HURRIED BURIALS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23084, 8 July 1938, Page 10

HURRIED BURIALS

OLD-AGE PENSIONERS COMPLAINT FROM ROTQRUA LACK OF CEREMONY ALLEGEDCHEAPEST METHODS ADOPTED [from our own- correspondent] HAMILTON", Thursday A strong protest against the manner in which old-age pensioners and others dependent on charity had been buried at Rotorua was received by the Waikato Hospital Board at to-day's meeting from Archdeacon R. Hodgson and the Revs. J. L. Mitchell, E. A. McCutcheon and A. C. Randerson, ot Rotorua.

In their letter of protest it was alleged that the quickest and cheapest methods of burial were commonly used in such cases.

"The latest instance." the letter stated, "is that of an old lady who died in King George Hospital in Potorua, and whose body was rushed away to the cemetery with no attempt to observe the decencies demanded by our common humanity. The casket had no name or ago insciihed for purposes of Identification, tlio deceased having no relatives to pay their last tributes and claim her riglit to respectful burial. "We urgently request your sympathetic consideration of this matter, and trust your board will lay down some revised conditions, under which our citizens who have the misfortune to die in poverty and loneliness shall ha assured of at least humane and decent obsequies." Mr. J. Banks said he had interviewed the undertakers concerned, and they had stated that they had done all that was required to be done under their contract. The secretary, Mr. A. C. Burgess, said the contract entered into between the board and the Funeral Directors' Association provided for a nameplate to be placed on the casket;. Mr. R. Eyre emphasised the great need for care in establishing the identity of deceased persons. As a registrar of deaths for many years, he had noted great carelessness on tho part of undertakers in failing to see that full particulars concerning deceased persons were properly recorded. The board referred the complaint from the ministers to its Rotorua committee for investigation and a report.