ASHES OF THE DEAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 108, 3 November 1937, Page 28

ASHES OF THE DEAD

DISPOSAL BY AIR

MONTHLY OCEAN FLIGHT

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, October 28.

A regular monthly plane service to scatter over the ocean the ashes of cremated persons is. to be established by a Sydney undertaker. , As a, forerunner to the service, a plane has been chartered to. scatter- the remains of ten. Sydney residents next Wednesday;

"The scheme arose from a suggestion by a relative of a person who had been cremated," a representative of George Andrews, funeral director, said. "Offered the choice of the usual methods of disposing of the ashes, he said he would have preferred them to be scattered by air, but the individual cost was too great.. We thereupon offered the suggestion of a joint service to other people, and the response was immediate.

"Fourteen per cent; of funerals are now by cremation, and we,believe that the new method of distributing the ashes will,find sufficient favour to warrant i? regular \monthly service. By dealing with a number on each flight, we shall be able to cover expenses by a fee of 10s 6d for each person.

"It is an excellent method, because it is a proper scattering—a final disposal in the best possible sense. Many people desire this finality. They prefer not to have a place which they would feel bound to visit, as other people do a grave! Such a place is created when ashes are scattered on a cemetery rose garden, where a rose bush is planted, and marked by a brorize tablet, or when a casket is placed in a niche in a chapel wall. In the past we have been asked to scatter the ashes anywhere rather than do this. There is no,disrespect in this attitude. People know that the second generation has little sentimental regard for a last resting place, which soon becomes neglected and unsightly."