While it is unclear when the headstone and ashes were removed, an Auckland Council spokesperson confirmed it had been \u201cremoved by the family\u201d with \u201cnothing suspicious around it\u201d. <\/p>\n
The council told the Herald that ashes were removed \u201csome time ago\u201d, while the headstone was taken away \u201cmore recently\u201d. <\/p>\n
The gravesite of the former Labour Party leader received occasional tributes and flowers from the public as well as his family, with brother Peter Lange visiting \u201clate last year\u201d to pay his respects. <\/p>\n
Peter said the headstone was at the lawn cemetery when he last visited. <\/p>\n
\u201cI visited the grave probably three months ago. I probably go twice a year or something like that. <\/p>\n
\u201cI remember thinking it was pretty close to the 20th anniversary of his death.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a nice stone, actually. A lovely stone. It was very simple and uncomplicated and just very handsome.\u201d<\/p>\n
The headstone of former Prime Minister David Russell Lange has been removed from its plot at Waikaraka Cemetery. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n
The artist and accomplished ceramicist was unaware that his sibling had been disinterred when the Herald contacted him, even visiting the graveyard to make sure for himself. <\/p>\n
Peter, who was at David\u2019s bedside when he died, said he was disappointed to learn that his older brother was no longer resting at the cemetery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know anything about it at all. It\u2019s a bit upsetting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of the other family know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said his brother had wanted to be laid to rest near his home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d rather it didn\u2019t [get removed] because that\u2019s where he wanted to be. One of the reasons was you could see the \u2026 house [where] they used to live. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt seemed to be acceptable to most of the family at the time, including Margaret, I would\u2019ve thought. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a mystery.\u201d <\/p>\n
Peter Lange is a renowned ceramicist and younger brother of the late David Lange. <\/p>\n
When contacted by the Herald about the family\u2019s surprise, Pope said: \u201cIt\u2019s just a grave marker. And really, it is my business and not the Herald\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter remained disappointed by the whole situation, but said he had to respect the wishes of Pope, whom the family had lost touch with. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe really did cut us off in a big way. And so we found it easier to just go along with that. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve talked to Naomi [David\u2019s first wife] and I\u2019ve talked to my other sister and we struck ourselves in sort of despair really. There\u2019s nothing much we could do about it. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt just seems like a not very well-mannered thing to do, not consulting anyone. I think it\u2019s just the sort of person she is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter said there was still a dedicated public artwork, the David Lange Memorial in \u014ct\u0101huhu, where the late Prime Minister was born. <\/p>\n
David Lange’s widow, Margaret Pope, at his memorial in \u014ct\u0101huhu. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a shame but no one is going to lose too much sleep over it. He has got that memorial in \u014ct\u0101huhu, which is pretty impressive. It does commemorate his life to an extent. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think Margaret will be able to take that away in a hurry.\u201d <\/p>\n
Peter said his brother would\u2019ve seen the lighter side of the family drama: \u201cDavid will probably be laughing from wherever he\u2019s looking down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pope v Auckland Council<\/p>\n
Pope said she has tried multiple times to remove David Lange\u2019s name from Auckland Council\u2019s online grave register.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made about four attempts now … It shows David as being buried there, and he\u2019s not buried there, and I would very much like the council to take it off their records so that other records can be changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the council has so far \u201cignored\u201d her attempts. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them have been very helpful and say they\u2019re going to do something about it, but then they don\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n
When contacted by the Herald about Pope\u2019s frustrations, Auckland Council general manager of parks and community facilities, Taryn Crewe, apologised and said the \u201cerror\u201d has now been corrected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe unreservedly apologise for not having removed the former Prime Minister\u2019s burial record from our database and for Ms Pope\u2019s request to do so going unanswered.<\/p>\n
\u201cAsh burials include a headstone or plaque which are owned by the burial rights holder and the decision to remove these memorials sits with them. An application is made to the council for a removal permit and the burial rights holder (for example, the family) will commission a monumental mason to carry out the work.<\/p>\n
The headstone of former Prime Minister David Lange was removed at the request of his widow Margaret Pope. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike with body burials, which must follow a Ministry of Health guided disinterment process, the council approves and assists with the removal of ash remains.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case, while the disinterment of ashes occurred some time ago, the removal of the memorial was more recent, and it is possible that this is why the online record wasn\u2019t updated at the time of disinterment.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, we are not making any excuses for this error and we have now urgently removed the record.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter said he wasn\u2019t aware of the disinterment of David\u2019s ashes and the subsequent removal of the headstone.<\/p>\n
Council on the disinterment process of body burials<\/p>\n
Crewe added: \u201cA licence needs to be granted by the Ministry of Health (not Auckland Council) for a disinterment [of a body burial] under section 51 of the Burial and Cremation Act 1964. For more information about this please see the … Health NZ guidelines for disinterment licence applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce a disinterment application has been granted by the Ministry of Health, the applicant would request a date from Auckland Council\u2019s cemetery team for the disinterment.<\/p>\n
\u201cDisinterments are carried out by Auckland Council cemetery staff and a public health officer may request to be in attendance. They typically happen at dawn so not to be in open view of the public. Family are not permitted to be present once the ground is opened up, but they are welcome to have a prayer\/blessing at gravesite before the disinterment begins.<\/p>\n
\u201cCemetery staff will respectfully disinter the casket. Then, the casket is typically received by a funeral director to be transferred into a new casket (organised by the family). The remains will then usually be taken by the funeral director from the cemetery to a funeral home.<\/p>\n
\u201cApproximately 10 disinterments are carried out annually across the Auckland Council cemetery network.<\/p>\n
\u201cAuckland Council cemeteries disinterment costs are: Adult $6600, Child $3400.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While it is unclear when the headstone and ashes were removed, an Auckland Council spokesperson confirmed it had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16098,1121,5512,6284,28163,42,302,140604,6501,8732,43,1118,223,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-318117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-bit","9":"tag-case","10":"tag-curious","11":"tag-david","12":"tag-grave","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-its","15":"tag-langes","16":"tag-missing","17":"tag-mystery","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-of","20":"tag-the","21":"tag-top-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topnews","24":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}