Wellington
Stewart Harvey visited Wellington at the invitation of the Wellington City Council. He visited Bolton Street Memorial Park, Karori Cemetery and Mount St Cemetery. Discussions with WCC staff focused on Best Practice and the proposed Conservation Plan for Bolton Street.
A tour of Bolton Street Memorial Park with the Friends group was most interesting historically, yet worrying from a conservation perspective. Parts of Bolton Street are in good condition but some major areas have begun the slide back to nature. Grave sites are being reclaimed by rampant bush, tracks are dangerous, and misplaced and wilding vegetation needs urgent action.

The Friends of Mount Street had been in recess for some years but it was obvious that Mount St Cemetery was in some urgent need of resurrection before it was reclaimed by nature. After fruitfull discussion with the Catholic Diocese (owners of Mount St) Vaughan Stagpoole has agreed to assume responsibility for re-awakening the friends group, addressing the issues in their Conservation Plan, and getting something done on the ground.

Karori Cemetery is an amazingly beautiful setting. Again it is well kept in some areas and wilderness in others. They have in place a well prepared Conservation Plan and WCC are working along its paths.
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Dunedin
Conservation Plans
The first draft of the Conservation Plans for the Northern and Southern Cemeteries is now before this Trust, the Dunedin City Community and Recreation Services Officers, and the NZ Historic Places Trust.
It will be available for public discussion and response in February 2005.
Repair Work
Following receipt of a substantial Grant from St. Kilda Community Sports Society work has begun in the Southern Cemetery to stand up selected headstones. We are confident that as this work progresses the public perception of the cemetery will undergo a positive transformation.
Tours and Talks
During the last few months we have spoken to many community groups and held conducted tours for their members.
In conjunction with Architecture Week we ran a tour of the Southern Cemetery on Sunday 10 October which was enthusiastically received by 54 persons. top of page

Balfour and Paterson
In Dunedin’s Southern Cemetery stand side by side two Celtic crosses erected in memory of two friends whose lives were entwined and who died within days of each other.
James Balfour and Thomas Paterson were both born in Edinburgh and grew up there together.

When James Balfour, a brilliant young engineer, forsook his native Scotland in 1863 for the rigours of early life in this country he would not realize the part he was destined to play in the early history of New Zealand. Born into the illustrious Stevenson family, who were renowned lighthouse builders and engineers, James was always going to follow the family tradition.

In 1863 James and Thomas responded to the Otago Provincial Government who were looking for a marine engineer and a road engineer. Thomas arrived first and was appointed the Otago railway and road engineer. Balfour arrived later with his wife and daughter. Both friends lived near each other and worked out of offices in Princes Street.

The need for roads and railways in the Otago Province occupied Paterson’s time. Balfour was likewise loaded with work working on plans for lighthouses at Dog Island, Taiaroa Heads, and Cape Saunders, and proposals for harbours and docks throughout New Zealand. He was involved in engineering projects for the Great Exhibition.

It was in 1866 that James Balfour was appointed as General Governor Marine Engineer for the colony of New Zealand, and Superintendent of Lighthouses. Thomas Paterson was appointed Chief Engineer for Railways for the Otago Province in 1865 and began planning for the rail route through the Taieri to Central Otago. The retention of our small gauge railway owes much to Paterson and Balfour.

By 1870 there were 1100 recorded drownings in New Zealand rivers alone, and the need to make river crossings and ship landings safer was a prime necessity for both engineers.

In late 1869 Balfour was in Timaru overseeing the construction of an experimental breakwater and work had been going on for two weeks when he received word of Thomas Paterson’s death.

Thomas was returning to Dunedin on the Cobb and Co Coach Service with his plans for the Rangitata Bridge. There had been heavy rain, but the coach driver completed the first ford of the swollen Kakanui River without any trouble. But at the second ford, water started to fill the coach, and the driver turned back. Broadside to the current, the coach and horses were dragged 50 metres downstream. The lead horses made the bank but at this point the coach wrenched free and was swept away. Remarkably, when the coach was washed ashore only two passengers were unaccounted for – a local schoolteacher, Elizabeth Ross, and Thomas Paterson. The next day Thomas’s body was found pinned under the coach.

Balfour was determined to make it back to Dunedin for the funeral on 19 December. The Maori, a steamer, was at anchor in the harbour channel bound for Dunedin. There was a nasty easterly swell running and the cargo could not be unloaded, but Balfour and other passengers decided to go aboard. A surfboat set out, but in the harbour it fouled a buoy and a lifeboat had to be launched from the steamer. The passengers were transferred from boat to boat successfully and all was well until the lifeboat drew in alongside the Maori. The crest of a wave suddenly capsized the lifeboat. Lines and lifebuoys were thrown to the passengers and one by one they were hauled on board. By the time the line reached James he was too exhausted to hold on to it and drowned. His body was recovered from the beach several days later.

The rivers that Paterson worked to bridge claimed his life. The harbours Balfour worked to make safe claimed his life. It seems fatefully tragic that these men were claimed by the forces they were determined to conquer. Yet they had achieved in six years what many men would dream of achieving in a lifetime.

