Cemetery Management.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3468, 5 February 1880, Page 2

Cemetery Management.

CONFERENCE OF LOCAL BODIES.

A conference of members of local governing bodies was held at the Council Chambers last evening re the cemetery question. There were present—His Worship the Mayor and Borough Councillors McGowan, Wilson, Speight, Wilkinson, Marshall, Osborne and Bawden; the County Chairman and Councillors Greenville, Deeble, Coutts and Porter; while the Parawai Highway District Board was represented by the Chairman (Mr Carpenter) and Mr Vernon. His Worship the Mayor occupied the chair.

The secretary explained that 1 he present meeting was held at the instance of the Cemetery Committee.

._«.,M.r.Carpenter said it was on his motion that the meeting was convened. .His objfcfc was this. Although he had been a' member of the Committee for three years he, had never properly known its powers and functions—whether or not it had control to the approaches as well as of the cemetery itself. He had asked the secre. tary if there, was any record of a meeting, which conferred powers upon them, and on referring to the minutes of the Parawai Board he found something bearing on the question which he would read ,to them. He then gave a brief history of the formation of the Committee, and read a letter from the Superintendent of?the Auckland Province to the Parawai Board, promising £500 for the improvement of the cemetery and its approaches. This Ted to the holding of the meeting which had formed the Cemetery Coaimittee. At the said meeting it was resolved to extend the Shortland cemetery, and decided that it be vested in the Thames Borough Council. The committee, as at present constituted, was formed, and it was decided in future that the approaches should be jointly maintained by the local bodies assisted by the votes from the Provincial Government. The whole of thU £500 voted was expended over the purchase of' Wilson's paddocks. He believed Mr Dean had in his possession the rough minutes of the second meeting.

Mr Dean then read the minutes of the second meeting, which showed that the Borough was to provide one half of the cost of maintenance, and the various highway boards between them the. other half.

Mr Carpenter said that the records showed that the cemetery was simply held in trust by the Borough for the whole district as at that time the Highway Boards could not hold land. The Committee had gone into expense on the understanding that they could mortgage the paddocks and wished to satisfy themselves of their power. It would be well to have these resolutions formally passed again, so as to give the Committee a standing. He moved that the Committee consist of three members of the Borough Council, two of the County Council, and one of the Parawai Board. Mr Vernon seconded.

Mr Wilkinson said he saw Mr Carpenter wished to give the Committee a constitution which it would appear it had not at present.

Mr Greenville asked to whom the Cemetery belonged.

The Mayor said it would not be well that this question should be introduced at present. Let them deal with one thing at once. '

Mr Speight thought they should know who was the owner.

Mr Porter related the circumstances of the purchasing .of the paddocks. The whole of the £500 was paid by Mr tfheehan for the paddocks, and a further sum of money was promised for the apiH'oaehes. . :

Mr Speight said it was evident from what Mr Porter said that the Borough as trustees of the preperty could not spend one penny of money raised on the property for the approaches.

Mr Greenville again asked who owned the Cemetery. The Borough placed it on thfir assets.

The Mayor said that the Borough held it in trust.

Mr Brodie: Then why do you put it in your assets. It is either youra or you're deceiving your creditors.

Mr Speight: I'm sure neither I nor auy other Borough Councillor claimed the Cemetery. We are all deceiving our creditors.

(At this point the Chairmau withdrew temporarily, and Mr Speight was voted to the Chair.)

Mr Carpenter spoke on the wants of the Cemetery Committee—their debt, and the necessity of a bridge over the Hape Creek.

The matter was discussed over and over again for some time, the proceedings being somewhat enlivened, when Mr Greenville said that the Kauaeranga and Parawai Boards had been willing to pay their share of the cost of the bridge across the Hape Creek if the Borough would also assent. The Mayor of Thames, Mr Davies, had shirked the matter.

The Mayor objected to this statement in Mr Davies' absence, and asserted that Mr Greenville was making statements not in accordance with fact.

Mr McGowan also spoke, deprecating the language used, and on Mr Greenville rising to reply, the Mayor ordered him to sit down.

Two members of the County Council also reiterated the statement that the Cemetery was taken as an asset by the Borough. This was denied by Mr Dean, and he was contradicted. He produced the newspapers with the financial statements of the Borough in them, and it transpired that the value of the Cemetery had been inserted in the statement as nil, though in one issue of a local paper it had been erroneously printed £200, which should have been stated as the value of the cemetery paddocks.

Mr Speight thought an apology was called for, and the matter dropped.. Mr Brodie suggested the bringing of the new Cemeteries Act into force here,

Mr McGowan said the Committee were not capable of managing the Cemetery or they would not have run into debt. He then moved and Mr Deeble seconded, " That the meeting be adjourned for the purposes of obtaining copies of the Cemeteries Act." Cr Carpenter withdrew his motion, and spoke to the substantive motion. He urged the immediate liquidation of the Committee's liabilities. The motion was then put, and though it met with some opposition, was carried, and the meeting broke up.