TO SERVE DISTRICT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 June 1943, Page 2

TO SERVE DISTRICT

CREMATORIUM PROPOSED IN MASTERTON BOROUGH COUNCIL DISCUSSION. ADOPTION OF ENGINEER’S REPORT. An unanimous decision to erect a crematorium embodying the most modern, structural developments was made at last night’s meeting of the Masterton Borough Council. The crematorium will serve the whole of the Wairarapa and Pahiatua districts. No decision has been made by the council regarding a site for the crematorium, but the engineer was. instructed to prepare plans and specifications for the erection of a structure which will cost approximately £7,500. A special meeting of the council will be held to consider the site.

A suggestion was made by Councillor H. E. Gardnei' that the site between the Lansdowne bridges could be used for the crematorium and a Garden of Memories.

It was decided to advise the Featherston County Council, in reply to a letter suggesting the erection of a crematorium in a central place in the district, that the Masterton Borough Council already proposed erecting one which y/ould serve the whole of the district.

In a report to the council, the Borough Engineer, Mr C. R. Mabson, said the crematorium would be of a modern design and of a sufficient size to cater not only for the Masterton borough, but for the whole of the Wairarapa and Pahiatua districts for the next 25 to 50 years. A tentative 'site was originally chosen on the river side of the present cemetery, but after visiting crematoria in three of the leading cities Mr Mabson said he was convinced that that site was not only undesirable but wrong. Old and wellestablished customs had to be broken down and everything possible had to be done to make the new method of disposal of the dead as refined and as uplifting as practicable. To erect a crematorium in the midst of the morbid, unkempt tombstones of the past near-century would be fatal to its success. That cremation was a more intelligently sane and more hygenic method would be admitted by anyone who paused to think it over. A harmful impression might have been gained through attendance at a cremation ceremony many years ago when the methods then used were far from satisfactory. Today with modern buildings and modern methods of treatment the whole business was treated with due respect and reverence so that even the most sensitive person could find nothing to take any exception to and would be more inclined to be converted to cremation.

That the germs of many diseases such as tetanus, anthrax, typhoid, and many other pathogenic diseases throve in the soil and did not die with the body, was a fact well established by medical science, continued Mr Mabson. Also, it was a fact that practically the whole of the cemeteries drained directly or indirectly into some creek river (Masterton’s being a case iff' point) frequented by hundreds of children and adults in summer time thereby unknowingly exposing themselves to these readily-conveyed diseases. The more deadly the disease to which a person had succumbed the more necessary it became that the remains should be disposed of by the only safe and sanitary method —that of cremation.

The method of disposal of the ashes, in the Garden of Memories as operated by the Canterbury Crematorium Society was recommended by Mr Mabson. By that provision an alternative method of disposal was given. While some would prefer to have the ashes - scattered to the four winds others might prefer to have them deposited at the foot of a rose tree in the Garden of Memories or placed in a niche in the Columbarium in the crematorium building. It-would be necessary to have a site of from two to three acres. Mr Mabson recommended that a suitable booklet should be prepared and distributed which set out the advantages of cremation to assist in removing the misconceptions that most' people held on the subject. A full description of the proposed building, which would be of reinforced concrete, was given by Mr Mabson. The engineer was congratulated by councillors on the comprehensive report he had prepared. Mr Mabson also showed the council photographs of the Christchurch crematorium with its Garden of Memories.

In reply to questions, Mr Mabson said the estimated cost, £7,500, was •based on present day costs. There was every chance of getting the job done in the near future as builders would soon be looking for work as essential works tailed off.