KUMARA CEMETERY RESERVE.

Kumara Times, Issue 1539, 2 September 1881, Page 2

KUMARA CEMETERY RESERVE.

Those of our readers who have carefully perused the speech of Mr R. J. Seddon, one of the members for this district in the House of Representatives, on the subject of "Local Government," delivered in the House on the 28th July, aud published as a supplement to the Kumara Times on the 19th ult., would have observed that Mr Seddon made some very severe strictures on the action of the Waste Lands Board with regard to the apportionment of the Kumara Cemetery Reserve. There has been a considerable amount of correspondence lately on the subject, which we think is sufficiently, interesting and important to publish, that the public may become acquainted with the full facts of the case as they now appear. And for the sake of those who may not have observed the remarks of Mr Seddon concerning the laying-out of this Reserve, we reprint them, followed by letters showing the course of action which has since been pursued by Dr. Giles (the Crown Lands Commissioner, Hokitika), Mr Wylde (on behalf of the Borough Council), and the Government. The following were Mr Seddon's remarks in the House :

We have there (on the West Coast) a continuous Waste Lands Board. As one goes out another of Ihe same family steps in. There is no chance for the people. And I may tell you—and it is worth relating—they are so conservative that the Board has actually denied the miners at Kumara a last resting-place. The Borough Council of Kumara applied for a piece of ground outside the town on a terrace, and covered with tea-tree and scrub. The Waste Lauds Board, as usual, sent their surveyor, and the ground allotted was in a swamp. Adjoining this swamp was a nice knoll or terrace. Mining accidents are frequent. These poor men are entitled to a last resting-place. As Mayor of the town, I said, "The miners have hard work en6ugh in life, and they shall, at all events, have a dry place to rest in after death," and I ordered an interment on this knoll. We have buried some fifty or sixty persons there since, and we have sent four times to the Waste Lands Board, asking them to exchange what they gave us for this knoll, but they refused. I know they cannot displace those whom we have buried there—they cannot bring up the dead for trespass : still, their right to rest there is disputed by the nominated Board of the Government, who defy public opinion. Everything I have stated is true. The Borough Council of Kumara have written to the 'Government' on the subject, and they have the papers. Can it, then, be wondered at that I should protest against having Waste Lands Boards so constituted 1 They are all honorable men. There is not one of them whose hand I would not shake ; but they are not of the people I represent. They are not elected by the people. They are not exclusive men, and do not represent public opinion.

These remarks did not escape the notice of Dr. Giles, the Commissioner of Crown Lands; and he, in reply, wrote the following letter to the Mayor of the Borough ; To his Worship the Mayor of Kumara. Sir—A letter has been referred to me by the Government received from the Town Clerk, Kumara, dated the 19th of July, 1881, and purporting to be written by direction of the Borough Council. The letter contains a complaint of the refusal of the Land Board, as announced to you in my letters of the sth May, 1880, and Bth June, 1881, to take any steps for the enlargement of the Kumara Cemetery Reserve. I do not intend now to notice the many misstatements made by Mr Wylde, but I think it right to call your attention to the statement made by him to the Government, and repeated by Mr Seddon with emphatic assurances of its truth, in Parliament, that it had been found necessary to make the interments that have taken place on a spot of dry ground outside the Cemetery Reserve, and that the Land Board had repeatedly refused to allow this ground, occupied as it was alleged to be by GO or 70 graves, to be added to the Cemetery Reserve.

The fact being that the Cemetery Reserve as surveyed sixteen months ago comprises the dry and elevated site in question, and that all the graves are well within the surveyed boundary, I am quite at a loss to account for the above statements being made, particularly as Mr Wylde says the Borough Council had the site surveyed by their own surveyor ; and