The friends are buried beside each other beneath lovely headstones imported from Scotland which are beautifully executed and suitably inscribed and still in very good condition.top of page

Christchurch
Heritage Week
This was the opportunity for us to make a public presentation of “Do’s and Don’ts of Cemetery Conservation”. This was held in Holy Trinity Church, Avondale, attended by a reasonably sized audience and followed by a tour of the attached graveyard with historian Richard Greenaway – in the pouring rain!

Addington Historic Cemetery and Linwood Historic Cemetery
Meetings have been held on site with CCC officers and agreement reached that CCC will proceed to tender for a Conservation Plan for Addington Cemetery.top of page

Cromwell Old Cemetery
Prime Minister Helen Clark has officially unveiled the new granite slab Directory after a dedication ceremony on Friday 26 November 2004 at 1.30 pm. Ms Clark’s ancestors are buried in the Old Cemetery (cnr Litany and Ortive Streets). The Cromwell Lions Club has over-seen the raising of funds, researching of the data, and its successful completion. During the research phase it was verified that there were 357 names to be engraved on the stone, not 288 as originally known.

Port Chalmers
Our tour of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ cemeteries, in conjunction with the Port Chalmers Museum, featuring early mariners and related persons, was held on 19 September, but the weather was not kind. It rained and hailed all morning so we only had 7 hardy souls who braved it to attend.top of page

Stories in Stone
The Otago Daily Times continues to feature on Saturdays our series of stories from selected gravestones in local cemeteries. There is an awakening of interest in local history and this series contributes in its own way.top of page

Conservation Tip of the Month
From Port Arthur Heritage Site, Tasmania
ISLE OF THE DEAD MONUMENTS STABILISED
A long term project for conservation of the funerary monuments on the Isle of the Dead reached a conclusion last week. Since 1990, the Melbourne based conservation practice ARTCARE has visited the island to carry out a range of measures to stabilise the monuments and prevent further decay. There are approximately 80 headstones and 10 chest tombs on the island, and at the commencement of the project there was evidence that many of these were suffering rapid decay. Initial work, in 1990, was largely directed to diagnosing cause of the decay. Subsequent work undertook to reverse many of the damaging conditions affecting the monuments, and to stabilise the fabric of the monuments.

In conducting the diagnosis, probes were installed on several headstones and environmental conditions monitored over a period of time. One of the findings was that the northern face of the headstones in the main clearing were subject to over 200 wetting and drying cycles annually, whereas the southern face of these stones experienced only 10 such cycles. Further, the diurnal temperature range for some monuments was in excess of 30° Celsius (in winter), which is in the range that can cause thermal stress to stone.

On the other hand, most monuments were found not to be significantly affected by soluble salts as their form permits a thorough washing by rain.

Addressing these findings, the northern face and top of the stones were treated with a siloxane hydrophobic solution, reducing moisture absorption and hence the extremes in wetting and drying. By treating only one face, movement of moisture in and out of the stone could still occur through the back and sides. Spot applications of the hydrophobic solution were also made to kill off certain types of lichen found on the stone (but not the common green lichen, which is not harmful).

Recommendations were made for the planting of trees in locations where they could shade the monuments and so stabilise their environment – lessening the extremes of temperature, wetting and drying. A number of blackwoods, native to the island, were planted. The impact of these plantings on other aspects of the significance of the island is presently being reviewed.

Delamination and cracking of the stone was addressed by surgical grouting. Where possible, grout composed of silica dioxide and oxide pigments was used as this composition most closely resembles the make-up of the stone. It was identified that grouts of lime or cement contain salts that encourage more vigorous biological growth than that which occurs on the stone, which in the longer term results in significant a colour difference. Where grout needed to be injected or demanded greater flexibility, an epoxy based grout was used.

Where the case-hardened surface of the stone had been lost and the surface was actively eroding, a solution of ethyl silicate (essentially a liquid sand) was washed over the surface of the stone in a 15% dilution applied twice at intervals. This has proven to be very effective in consolidating friable surfaces.

At an early stage in the project, changes were also made to visitor management on the island. Up to 1990, all visitors taking the Port Arthur boat cruise disembarked on the island, and there were no clearly defined pathways to control visitor movements. To change this, the island tour became optional and only for those prepared to pay extra for the privilege, and boardwalks were installed to avoid visitors from coming into physical contact with the fragile monuments.

A database has been created for the Isle of the Dead, recording the original condition of each monument and details of any intervention that they have been subjected to.

The monuments are now in a stable condition, but this does not mean that no further decay will occur. Examined closely, some stones have faults that do not warrant intervention at this point in time but which may develop into problems requiring attention in the future. The chemical treatments, siloxane and ethyl silicate, are not expected to last permanently, and may need to be repeated in future. It is proposed that a detailed inspection of the monuments be undertaken every 3 to 5 years, and based on the findings of these inspections necessary maintenance carried out.top of page
Reprinted from Port Arthur Post 22 January 2003 by permission
Contact:
Ian Boersma
Conservation Project Manager - Port Arthur Historic Site
Telephone 03 6251 2337
Facsimile 03 6251 2322
Visit our website at www.portarthur.org.au