Cambridge Cemetery at Hautapu – Pre 1910 Burials

It has been said that the swampy ground was so bad along Victoria Road, that the dray used for funerals had to go out the Hamilton Road and double back to the cemetery at Hautapu.

Deaths were not very prolific and headstones not often erected.

From 1878, Minutes were kept by the Cemetery Trustees and it is recorded in November 1879 – “Mr W M Shaw be appointed gravedigger if he binds himself not to charge more than 10/- each grave”. The Trustees charged a further 10/- for each allotment.

There is no obvious plan to the earlier burials. In July 1880 application was made by Rev J Golden to set aside a separate area for the Roman Catholics, and they were allocated 102 plots. (A note in the Independent newspaper of 1966 states that segregating was to be discontinued because of the closer union developing between catholics and protestants).

In 1882 the Government passed the Cemeteries Act, which set down rules and regulations for all NZ cemeteries.

In May 1895 the running of the cemetery was given to the Cambridge Borough Council when all poplar trees were grubbed out and burned with the fern and debris. A vocal debate on whether the cemetery should be a park or garden was well documented in the Waikato Advocate newspaper. The garden won, and all the cupressus lawsonia along both sides of the main avenue (which were meeting overhead) were reluctantly removed.

John Sharp suggested suitable shrubs and planted a number of ornamental and flowering varieties. (Along with the camellias at Woodlands the old trees in the cemetery are among the oldest in the Waikato).

The Cambridge Borough offices had a fire 23 July 1900 and only a reconstructed map survives from this earlier era. The burial register was not started until 31 December 1909.

After World War Two the Returned Services Association section was established at the cemetery. A Wall of Memories was built and a Roll of Honour with 164 names inscribed on the archway for those who had lost their lives overseas in World Wars One and Two, and South Africa.

In March 1947 James McPherson Stuart was the first returned soldier to be interred in the RSA section. In August of the same year, cypress trees were made available at £1 each and planted on both sides and the back of the section. Red geraniums were planted in the gardens.

Researched and written by Eris Parker
Ref: Cambridge Museum Archives
National Archives Wellington
NZ Society of Genealogists
Registrar General NZ

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Waipa District Council administers and manages 10 Lawn Cemeteries, including Hautapu, and now has an online cemetery database to assist people searching for plot locations of deceased friends and relatives in Waipa cemeteries.

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