Friends of Makaraka Cemetery want headstones unearthed

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

HE was speaking during the hearing of submissions on the council’s long-term 10-year plan in support of the Friends of the Makaraka Cemetery, who want to have headstones buried by the former Cook County Council dug up and restored.

Spokeswoman Dot McCulloch produced photos showing that 87 headstones were placed in a surveyed trench. The group want to see some put back on their original plots and others put on to a large concrete pad.

The relatives of people buried there paid a fee for many years to the council to tend to the graves.

A ledger in council archives stopped at 1940 and was replaced by a card system that had been lost, so it was not known how long the payments carried on.

It was ironic for most of the people who paid money to the council that their headstones were most of the 500-odd that were missing, she said.

The group not only wanted to try to get the headstones unearthed, they wanted to clean up fallen branches and occasionally prune shrubs so the headstones could be seen.

They would like to get the headstones out of the ground without it costing the ratepayers anything or at least not too much. A professional was going to donate his time to do the excavation and they had some funds and the promise of more once the headstones were out of the ground, she said.

Mr Langford said that a proposed meeting with council staff had not been followed up.

“This is an important issue and should not be pushed aside.”

These were the original settlers of this town, he said.

The staff recommendation to the council says the community and recreation facilities team leader will meet the group to discuss their plans in more detail.