A former army major is calling for regulation standards to maintain headstones within the country's service cemeteries because many are in a state of disrepair. New Zealand Remembrance Army director Simon Strombom says the names of those who served at war should not be left to decay.
"If you come here and you walk through the cemeteries you do not see the pristine rows of graves, they're not maintained to one standard, it's nothing like the Commonwealth war graves overseas and in many cases...they're damaged and they need to be replaced. It's a national shame really," says Strombom.
Veterans' Affairs is responsible for the maintenance of the country's 183 service cemeteries and assigned $1.5mil for maintenance last year.
Strombom says for a fraction of that cost his volunteers have cleaned more than 3,000 graves in the past twelve months, including in Tolaga Bay.
"What we did is we taught them how to restore the graves and in Tolaga Bay within six-hours they had restored their whole cemetery...what they're now looking to do is roll it out to other urupa and marae across the East Coast."
Strombom says its costs about $10 to refurbish a bronze plaque and only only $2 for a basic clean of a headstone.
But how much does it cost Veterans' Affairs to do the same?
Veterans' Affairs told Te Ao Māori News the $1.5mil includes costs towards plaques and headstones, but aside from replacements for vandalism or earthquake damage it generally does not refurbish headstones.
"I think the minister or Mark Mitchel has to put up a private member's bill to establish a New Zealand War Graves Commission and it needs to administer the war graves as a body across the country...in doing so it needs to make sure there is one standard...one standard for bronzes, one standard for granites, that the graves are readable, maintained and inspected," says Strombom.
The project has also gained momentum in Rarotonga and Australia.