EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 110, 30 June 1911, Page 5

EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

(Per. Press Association.) Christchurch, June 29'. An extraordinary stoiy yas told to a reporter this afternoon, to tlie 'affect that recently a dead body had beoxx permitted by the public authorities to be unburied for a fortnight. 'The rbpox’t, as it reached the reporter, was, to the effect .that a body ixad been taken to the moi’gne and left there for, identification, Then it had oeen forgotten, and it was not until ,i fortnight later t/xat the body was rediscovered. This' seemed to be so like a stoiy from Auckland that no cxed'bii’cd was attached to it, but enquiries were', of course, made in the propox quarter., *So far as the public •morgue was concerned the stoiy was at once given an emphatic denial. The reporter, was informed that no case of the kind had occurred or was likely to occur. It was suggested, however, that something of the sort might have happened in one of tlxc institutions of tne city. A gentleman who • said’lie was acquainted with the case to which the rumour referred said that he was not at liberty to discuss it, but that there had undoubtedly been a grave blunder. A patient suffering from consumption, he said, had died, and the body had lain unburied for ten or eleven days. Pressed to state where the incident had happened, he named the Christichurch Public Hospital. The Hospital authorities, bn being seen, stated that.the report, as given above, was milch exaggerated. The ‘body of an elderly man wlxose death was due to*consumption had been laid in' the hospital morgue for a period of over a week, but under a fortnight. The reason for the delay was that enquiries were being made as to ;Wh,ether or not deceased had any relatives or friends in the district ox the. Dominion. The fact that the body was lying unburied was not forgotten by the authorities, who further stated that in cold weather such as had been experienced locally for the past two or three weeks thei'e was no necessity to hurry the burial of the body, and that in view of this, and as it was ixx a place provided for the reception' of dead - bodies, there was no fear of contagion. The authorities were unable to find any relatives br friends of the deceased, whose body was buried at the expense, of the board.

Results of further enquiries arc in the direction of showing That explanations previously telegraphed are probably uot quite correct. A great deal of reticence, which is apparently inexplicable, is being shown in the matter. The Chairman of the Hospital Committee, when soon, would neither deny nor confirln the report, but hoped lie would be able soon to make a fqll explanation. The hospital steward simply referred the enquirer to the chairman of the Hospital Committee. It was rumoured that the Mayor had received a report on the matter, but when lie was communicated with ho stated he did not think it desirable at present to say anything. The matter, it is rumoured, is capable of a simple and complete explanation.