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Star (Christchurch), Issue 18190, 24 June 1927, Page 12

Comment was caused yesterday by the fact that the body of a man who had died on a tramcar was removed from the tram shelter in a carrier’s cart. Inquiries revealed that there was no definite means of conveyance for the removal of corpses to the morgue in cases of street fatalities and such like. Mr W. S. Wharton, secretary of the Hospital Board, stated that the removal of dead people was not the responsibility of the board, and declared that the board's ambulances were not available for the work, but simply for the conveyance of infectious cases. Mr C. T. Treleaven, secretary of the Canterbury branch of the St John Ambulance Association, stated that the rules of the association prohibited the conveyance of corpses or infectious cases in the ambulances of the association. “ We are concerned only with the removal of injured people,” he said. •* Dead people are never conveyed in our ambulances. Our rules prohibit it. Infectious diseases, too, arc outride our field.”