Burial and Cremation Act 1964

Establishment, maintenance, and regulation of cemeteries

11: Portions for different denominations

You could also call this:

"Setting aside cemetery areas for different religious groups"

Illustration for Burial and Cremation Act 1964

You can ask a local authority to set aside a part of a cemetery for your religious group. They might say yes or no. If they say no, you can appeal to a District Court Judge. You can use this part of the cemetery until the local authority decides to change it. They need to agree with your religious group's leaders first. Your group's leaders are the people in charge, like ministers or churchwardens. If you want to know more about how this law was changed, you can look at the District Courts Amendment Act 1979. You can also ask about the changes made on 1 April 1980. This law is about how cemeteries are run in New Zealand.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM355454.

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10: Exclusive right of burial, etc, or

"Who can bury someone in a specific cemetery spot"

12: Sections may be marked off and consecrated, or

"Some cemetery areas can be set aside for specific religious groups"

Part 1Establishment, maintenance, and regulation of cemeteries

11Portions for different denominations

Upon the application of the governing body of any religious denomination, a local authority may set apart permanently a portion of the cemetery to be used only for the burial of the bodies of members of such denomination.
If the local authority refuses the application the governing body so applying may thereupon appeal against the decision of the local authority to any District Court Judge exercising jurisdiction at or near the place where such cemetery is situated, and the District Court Judge shall consider the appeal and make such order thereupon as seems to meet the justice of the case.
The setting apart under subsection (1) or subsection (2) of any portion of a cemetery may be at any time determined in respect of the whole or part of that portion by the local authority with the consent of the governing body of the religious denomination.
For the purposes of this section the recognised senior office bearer of a religious denomination in the diocese or district, or in his absence, or if there is no such person, any 2 persons of such denomination holding therein any of the offices of minister, deacon, churchwarden, church manager, trustee, or other similar office, shall be deemed to be the governing body of that denomination.

Compare

1908 No 19 ss 31, 32

Notes

Section 11(2): amended, on 1 April 1980, pursuant to section 18(2) of the District Courts Amendment Act 1979 (1979 No 125).