The unmarked graves of about 140 stillborn babies at Pahiatua Cemetery could be disturbed by new burials as the Tararua District Council reuses the common ground where they were buried between 1911 and 1989.
Chester Burt, funeral director and a former mayor of Pahiatua, about 40km southeast of Palmerston North, said
the "recycling" of cemetery ground had started without consultation and was morally wrong.
"There will be a hell of a row when people find out about this," he said.
"They should not do it. It's immoral. It's sacred ground."
Mr Burt has records of 164 stillborn babies buried at the cemetery - some as recently as 1989.
About 25 were buried along a fenceline, where there used to be a hedge. But the graves of another 140 babies extended into an area that was now being prepared for reuse.
According to his records, the area was full by the 1980s.
The council had no knowledge of any stillborn babies being buried in the area of the cemetery intended for reuse, said Pahiatua service centre manager Lyn Ranson.
"We have all the cemetery records going back to the 1880s and there is nothing to say any children were buried in that main area."
Mr Burt said that in the past there was no requirement for councils to record the burial of such babies.
But he, and his father before him, had buried the babies there, and had kept a record of their names.
Unmarked graves for stillborn babies were the norm until recently. Only in the 1980s did the then Pahiatua County Council pass a bylaw allowing headstones for babies buried in the past to be placed along the fenceline at the cemetery, where graves had been positively identified.
"It is just heartless, really, that they have gone ahead with preparations for new burials without consulting the families of babies already there," said Mr Burt.
Woodville couple George and Patsy Judd said they were over the grief of losing their stillborn daughter 38 years ago, but were frustrated at not knowing whether she shares an unmarked grave at the cemetery, and where they could erect a memorial.
Mrs Judd said it hurt at the time that they were not allowed to register their baby, whom they called Patsy.
"It was all a bit of a taboo subject back then. I was 10 days in the home, so I didn't even get to go to her funeral. But now I feel she should be recognised as a person."
Mrs Judd said her first choice was to mark the exact spot where Patsy was buried.
- NZPA
The unmarked graves of about 140 stillborn babies at Pahiatua Cemetery could be disturbed by new burials as the Tararua District Council reuses the common ground where they were buried between 1911 and 1989.
Chester Burt, funeral director and a former mayor of Pahiatua, about 40km southeast of Palmerston North, said
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