Dunedin's Southern Cemetery, originally reserved in 1857 under the Cemeteries Ordinance (1856) is located on a rise at the southern end of the Town Belt, on sloping land over looking the city. The first burial was in March 1858. The cemetery is important as an intact mid nineteenth century cemetery demonstrating the principles of cemetery design of that period, and as a vital element in the culture and histories of the communities of those interred there. The cemetery is divided into four distinct denominational areas, with divisions for the General Section, Church of England, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and Jewish burials. A fifth area for Chinese burials was created later. The cemetery was closed for burials in 1980, with over 23,000 burials recorded.
The Creation of the Southern Cemetery
Dunedin's first cemetery was a reserve of approximately six hectares in Arthur Street. This received its first interment in 1846, and was in use until the opening of its replacement, the Southern Cemetery, in 1858.
Dunedin's first Town Board met on 27 August 1855, and comprised John Jones, James Kilgour, James Macandrew, John Hyde Harris, William (W. H.) Cutten, and John McGlashan. Among the items in their administrative portfolio was the management of the town's cemetery (Arthur Street), which was considered by then to be unsatisfactory on visual and sanitary grounds.
In 1856, the Otago Witness recorded that at its sitting on 18 March 1856 the Provincial Council passed the following resolution:
to discontinue interments in the present cemetery and to have a cemetery at Little Paisley.
In January 1857, the Town Board met to view the proposed site for the cemetery at Little Paisley (named for the small community of six weavers who resided there) and recommended that a reserve of 10 acres be set aside for the new cemetery. The site chosen for the Southern Cemetery was on a steep hillside overlooking Otago Harbour at the southern end the Town Belt.
Six months later, the Town Board recommended to the Superintendent to reserve and appropriate two pieces of land under the Cemeteries Ordinance, 1856, namely:
a piece of land (about 31 acres) being part of the Town Belt, situated at the entrance to the NE Valley (North Cemetery) and a piece of land (about 28 acres) at Little Paisley (South Cemetery). Communications of the said Board and sketches of the ground may be seen at the Superintendent's Office.
(signed) John Logan, 12 June 1857.
After the reservation of land the first indication that work was to begin on the Southern Cemetery came with the announcement from the Town Board on 31 October 1857 that:
five acres, being the portion of land agreed upon for a cemetery at Little Paisley, be forthwith fenced with a split fence; that the Church of England be charged with the proportion of the cost of fencing for the land set aside for that body...
To prepare the site, the Town Board called for tenders from contractors to erect 26 chains of split fencing at Little Paisley and "from parties willing to cut down and burn off about four and a half acres of flax at Little Paisley." After these necessary preparations the Southern Cemetery opened on 1 April 1858. The earliest recorded burial is that on the tombstone of "David Fourth Son of John McGibbon died 20 March 1858 aged 6 years 4 months."
Sextons were employed in the Southern Cemetery to act as live-in, on-site caretakers and to attend to duties associated with burial records, grave-digging and filling, grave and cemetery maintenance and general upkeep. John Barr was the first to hold the position in the Southern Cemetery. He was provided with accommodation on site, in a brick cottage located on the main roadway just beyond the Main South Road entrance, it is not recorded whether this was the purpose built sexton's cottage. Sexton's cottages were small yet substantial, designed primarily as residences for the sextons. They offered a waiting area and facilities for the transaction of business in relation to the purchase and location of plots, and shelter in inclement weather.
Structure of the Cemetery
The structure of the cemetery was clearly defined in the Town Board's Rules and Regulations, which noted that the Town Board of Dunedin would have entire control and management of the Cemetery. The cemetery was divided into three classes:
Class I: being ground of which perpetual and exclusive right may be acquired with the privilege of enclosing the ground and of erecting headstones and other monuments there. These lots shall be sold for £3.
Class II: being ground for which perpetual and exclusive rights may be acquired but the purchaser shall not have the right to enclose the same or to erect a monument thereon, other than a flat stone laid horizontally with an inscription or marked out by corner stones with initials and figures. The price of each lot shall be £1/ 5 shillings.
Class III: being a considerable portion of ground which has been set aside for the interment of such persons as are not purchasers or have acquired a right to private ground. On ground of this class no monuments or memorials what ever shall be allowed.
Fees for digging the grave, burial, and dressing the ground were graded according to age of the deceased and class of the plot.
The layout and ornamentation of the Southern Cemetery was heavily influenced by developments in cemetery design which occurred in early nineteenth century Britain. The repulsive and overcrowded state of parish churchyards prompted the construction of public cemeteries in Britain in the first half of the nineteenth century. These new cemeteries were planned along the principles of picturesque cemetery design established by the creation of Pere Lachaise cemetery outside Paris in 1804. The first of the modern cemeteries, it was based upon picturesque landscape design, with many varied botanical plantings, winding paths and pretty views forming the setting for the family or individual monument, creating a place for melancholy remembrance and morally beneficial recreation. In Britain such ideas were disseminated through works such as John Claudius Loudon's Laying Out Planting and Managing Cemeteries (1843). Tempering the picturesque with a more formal tone, Loudon advocated heavily planted and attractive landscapes for cemeteries, as he believed that the cemetery should be more than just a place of interment. It could be a place of instruction and education in many and varied disciplines including architecture, sculpture, botany "a scene calculated to improve the morals and taste, and by its botanical riches to cultivate the intellect". Places to visit, cemeteries were now located outside towns, losing their association with the church.
In laying out the Southern Cemetery nineteenth century Dunedinites certainly had many of the modern ideas of cemetery design in mind. This is reflected by their promotion of the picturesque properties of the cemetery, its views to the city and harbour, its siting away from town, and its value as a place of recreation and reflection.
