FUNERAL EXPENSES OF PAUPERS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LX, Issue 9344, 15 April 1909, Page 5

FUNERAL EXPENSES OF PAUPERS.

A QUESTION OF RESPONSI

BILITY

The question that is concerning the Trustees of the Mastertou Hospital and the North Wairarapa Benevolent Society just now is which body is liable for the funeral expenses of paupers that die in the Hospital. At yesterday's meeting of the Benevolent Trustees a letter was read from the Hospital Trustees asking for payment of £19 10s, a sum incurred in burying a number of paupers that had died recently iv the hospital, but the Benevolent Society do not intend to recognise the claim until it is sure of its position in the matter. The Chairman (Mr R. T. Holmes) said there would be no question as to who had to bear tho cost if the persons that died were sent to the hospital by the Benevolent Trust, but unless the position was defined clearly it was evident that the Hospital Trust intended to charge every case to the Benevolent Trust even if the paupers were absolute strangers to the district. A reply to the letter was deferred until au answer was received from the InspectorGeneral of Hospitals, to whom the Trustees had written askiug for information on the point; and also from the Hospital Trustees who had been written to askiug whether tfi_ paupers, concerning whom tho account for burial expenses had been sent, had lived in tho district for six mouths prior to their demise.

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