WELLINGTON PRICES FOR HOSPITAL FUNERALS

Northern Advocate, 25 March 1937, Page 2

WELLINGTON PRICES FOR HOSPITAL FUNERALS

Undertakers Deny j Overcharge j . j IPer Press Association.— Covyright.l WELLINGTON, This Day. Replying (to the Wellington- Hospital Board’s criticism of funeral directors for submitting what was term-j ed as excessive tenders for the burial j of indigent persons, Mr W. A. Wilson,! chairman of the Wellington Provincial Funeral Directors’ Association, stated that if the facts were fully inquired into it would be found that the tender was hot So much ah overcharge. It was the board’s unwillingness to pay adequately for what it considered necessary. As regards comment on the fee charged by some clergy, to which the Ministers’ Association took exception, Mr Wilson said no accusation was made against the ministers as a body. , • . There were some who demanded a fee and, that being so, the funeral dirctors included it in the tender, which they claimed to be a fair and just charge for the services rendered. The Bishop of Wellington, Bishop Holland, stated today that for many years the services of Anglican clergy at funerals had been free. The Diocesan Synod, in 1911, rescinded the then existing regulation by which a fee of 8/- was chargeable.