarding the shockingly ill-kept state of the local burial ground. No decent man, he said, whether Protestant or Catholic, would take exception to his seizing the opportunity to refer once more to the disgrace existing in Paeroa’s midst. The domains and other public places were a credit to the town. The surroundings of the homes, generally speaking, were all that could be desired. It remained that, of all places, the cemetery should be selected to stand the solitary blot upon the landscape. Someone in olden times had said : “If you seek a monument, look around.” And, looking around the sacred place where they stood, they undoubtedly beheld a monument to their disregard for the last resting-place of their relatives and friends. Why, continued the reverend Father, the very Chinese gardens in the vicinity suggested that more care should be lavished upon vegetables than upon the graves of the local dead and gone. This shocking neglect has gone on far too long, he said in conclusion, and the time had come when someone must speak out with nc uncertain voice. He had made with no uncertain voice. He had made up his mind to do so, and hoped for the support of all self-respecting people, Protestant and Catholic, to help remedy the existing evil.