Communal Graves Side by Side
Their sun is gone down while it was yet day
With hundreds dead in the 1931 Napier earthquake, the city had to act fast. With not enough space, time, and manpower, a mass grave had to be dug and the workers had to get creative. You can visit the monument with the names of the dead at Park Island Cemetery.
But just when Napier thought it was on the way to recovery, tragedy struck again. A shipping accident caused the deaths of many men, and another mass grave would have to be dug.
Stories from the library vault are collected from the Napier Libraries Heritage Collection. To find out more see our website https://bit.ly/3G92ELN or visit our Napier or Taradale branch.
Images taken from the Napier Libraries Heritage and Online Newspaper Collections and the Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections:
Park Island communal grave
Conly, G. (1980). The Shock of ’31: The Hawkes Bay Earthquake. A.H. & A. W. Reed Ltd.
The Doris following the disaster
Auckland Weekly News, 4 January 1933. From the Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19330104-35-11
The Doris (the small white vessel between the two ships)
Hawkes Bay Today 17 September 2016, p.18
Marine Disaster newspaper articles
Waipawa Mail, 30 December 1932. From Papers Past https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/new...