Bodies removed from East Cape cemetery

Sixteen bodies have been removed from a cemetery near Ruatoria this week - to save them from erosion.

After a blessing by Minister Boyce Te Maro, sixteen graves at the Matahiia Cemetery were disinterred and the remains removed to Gisborne district cemeteries in Ruatoria, Te Puia and Taruheru, Gisborne District Council property manager Matt Feisst said.

One family chose to have the remains cremated.

The descendants of all those buried at the cemetery were contacted after heavy rain in May eroded a large area of the small council-owned cemetery.

The Mata River is situated in a flood plain and has a history of changing its course from side to side. Because of this a decision was made last year to close the cemetery and disinter the remains.

The river changed its course by about 100 metres washing away four graves from the Catholic section of the cemetery.

Because there has been so much rain in the region, the council had to wait until the ground dried out before work could start, Mr Feisst said.

"We are very glad we waited. Many of the graves were deep and in some areas the soil was still wet even after a period of dry weather," he said.

The council said most of the descendants of those buried in the cemetery have been contacted. However the relatives of James Percy, who died 11 August 1917, aged 70, and Stuart John Wilson, who died aged two years and three months, have not been found and their remains have now been reinterred in marked graves in Ruatoria.

- NZHERALD STAFF

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