ASHES TO RELATIVES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 12 June 1929, Page 8

ASHES TO RELATIVES

POSTAL APPROVAL GIVEN IN AUSTRALIA CREMATION POPULAR The fact that the New South Wales Postmaster-General's Department lias officially announced that it has no objection ' to cremated ashes being transmitted abroad by post, invests w?ch grim interest tfte attitude which was adopted in one case with regard to the" shipment of a person's ashes J'rom Sydney to England. The 'payment 01' a first class fare was asked for tin; carriage of the ashes bv a certain vessel, but it was discovered that the mortal remains of another person, enclosed in an urn, had previously been sent to England hv the same line for two guineas. This latter charge was then agreed t-o in the second case. jf, in some quarters, there is a prejudice against cremation, in some (•uses because of religious beliefs, and in others because.' of old established conventionality, facts point to the increasing demand for that Form of disposal of the dead at. Rookwood. With cremation in Sydney only in its fourth year of existence—the first cremation took place at Rookwood on 28th May, 1925—big schemes for addition and improvements are already planned, or are being actually proceeded with. SOME CURIOUS WISHES Curious wishes are sometimes expressed for the disposal of ashes. A foreigner, who had occupied a leading position in the community for some years, asked, for example that portion of his ashes should be buried in one of the cemeteries of Sydney, and the : remainder sent to his own country. Many people elect to scatter over the rose beds at the crematorium thV- ashes of their relatives. tii otlier cases, they are deposited in urns in niches of the chapel there. Others keep the ashes within their liomcs, and in many cases they are sent abroad. The wish of one. man was that his ashes should be strewn from the hood of his motor car on his big country property in New South Wales. In several, cases, ashes have been taken to sea. and cast to the four winds of Heaven, in accordance with the wishes of those cremated. .

•'GATE TO LIFE" Improvements to the Sydney Crematorium include the provision of stained glass-; windows, and a massive arch' over the catafalque designed in Mosaic and bearing the inscription "Death is but the gate to life."