Cemetery quality seems like an odd thing to develop a
friendly bit of town rivalry over, but exactly such a rivalry erupted between
Shortland and Tararu in the 1870s. Both townships were quick to establish
cemeteries on the hills overlooking the towns, as the new gold fields expanded
around them. While Shortland Cemetery sprawled over the hills overlooking the
main township, the residents of Tararu took pride in the cemetery they helped
to maintain, small but perfectly formed.
The idea of a ‘rural cemetery’ – a relatively secular space
on the outskirts of town, as opposed to a more traditional church graveyard –
has its roots in Europe’s Industrial Revolution. With more people pouring into
the cities, mortality was high and diseases were rife, and cemeteries far from
the middle of town were considered a healthy and dignified way to bury the
dead. Rural cemeteries like the ones in Thames brought this thinking out to the
new colony.
In America, rural cemeteries became popular as a kind of
public park, where people could eat, relax, stroll and socialise with the whole
family. Picnicking, viewing public art and even hunting and shooting were all
fairly common uses of this public space. In a period where public amenities
like parks, museums or galleries were few and far between, rural cemeteries
filled this gap in their communities. New Zealand’s cemeteries never quite
reached the social popularity of their American counterparts, but the idea that
cemeteries should be welcoming and picturesque public spaces away from the
bustle of everyday life definitely made an impression on early Thames.
The people of Tararu took great pride in their cemetery. The
Borough Council is recorded as urging the central government to ‘extinguish the
native title on the land’ as early as 1873 so the land could be used as a
cemetery, although the way this is worded in the Daily Southern Cross suggests
the colonists had been burying people up there before that point. The boarded
fencing, winding walkways and tasteful shrubbery were a source of great
community pride to the village, who saw their efforts as greater than those at the
much bigger Shortland Cemetery in town. 'Surely if Tararu people, who are so
few in number, and with one or two exceptions are poor working men, have done
this, the rich people of Shortland should be able to do a great deal more,’
commented the Evening Star in 1875.
Tararu was small, but home to some of the big names of Thames’
colonial era – Robert Graham (founder of Tararu and Grahamstown), Alfred and
George Price (of A&G Price), and Captain William Fraser (Resident
Magistrate and Warden for the Thames during the gold field’s first decade) were
all among the citizens who made donations to help the sexton beautify the
cemetery grounds.
By 1937, attitudes about beautifying and maintaining
cemeteries were changing, but Tararu’s pride in the upkeep of its burial ground
remained evident. Tararu Cemetery was euphemistically described as a ‘garden of
sleep’ by the Auckland Star, but there was nothing euphemistic about the Star’s
enthusiasm for the cemetery’s continued upkeep and layout. ‘One of the few
picturesque cemeteries in the Auckland province, [...] a notable exception to
the neglected and unsightly appearance of most New Zealand burial grounds,’
enthused the Star under a photo of some graves. ‘One of the district's
picturesque spots. Many visitors declare "it is the prettiest and
best-kept cemetery" they have seen.’
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