Annual Reports

Trustees’ Annual Report for the year ended 31 March 2016


Introduction
This has been a reasonably satisfactory year for the Trust. Our finances show income for the year is slightly down on last year. Our overall financial balance is very healthy although this does not take account of major expenditures committed for restoration work in the Southern Cemetery which do not appear in this year’s financial accounts.

Membership
This has remained relatively constant and we thank all those who continue to support us. There has been a fall off in corporate members, that is, the local councils. Overall we have just over 30 members.

Larnach’s Tomb
There have been about 150 people visit the tomb in the past year. Two significant groups — the Stonemasons’ Conference and the Heritage Cars Conference —accounting for about 90 of the total. About 20 of the remainder were in three small family groups and a further ten were maintenance or cleaning persons. A relatively small number were on ‘tourist groups’ with the SHT.

Standing up headstones
During the year the gravesite of Charles Kettle, surveyor was restored with funds raised from Bendigo Valley Foundation and students of the School of Surveying, University of Otago, and the Coastal Otago branch of NZ Institute of Surveyors.
The Trust financed the standing up of 6 headstones at the Back Road Cemetery in Milton. In the southern Cemetery, 16 headstones were restored.

Vandalism
The Jewish Section of the Southern Cemetery suffered vandalism in February 2015. Three headstones were smashed and a swastika painted on another. The offending swastika has been removed and funding was received from the Bendigo Trust and the law firm Wilkinson Rodgers, which together with funds from the Trust, enabled the restoration of the damaged headstones.

Conference Presentations
One of our Trustees, Ian Barber, gave a talk on ‘Protecting and Promoting History’ to the Cemeteries & Crematoria Conference in Nelson.



Chris Rudd
Chair, 26 May 2016