WIFE NOT BURIED IN A CEMETERY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19258, 20 December 1930, Page 9

WIFE NOT BURIED IN A CEMETERY.

FIRST CASE OF ITS KIND IS HEARD AT AUCKLAND. (Spcial to the “ Star.”) AUCKLAND, December 19. Causing the burial of his wife in a place other than a cemetery was the extraordinary charge preferred against John Edward Luckens, a Hobsonville farmer, who appeared before Mr W. H. Woodward, S.M., at the Police Court todav. The defendant pleaded guilty. Mr V. N. Hubble, who appeared for the Health Department, said that the offence was unusual. As far as he knew it was the first charge of its kind brought in the Dominion. The charge was laid under the Cemeteries Act, 1908, and offenders were liable to a fine not exceeding £SO. Defendant’s wife died towards the end of October and was buried on a farm at Hobsonville. There were two cemeteries within easy reach, one at Hobsonville, the other at Swanson. Neither cemetery was much more than a mile away. There had been some discussion about setting aside part of the farm as a burial ground for the Rationalists’ Association, said Mr Hubble. When Defendant’s wife died he interviewed Dr Chesson, of the Health Department, who pointed out that the body could not be buried on the farm. In spite of that instruction the woman was not buried in a cemetery. Defendant's explanation was that he had interviewed a man who was prominent in the Rationalists’ Association, and understood that his action would be all right. A Serious Matter. Mr Hubble said that in view of the safety of public health burials should be controlled, and it was a serious matter for the man to bury his. wife as he did. Defendant, in evidence, said that when interviewing Dr Chesson the doctor seemed to treat the whole thing as a joke. Mr Hubble: I think you should stick to the facts of the case and not attack an officer who is not here. “I think that the breach has been committed in ignorance,” said Mr W oodward. The defendant was convicted and discharged.

ACT PROVIDES FOR EXCEPTIONAL CASES

HEALTH DEPARTMENT CONTROLS BURIALS. Inquiries made in Christchurch this morning show that there is no hardship whatever in the matter of burials, as long as people fulfil the requirements of the law. “ Burial is a matter of public health, not a matter of religion,” said one authority. “ Obviously the Government so regards the matter, for the control of cemeteries was recently transferred from the Department of Internal Affairs to the Department of Health.” Burials are controlled by the Cemeteries Act of 1908. Section 80 sets out that it is unlawful to bury a body in a place other than a cemetery when there is a cemetery within five mires. Any person offending under the section is liable to a fine of £SO. The next section provides that where there is no cemetery within five miles a body may be buried elsewhere, but notice, setting out the facts and giving the possible cause of death, must be given within three days to the nearest Magistrate or Justice of the Peace. A further section sets out that, notwithstanding anything in the Act, anyone may bury in a private burying ground “ heretofore used as a private burial ground,” but the said ground must have been sanctioned under the Act. Such sanction must be in writing, and may be given by a Magistrate or two Justices, or, when the land is within a borough, by the mayor or two councillors. Strict Supervision. The supervision of cemeteries is now in the hands of the Health Department, and wide powers of inspection are given under the Act. The Department may order the carrying out of any work considered necessary to put a cemetery in a proper condition, and if such work is not carried out, then the Department can have the work done and charged to the managers or other persons controlling the cemetery. The Department can also order the closing of any cemetery. At the present time there are very few private burial grounds in the Dominion, but in the old days when population was more scattered, isolated graves could be found in many out-of-the-way places, particularly in the far north of the North Island, and on many of the outlying islands where settlement had taken place. On some of these lonely islands death has sometimes come to a household in a tragic form. On one occasion a man died on an island in the Hauraki Gulf. His widow, who was the only other person on the island, had to bury the body as best she could, and to add to the poignancy of the incident she was only a frail woman, and the mere

physical task of digging the grave was almost too much for her. ~ Widow’s Vigil. The most tragic of these lonely deaths in out-of-the-way places was that of Sutherland, the famous explorer of Milford Sound, whose name was given to the highest falls in the Dominion. He and his wife lived in the old accommodation house at the head of Milford Sound, on the site of the present Government accommodation house, used by the people that do the Te Anau-Milford walk. In those days the only communication with the outside world in the winter was by the Government lighthouse steamer. When the Sutherlands got very old they were urged to come back to civilisation, but as so often happens, Sutherland had been too long in the wilds, and would not leave. One day when the steamer called, after several months’ absence, no one answered the call on the syren. Investigations were made, and it was found that Sutherland had died, and his widow was little better than helpless. Sutherland’s body was found buried under a heap of quicklime on the floor of his room He had died some months before, -when the Sound was cut off from the world, and his widow, unable to bury him, or even to remove the body, had covered it with the quicklime, and then she had months of waiting until the steamer came round. Fortunately old people do not feel so much as younger people, but her long wait must have been tragic. She was taken away in the steamer, and has now been dead some years.