the slightest trouble taken to ascertain the facts would have prevented such extraordinary errors being made. I am quite sure the Borough Council must have been misinformed in the matter, and that it cannot be their wish to have sucli incorrect statements made in their name to the Government. I have, &c, J. Giles, Commissioner of Crown Lands. Crown Lands Office, Hokitika, Aug. 24, 1881. j As the subject is one of much importance to this community, we propose to publish the correspondence which took place relative to the survey of the Reserve. It was as follows : To the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Hokitika. Sir—l am directed by the Borough Council to request that the Reserve for the Kumara Cemetery be so surveyed and if necessary extended, as to include all the ground which is fenced in. Also that it may be vested in the Borough Council.—l have, &c, James Wylde, Town Clerk. April 10, 1880. The Town Clerk, Kumara. Sir—l have the honor to forward, for the information of the Borough Council, extract from minutes of last meeting of the Lands Board with reference to your two letters of the 16th April.—l have, &c, J. Giles, Commissioner of Crown Lands. Crown Lands Office, Hokitika, May 5, 1880. [Extract from Minutes of Lands Board, Hokitika, for 21st April, 1880.] It was resolved—l. That the Cemetery Reserve being duly made and gazetted, the proposed alteration cannot be approved. The Lands Board, Hokitika. ' Gentlemen—Owing to a mistake as to the boundaries of the Reserve for the Cemetery at Kumara, a portion of ground has been used for bm-ial purposes outside of the Reserve. lam directed by the Borough Council to request that you will cause the boundary of the Reserve to be extended so as to include the ground which has been used and fenced in. lam also directed to request that you will cause the Reserve to be vested in the Borough Council for Cemetery purposes.—l have, &c, James Wylde, Town Clerk. May 28, 1881. T To James Wylde, Esq., Town Clerk, Kumara. Sir—ln reply to your letter of 28th May asking for an extension of the boundaries of the Kumara Cemetery Reserve, I have the honor to inform you that the Lands Board considered the subject at its last sitting on the 6th inst., and after referring to the minutes of the 20th April, 1880 (a copy of which I forwarded to you on the sth May of that year), and upon being assured that the boundaries of the Reserve were distinctly pointed out before the fencing was put up, it was not deemed a case in which any just steps should be taken by the Board.—l have, &c, J. Giles, Commissioner of Crown Lands. Crown Lands Office, Hokitika, Bth June, 1881. The Hon. the Minister of Lands, Wellington. Sir—l have the honor, by direction of the Kumara Borough Council, to forward to you copies of correspondence between the Council and the Commissioner of Crown Lands, Hokitika, in reference to the Kumara Cemetery Reserve ; and to draw your attention to the following circumstances :

By Gazette notice of August 8, 1877, a parcel of land containing 10 acres, and situated about a mile from Kumara, was proclaimed as a Cemetery Reserve. During the same month the first Borough Council was elected, and it became necessary for them to make immediate provision for burials. They therefore applied on the 30th August, 1877, to the Waste Lands Board to have the Reserve vested in the Borough Council. In reply to tins they Avere informed that "as soon as the land is surveyed, your request will be attended to." No further attention has been paid to their request, although several times repeated, as in letters of April IG, 1880, and May 28, 1881, enclosed. In the meantime it was absolutely necessary to prepare and fence some ground as a place of burial. The Council, therefore, decided to have the Reserve surveyed by their, own surveyor, as nearly as possible in accordance with the proclamation, and to forward a plan thereof to the Lands Board. The Gazette describes the Reserve as " commencing on the west side of Greenstone road, about 30 chains south of junction with Chesterfield road," — u all the measurements to be more or less."

On making the survey the Council found that by adhering strictly to the 30 chains they would exclude the only piece of ground that was immediately available able for burial purposes ; whereas, by making the distance a little less, this ground would be included. The Reserve is situated in the middle of a " pakehi," or open space in the bush, the open space being clue to the fact that the ground will grow nothing but a few bog plants, the soil consisting of bog overhanging pipe-clay and gravel. The land is utterly valueless, aud, being in general covered with water, it cannot be used even for burying purposes. But irame-

diately alongside of the Reserve, as described, there is a slight elevation in the swamp, which, being less "wet than the rest, could be used as a Cemetery-. In the emergency of the case and in the absence of any Government survey, the Council, decided to avail themselves of the license which appeared expression "about 30 chains,','- -and to make use of the only available spot for burying the dead ,_. The Reserve was not surveyed by the Government until-a few months since, when seventy bodies-had 'Heen buried, the first burial having taken place on the 11th December, 1877 ; and tliere would not have been the slightest difficulty in surveying it so as to include the ground which had been fenced and occupied by graves. But you will see by the correspondence that the Lands Board declined to do this, and have persisted in siirvevinw and maintaining the Reserve so'{is to" ex* elude the graves and the only piece of ground available for burying purposes. '■ The Council are quite at a loss to understand the action of the Board, for should the Board ever attempt to devote,the ground to any other purposes, such an outrage to the feelings of the relations and friends of those buried in > it would lead to most deplorable results; and, if they have no intention of so dealing with it, why should they object to legalise its use as a cemetery f It is in the hope that you will take such steps as may result in the ground in ques* tiou being vested in the Borough Council as a cemetery that the Council have desired me to lay the matter thus fully before you. ,'. ... : ■,'. : ■ -;,' I have, &c, : James Wsxdb, Town Clerk •; Kumara, July 10, 1881. The rest of the correspondence oft this subject will be given to-niorrovr. /