A DELAYED BURIAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14482, 1 July 1911, Page 2

A DELAYED BURIAL.

* STRANGE AFFAIR AT CHRISTCHURCH HOSPITAL. RETICENT OFFICIALS. Statements that were in circulation on Thursday to the effect tint the body of a consumptive patient who had d.ed at the Christehurch. Hospital had remain 1- forgotten and unburied for a fortnight, caused somewhat of a sensation in view of the recent occurrence of a similar case at Auckland. lnvest.gations by a xoporter of "The l'ress" went to show that wlulst the jirtemeuis made regarding Hie local case were, in essentials, practically accurate, tho case differed eonsid.erably froni the Auckland on.- A feature o ( the matter that seems at present inexplicable is the reti ;Onco being obser- ed by persons in au-iiority who are, apparently, in possession of all t'-e facts and who, it is belie, -A, could give a simple and complete explanation of the whole matter.

Eiii;r.iries made at the hospital eh'oited tho following statement: "The report is exaggerated. It is perf.ctiv true that a body was left here 'or a longar time than is. usual, but the-s was n reason for that. The period sa; certainly not a fortnight; it was more than a week, but less than o. tortnigii'.. The body wu3 that of an old man who had l-o relatives, and it was left a few days longer than usual, I believe, in order that enquiries could be made is to whether any of his relatives were abo it. There is no reason vshy a body shou.d be buried immediatiiv in this weather, and there is no danger of contagion from the dead body of a consumptive patient. It would have been different if it had been eum-aor weather and the body had decomposed; but there was nothing offensive about the emaciated body of the patient in question, which, was lying in the morgue at the Hospital. There was no scandal abo it the matter, and it is not accurate that the reason why the body lay o;i long linburied was tfuat it had been forgotten. Enquiries «s to relatives o- friends of the deoe.ieed proved fruit less, and the body has been buried by th-' Hospital authorities."

The steaward of the hospital, who is responsible, would only say to the report r- "The matter is in up hands of the chairman, to whom I refer vou." The chairman of the Hospital Committer, Mr W. W. Tanner, would neither deney nor affirm the stories. In the crurse of the next few days, he sa:d, information would be available for the Press and the public. Ho would make it his duty to s»e that tho