CREMATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 204, 29 August 1934, Page 5

CREMATIONS.

STEADY INCREASE.

COLUMBARIUM NOW NEEDED.

WEIXINGTON EXPERIENCE.

The Wellington City Council has called tenders for the erection in brick and reinforced concrete of a columbarium at Karori cemetery. A columbarium is a building provided in a cemetery for. the reception of the ashes of the dead who have been cremated

In many cases the relatives of the dead desire to preserve the ashes, and keep them at the cemetery. This has been done in the past within the chapel of the crematorium. Recqsses have been provided in the walls of this building where the vases are placed, and in front of them are brass panels setting forth the identity of the one thus memorialised. It may be seen from this why the Americans selected j this word to dignify such a' place. The recesses, by a stretch of imagination, may be likened to dovecotes. The word "coluinba" simply means dove, and "columbini"' little doves. As the space in the walls of the chapel has become exhausted more has to be provided, hence the columbarium. Identification Panels.

This structure will form nn annexe to the crematorium. The building', of one storey in Wrick and reinforced concrete, will consist of an apartment extending across the rear of tho crematorium, with a wing on either side. Provision is being made for the inclusion of ideas in advance of those followed in the chapel. For example in the chapel the identification panels .are all of brass. In the columbarium they will all be uniform in character and of white marble. That such an adjunct should be necessary indicates a trend which many consider conforms with the first principles of hygiene. Cremation was unknown in Wellington prior to 1009 (says the "Dominion.") Two years before that a Miss Studholme,

a member of the well-known South Canterbury family, returned from a visit to England greatly impressed with the hygienic necessity for such a means of disposal of the dead, and carried on an active campaign in its favour. In 1909 the city council decided on the erection of a crematorium at Karori, and the first cremation took place there on November 2, 1909. Since that time the number of cremations has steadily increased. There were 100 in 1931, and 110 in 1932, and last year there were 149, or 13.5 per cent, of the total deaths.

! That thirteen and a half per cent, of Wellington's dead should now be creI mated is significant. It is also inter- ' [ estin<* to note that those cremated are 'usually judges, lawyers, doctors, and , j commercial men,