Unearthly Landscapes: NZ's Early Cemeteries, Churchyards and Urupa

By the nineteenth century the ancient parish churchyards of Britain, burdened with generations of dead, were unable to cope with the strain of rising numbers of corpses. Public concern about health problems eventually put an end to the local parish churchyard burial, and by the time settlers set sail for New Zealand new, larger "modern" cemeteries were being established on the edges of towns. Immigrants brought with them a range of burial traditions, and of course Maori, already long establ...