Task for New Council

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 630, 5 April 1929, Page 8

Task for New Council

Cemetery Battle’to be Revived

THE long-standing’ battle between the Auckland City Council and the Hebrew community over the Jewish cemetery in Karangahape Road will be revived as soon as the new council is elected next month, and efforts will then be made to persuade the new city administrators to see the viewpoint of the sons of Israel.

'T'HE fight for the freehold of portion of the Jewish cemetery is now almost traditional- For years it has been waged, and victory has wavered irregularly between the council and the Jews. The whole of the Jewish cemetery is about 22 acres, but the Jews wish to set apart a small corner of it, ■with a 46 foot frontage to Karangahape Road, for the building of a communal hall to commemorate the services given the community by their pioneers, and to perpetuate the memory of those of the flock who fell in the Great War.

7a it? Hv rfc -fc: rK Over this patch of ground many hours of the city’s time has been wasted and much money uselessly spent. The time was wasted and the money spent uselessly because the combatants in this miniature battle are now “as you were.” The council holds the trump card, and the privilege of next move belongs to the other side. The vesting of the land in the trusteeship of the Jews dates back to 1843, but it is with the present-day situation that the interested parties are concerned. The Hebrew community possesses restricted burial rights over the whole cemetery, but they have religiously preserved a small piece of ground for the building of a communal hall. To build this hall without the freehold of the land did not give them sufficient tenure, so the freehold was sought. In 1924 and again in 1926 the city turned down the request, but

\ the applicants marshalled their forces again last year and approached the present council. Several times they had the decision on their side, but an endless series of rescinded resolutions kept robbing them of the coveted rights. Now the council has offered the transfer to the freehold on condition that “if land be acquired either by negotiation or under the Public Works Act, 1908, no allowance shall be made for the value of the land exclusive of any buildings erected thereon.” SITE WORTH £ 30,000 To this the Jews cannot agree, for they say that the building of a hall without security of tenure of the land will not warrant the expenditure of the £28,000 they have earmarked for the purpose. The council, on the j other hand, look far into the future, 1 when the progress of the city might : demand the complete covering over |of the Symonds Street-Karangahape Road cemeteries, and are providing for their own security in such an event. Again, as some of the opponents of the project say, if the freehold is granted, wliat is to prevent the Jews selling the area as a business block (unworthy thought), for this piece, with its 46-foot frontage, is worth just on £30,000, according to values in that vicinity? Another stage at which the council gained a point was the reluctance of the Jewish community to go to law. The Rabbi forbade them to take the case to court, so their hands were tied. QUESTION OF JUSTICE The ground upon which the appeal to the new council will be based is that of a promise given by the present civic administrators. The council promised, so the Jews claim, that providing Parliament would pass legislation allowing the transfer to go through, the council would raise no j objection. This legislation was en- 1 acted during the then current session • of Parliament —but the promise re- j mains unfulfilled. This claim will be laid before the j new council, and documentary evidence of the promise brought forward j in support. “It is now a question of British i justice,” one member of the Jewish community said. “The promise was given—we have evidence to that effect —and now we want it executed.” The time is fast approaching when no further burials will be allowed to be performed in the four cemeteries in this locality, because a clause in the Auckland (Symonds Street) Cemeteries Act, 1908, stipulates that only blood relatives of those who were buried there could claim privileges of interment —blood relatives only who were 50 years or over in 1909. Therefore, nobody who in 1929 is under the age of 70 years may be laid to rest in these plots, and even then the provisions are closely restricted to the blood relatives of people buried there. Soon the Symonds Street cemeteries will receive no more dead. What the distant future holds for them is for the sentiment of another generation to decide.