COFFIN MOVED IN CEMETERY

Taranaki Daily News, 30 December 1929, Page 6

COFFIN MOVED IN CEMETERY

NO OFFICIAL SANCTION. Sydney, Dec. 16. In the history of New South Wales there ig nothing more unusual than a case receiving police attention at the present time. It concerns the deliberate removal of a body from one portion of a cemetery to another without an exhumation order, or official sanction of any kind. A wellknown resident of the Hawkesbury River district —recently died after a long illness, and in accordance with custom the sons, both born and jeared on the river, arranged for her burial in the local cemetery. Although they said nothing at the time, they were chagrined that their mother was buried in another portion of the cemetery to that in which the family plot was situated, and, since their mother had expressed a desire to be buried next her husband’s grave, they were naturally upset. They expressed their resentment at the cemetery officials’ bungling in no uncertain terms to many friends, and there the matter dropped—on the surface. • Last week, however, the officials found that the new grave had been opened and another sealed alongside that of the husband of the deceased. Police inquiry was asked for, and they discovered a remarkable state of affairs. -A tramp found in the district stated that he had asked for work at a local residence, and had been employed in the capacity of grave-digger and exhumer. Without work or prospects, he accepted the generous figure offered him, and assisted in the exhumation of a coffin in the dead of night. It was carried from one end of the cemetery to another, a second grave was dug, and the coffin reinterred. Inquiries showed that no order had been obtained, nor had any official sanction been sought for the ghastly change-over. The circumstances of the case have been reported to the health authorities, and action is pending.