The cover of the current edition of the above magazine, always a good read ,is a montage of cemeteries from within the country and overseas. .There is a photo of the headstone for " Kiwi Gallipolli Hero," Private Joseph King,buried in Australia , having twice enlisted there for active service , blown up at Gallipoli, sent back to Australia, reinlisted ,worked in the Small Arms Factory at Lithgow , NSW, died of epilepsy in 1917 , given a funeral with full military honours by the RSL and buried in the Catholic section of the Lithgow Cemetery .
The iron coffin photo , in the top , right, features in an article about the" Scottish way of death" ,which covers Friendly Societies who enabled poor parishioners to afford funerals by paying into a fund . There was even a rent by the hour coffin system ,whereby the coffin had a hinged bottom, through which the corpse was lowered into the grave in a shroud , the coffin reused. Also available to be rented was expensive black satin cloth,"whipped off the coffin" as it was lowered into the grave.
The most interesting article outlines steps taken to stop grave robbers -some graves robbed nearly every night . Devices called" mortsafes " were rented to prevent bodies from being snatched . These were heavy coffins with"a fiendish array" of locks , bolts and bars clamped to the grave until the bodies had decomposed. Watchtowers were built in graveyards .
The photograph at the bottom right corner of the cover appears to show a modern Sesame Street toy on the grave of four year old boy who died during "the flu epidemic" of 1918 in New Zealand .
In Denmark is the carved outline of New Zealand (bottom ,left )honouring Kiwis who fought to save the country from German occupation, losing their lives in the process . It details how a Lancaster bomber returning from a raid was attacked by night fighters and crashed on a Danish farm , killing five of the occupants. The Danes helped New Zealander survivors to escape.
An article headed Standing on the shoulders of giants, about the old section of the Havelock Cemetery , Marlborough, South Island of NZ, contains much information of interest including the fact that three of the young brothers of Ernest Rutherford, splitter of the atom , are buried there . One died from whooping cough in 1883,the two others , aged 10 and 12 , drowned in Pelorus Sound , their bodies never found , in l886. There is a photo of the Rutherford plot in the cemetery .
Also buried there are three young children of the Havelock School headmaster , Jacob Reynolds, who inspired young Ernest Rutherford. The cemetery has a link with the space age through the Pickering family plot -William Pickering, who headed California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 22 years , attended the same Havelock School as Rutherford .
