WELLINGTON CEMETERY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4820, 2 September 1876, Page 3

WELLINGTON CEMETERY.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE HEW ZEALAND TIMES. - *t3iSF=rthink'that it would be impossible in the Southern Hemisphere to find a parallel to the circumstances connected with the Wellington cemetery. —Where else could'be found' a town of* 12,000 inhabitants continuing, in defiance of alb sanitary precautions, to bury their dead at the rate of 400 a year in a graveyard situated nearly in the centre of the town, and surrounded ou all sides by. human dwellings. Again, it would be almost impossible elsewhere ,to find a cemetery so singularly unfitted by nature for the purpose as the Wellington cemetery, is. The subsoil on the Wellington bills consists of an impervious non-absorbent clay, covered by so thin a layer of earth as to be practically useless for absorbing the products of organic decomposition, consequently these must of necessity find there way into .the atmosphere as poisonous gases, or be carried downwards on the surface to a lower level, in the shape of pestilential sewage. One half of the drainage from the cemetery finds its way down the natural valley of Sydney and Charlotte streets on the one side of Government House;'while on the other side, down Bbwen-atreet,, the other half finds its way to Lambton-quay. The outlets for these two drains poiir their contents into the harbor close alongside the new Government buildings, opposite Mr. Burrett’s shop, and in front of the 'Wellington Club. There is something horrible' in all this. It is a disgrace to _ Wellington, and a crime in the authorities to permit its continuance. Already infectious fevers have appeared, getting daily of a more virulent type, and our death rate is scandalously the very highest in the colony. Strangers will naturally ask why this burying the dead among the living is suffered to go on? My answer is, that the. dangeuhas.Jbeen .foreseen long ago.i Some years since the Provincial Council, the Town Council, and the General Assembly all concurred in urging the Provincial Executive to provide a remedy by selecting another site and speedily closing the present cemetery; but an unseen power behind the provincial thione has hitherto prevented any action being taken in the matter. Inthe interests of 1 humanity I hope that the General Assembly will take' npthe.matter, and prevent some deadly epidemic appearing amongst us. There is little hope from the City Council, for by its criminal apathy in this matter, by its utter neglect of drainage, by permitting the beach to be turned into a manure depot, reeking with feculent filth and garbage all along Lambton-quay and, Te Aro foreshore, and compelling the. inhabitants of Wellington to accumulate dangerous-'refuse in their back yards' for want of facilities for its removal—l say in’.‘the Council permitting all this, it, is doing its best to convert Wellington into a pesthOuse. It only wants the Spark of some deadly fever to be introduced to kindle a hideous epidemic, which will more than decimate the population, and then the scared inhabitants will endeavor to take precautions when it is too late. Scarlet fever is now among :us, though little is said about it.—l am, he. Citizen.