PRIVATE BURIAL GROUND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 857, 25 June 1910, Page 3

PRIVATE BURIAL GROUND.

History relating to a plot of ground at Bulls was referred to during the course of legal argument heard in the Wellington Supreme Court on Thursday in the case of Donald Fraser v. James Campion and others. It appears that in 1854 Cornelius Campion, a settler in Bulls, set aside a section for the purpose of the burial of a shepherd who had died while in his employment. At the time there was no cemetery nearer than Wellington on the one side and Wanganui on the other. The Campion and Fraser families intermarried, and the land was then kept for private burial purposes. Wishing to preserve it, they dedicated it as a burial ground, vesting it in twelve managers (now joined as defendants), and the question for the Court to decide was whether it could come under “ The Cemeteries Act, 1908.” Mr H. F. Johnston applied on behalf of plaintiff. Mr J. W. Salmond, Solicitor-General, said he had given the matter careful consideration, and had decided to oppose the application. The deed of trust set aside the land as a private burial ground, and not for a charitable purpose. If the application were allowed, he urged that there was nothing to prevent persons dedicating ground for private burial purposes and describing it as a cemetery. His Honour the Chief Justice reserved his decision.