The experience of Scotland is particularly relevant to the creation of the cemeteries of Victorian Dunedin. Glasgow's Southern Necropolis opened for burial in 1841. It was heavily ornamented with a typical mixture of plants including traditional cemetery evergreens such as holly, yew, cypress and cedar, as well as deciduous trees such as walnut, chestnut, cherry, and elm. The picturesque nature of the Necropolis landscape was enhanced by the construction of a lodge in 1848, designed in a neo-Roman style. Edinburgh's Southern Cemetery opened May 1847. The advantages of the cemetery as listed by the Directors included its picturesque situation and views, proximity to the city, convenience of access, peaceful seclusion, the highest attainable security and all within the reach of all classes of the community. The Directors offered a sliding scale of fees and a general section for public use, which meant all classes could avail themselves of plots. There were also similar developments in England, including the creation of Highgate and Kensal Green cemeteries in London. They contained a wide range of eclectic memorials based on ancient architectural forms and Victorian sentimentalism including Egyptian buildings, obelisks, statuary, angels and urns set among wooded landscapes, and were designed to encourage contemplative reflection and moral improvement. Dunedin's Southern Cemetery is an outstanding colonial interpretation of these large landscaped cemeteries of the old country.
Following contemporary practice in Britain, where the new public cemeteries were no longer exclusively Anglican and catered for all religious denominations, the Southern Cemetery featured four distinct religious denominational areas: Church of England, Presbyterian (General), Catholic, and Jewish, as well as an area for general burials. A fifth area for the burial of Chinese was created later with the influx of Chinese following the discovery of gold. S. H. Mirams prepared the earliest existing plan for the Cemetery. Each section had its own road access with entrances to the Jewish and Roman Catholic sections from Main South Road, with a second entrance to the Roman Catholic section and entrances to the Church of England and Presbyterian sections from Eglinton Road.
A designated area for paupers' graves was located in "free ground" within a large rectangular plot in the General Section. It is likely that this area contains the bodies of the prisoners who were part of Titokowaru's fighting force) who fought in the wars in South Taranaki in the 1860s. Convicted of high treason, the warriors were sentenced to hard labour in Dunedin Gaol. D. Harold suggests that of the eighteen prisoners recorded as dying during their incarceration, seventeen were buried in the Southern Cemetery. Based on information derived from a study of the 1872 and 1919 plans of the site, Harold suggests that a total of twelve Maori burials may be located in the "free ground", (including under paths) within the General Section and that five lie within the Catholic section.
The neglected appearance of the Cemetery soon gave cause for complaint. In 1864 the Otago Daily Times asked:
Who is responsible for the proper keeping of the ground set apart as a Roman Catholic cemetery? If so is there any person or body so responsible, the state of the ground is a disgrace to him or it. There is not a pretence of fencing: horses, cows, dogs, goats, can roam over the ground and the unfenced graves at will. Some of the grave mounds have almost been trampled out and on every hand there is gross defilement. The remains of burnt flax, left by the late accidental fire are rotting into noisomeness [sic]. And apparently there is no one with the will or the power to supply a remedy.
Newspaper articles such as this highlighted the major and long-standing dilemma for the Council regarding the Cemetery. Ultimate responsibility for the maintenance of plots at the Southern Cemetery (as in the Northern Cemetery) was with the families who had purchased them, yet the blame for the unkempt state was often laid on the Council. For a fee the Corporation entered into an agreement with the other party to "henceforth carry out for all time the proper upkeep of the grave". In 1902, a charge of £25 was levied, rising to £50 in 1948. However, few families took up the offer of perpetual maintenance which was offered by the Council, leading to future neglect as family members moved away or passed on.
The cemetery originally had two Sexton's Cottages. The sexton was the principal caretaker of the cemetery. The cottages were located close to the main entrance of the cemetery. The Anglican Sexton's cottage, built prior to 1902, was demolished sometime after the 1940s. The second Sexton's cotttage, erected by 1902, was demolished c.1987.
The Morgue
Early in the twentieth century the need arose for a new morgue for the city, following reports on the appalling conditions of Dunedin's morgue. Pressure was fuelled outbreaks of infectious diseases in Dunedin. Council asked the General Committee to prepare plans and specification for a morgue and on 11 June 1902, Council was informed that the Committee had appointed Messrs Lawson and Salmond to prepare plans for the erection of a public morgue. Constructed of brick in a gothic style on land immediately adjacent to the cemetery, major building work was completed on 10 February 1903.
The mortuary by-law passed by Dunedin City Council in 1902 defined a morgue, and determined the conditions of use. The morgue was in use for the next 46 years, with the last entry in the mortuary book dated February 1949. The building remained vacant until 1952. In 1985, in response to suggestions that it would be cheaper to demolish the morgue than pay for its maintenance (as had been done to the sexton's cottage), the New Zealand Historic Places Trust noted the building to be the only such monumental morgue of its kind in the country. Subsequent research suggests that it is the only known example in New Zealand of a morgue located in such close proximity to cemetery land. The morgue has changed little in appearance since it was completed in 1903.
In the 1970s, in an effort to make the cemetery more park-like and less visible from the city, the Council initiated a major beautification scheme, planting small deciduous seedlings on approximately 150 gravesites during the 1970s. Now mature, these trees enhance the picturesque quality of the landscape, but have become the cause of structural damage to monuments caused by tree trunks and spreading roots. Also during this time the Council removed and either sold off or dumped a considerable amount of ironwork from grave surrounds.
The cemetery was closed in 1980 and is estimated to hold over 23,000 burials. Today, the Southern Cemetery is closed for disposal of human remains, other than for the placement of ashes in established family plots.
