GRAVE TOO SHORT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20085, 2 March 1928, Page 8

GRAVE TOO SHORT

DISTRESSING BUNGLE ENDS SAWN OFF COFFIN. MELBOURNE, Feb. 28. Shockinig disclosures regarding ths burial at Cheltenham last Wednesday of Walter Smith, one of twin brothers, both of whom were drowned in Eildon Weir, were made to-day by R. Reynolds, of Toorak. He said that arrangements were so bungled that when the cortege arriv?C at the graveside it was found that the grave had. been dug short and the coffin would not fit. The gravediggers, said Reynolds, refused to re-dig the grave properly, as it would take too long. After nearly four hours of arguing the ends had to be sawn off the coffin, partly exposing the interior. Only when Reynolds commenced to fill the grave in himself did the gravediggers assist. Walter Smith's brother had ’been buried on the previous day, and Mrs Smith died last Saturday from shock at the death of her two sons and was buried, on Monday. She was the last of the family. Mr Reynolds demands a public inquiry into the bungling at the cemetery. “1 have never seen such utter callousness iin my life.” he says.