BURIAL OF THE DEAD.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 92, 8 June 1911, Page 5

BURIAL OF THE DEAD.

APPALLING CONDITIONS. BODIES LEFT IN DECOMPOSED CONDITION FOP DAYS. REASONS NOT FORTHCOMING. An Auckland “Star” representative, busy about the waterfront, beheld a body upon the marble slab within the morgue. Anticipating a tragedy of the morning, he made enquiries of the caretaker, and learned that it had been there fore some days, being that of an unfortunate woman who died in Grey Street last Thursday night. Since admittance to the morgue the body had laid shroudless, and unprepared for burial, covered only by a tarpaulin. In a corner lie her discarded clothes—pathetic bits of fin;ery,‘ including high-heeled boots, and , other.-, little things worn by the wo- « man-at the lime of her death. ;;

When would the body bo taken away-for burial ? —No one knew, and apparently no on cleared. Baltic u lavs of tin's case loci to further enquiries. Yes, there had boon worse cases: ,-Tho body of a man, in a state of decomposition when hauled out of the harbour, was kept in the morgue for five days; the hygienic conditions within the buildings at the end of that period being beyond clescrintion, oven the walls bearing witness to tho terrible state or the body.

CASE OF DISINTERRED CHILD. Cases of the kind were not infrequent, and there was one where the body of a child dug tip in a garden at Epsom, after being there for a month, •was loft in the morgue for nine days, despite the fact that the mother aim relatives were/ known, and an order for burial had boon issued long before. The reason?-—Presumably a difference of opinion as to whether the relatives or local authorities should bear the expense of burial. The Coroner (Mr. T. Gresham), interviewed, said that as far as he was concerned there was never any delay. In his department, where a death took place on Saturday, lie frequently ordered a preliminary enquiry for Sunday so that a certificate of burial might be issued at once. Presumably the delays took place in an effort to ensure recognition or identification of the body. In one case he had known in Auckland no loss than seven women had in turn identified the one body as that of a lost husband. Otherwise, however, ho could see no reason for delay of burial. Mr. T. Garland, secretary of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board,

said that as soon as deaths cf paupers were reported orders were at once issued to the undertaker. The case of the woman mentioned above was only reported that morning, and burial would take place in the aftenioo.n.