Burial and Cremation Act 1964

Establishment, maintenance, and regulation of cemeteries

8: Management of cemetery

You could also call this:

"Looking after cemeteries: keeping them safe, clean, and nice"

Illustration for Burial and Cremation Act 1964

You can think of a local authority as the people in charge of a area. They can decide to build walls or fences around a cemetery to keep it safe. They can also make the cemetery look nice by adding paths, roads, and plants. They have to keep the cemetery clean and tidy, including any buildings or monuments inside it. You need to know that the local authority is also in charge of making sure the cemetery does not get too wet. They can build drains to keep the water away and connect these drains to other existing drains. They have to get permission from the people in charge of the existing drains and the owners of the land before they can build the new drains. The local authority has to be careful when building the drains and try not to damage the roads or the land. They have to fix any damage they do cause and make sure the land is in the same condition as it was before. This is all part of their job to manage the cemetery and keep it in a good state.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM355450.

This page was last updated on 12 December 2025 — View changes

Topics:

Environment and resources > Town planningHousing and property > Land use

7: Name of cemetery, or

"What a cemetery is called and how its name can be changed"

9: Powers as to vaults, monuments, etc, or

"Rules for graves, monuments, and vaults in cemeteries"

Part 1Establishment, maintenance, and regulation of cemeteries

8Management of cemetery

A local authority may from time to time—
enclose the land comprised in a cemetery, or any portion thereof, with proper and sufficient walls, rails, or fences, and erect suitable gates and entrances:
lay out and ornament a cemetery in such manner as is most convenient and suitable for the burial of the dead, and provide it with such walks, avenues, roads, lawns, and shrubberies as it thinks proper:
preserve, maintain, and keep a cemetery and its walls, rails, fences, gates, and entrances and all monuments, enclosures, buildings, erections, walks, avenues, roads, lawns, and shrubberies therein in a safe, clean, and orderly condition:
make all necessary and proper drains in and about a cemetery for draining and keeping it dry; and may from time to time, as occasion requires, cause any such drain to connect with any existing drain with the consent in writing of any other persons having the management of any such existing drain, and with the consent in writing of any other persons having the management of any street or road and of the owners and occupiers of any land through which such drain is made, doing as little damage as possible to the road or such land, and restoring it to the same or as good condition as it was in before being disturbed.

Compare

1908 No 19 ss 26, 61, 63