DISTURBING THE DEAD

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8330, 16 January 1913, Page 7

DISTURBING THE DEAD

CEMETERY SCANDAL. COFFINS THROWN IN RUBBISH HEAPS. HOBART, January 15. Inspector Wadsworth, of the Public Health Department, reporting on the Queensborough cemetery scandal, states that he examined rubbish heaps and the remains of fires in different parts of the cemetery, and found the remains of a child’s coffin, partly con sumed by fire; also two bones. Ho found another small coffin in an other heap. The gravedigger had informed him that the coffin had been removed by the chairman’s instructions four months ago in order to put in another body. In another heap was disclosed a large number of broken coffins.

A Hobart message published yesterday stated that a revolting state of affairs had been revealed by the Queensborough cemetery gravedigger, who was dismissed. He made a statement to the Health Department and the press, in which he alleged that it had been, the practice for a year past to remove coffins from graves in order to permit of fresh burials. There was no room to replace the disinterred shells nor their contents, the result being that they were piled on one another on rubbish heaps, and in some instances burnt. Dr Sprott, reporting to the Board of Health, said that he had verified many of the gravedigger’s statements, more particularly regarding inability to replace coffins after a fresh burial. He had no hesitation in saying the method of disposing of tho dead had filled him with horror and amazement. It was a real danger to the public health.