After Dinner Gossip AND Echoes of Week

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIV, Issue 21, 27 May 1905, Page 16

After Dinner Gossip AND Echoes of Week

Cremation in New Zealand. The establishment, during the past week, of a Cremation Society in Auckland is a matter of very much more than purely local importance, and will be a subject for congratulation amongst advanced thinkers from one end of the colony to the other. For if. as seems certain, the Auckland Society go to work vigorously, and are willing to give much time and a moderate amount of money to advancing the propaganda of cremation, it will assuredly follow that the movement will be taken up in other centres, and the cremation Society of New Zealand, with branches and crematoriums in all our principal centres of population, become an established fact and feature of this colony in the near future. “ ’Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished,” and with a people so unfettered by conservatism of ideas, and free from convention as ourselves, should not be hard to realise. In England, where red tape, prejudice, ami profound convention rendered the cremation crusade both slow and arduous almost beyond belief, in the earlier years <*f the Cremation Society of England. prejudice and sentimentality are alike giving way before the irresistible onslaughts of plain'common-senso. the requirements of health, and the dictates of modern science. In the year 1885, when<ifter many difficulties and discouragements the first crematorium was erected at Woking, near London, there Were but three cremations, but in 1900 the number had increased to 301. while in 1903 (the last year for which figures are available), the number was 475, and crematoriums were also in active work at Manchester, Hull, Liverpool, Glasgow, and Birmingham, and others were in course of erection. This shows how surely, if somewhat more slowly than could be desired, the feelings of fear and prejudice originally felt ih connection with cremation are dying out. The objections of the average individual to the process are. two-fold. There is, first, the question of personal sentiment, and, second, the fear that the total destruction of the body might lead to smoothing the path to poisoning, murder, and foul play. A third objection, to which serious consideration need scarcely be given, is the belief that in view of the resurrection of the body the reduction to ashes is an irreligious or sacrilegious act. With regard to

sentiment, time alone can work a change. The feeling that the dead sleep in their graves, and that we can visit them, and be near them, is one which appeals so vividly to the imagination and the heart that one cannot argue about or declaim against it. But this is. after all, solely a matter of association. Once accustom people Io the new order of things, once let cremation as a rite become even ever so little by little more common, and sentiment would attach itself to the cleanly ashes ns it does now to the body, with—when you come to think of it—all its horrible realities of putrefaction and decay. With regard to fear, that is a very serious matter. No doubt if cremation were carried out as many burials are now. grave* danger might arise. But this is not the case. No cremation can take place save in crematoriums licensed by the Government of the. country. In all cases a certificate by not only the (leceased’s medical man, but by a medical referee, or the coroner, is essential, and-if adopted in New Zealand the said referee would umpiest hhuibh* be ‘the health otlleer for the district. This absolutely and completely abolishes any chance of risk, and should satisfy even the most nervous. The act of cremation by the most modern process occupies about an hour and a half, and the ashes, which are perfectly white, weigh about 41bs. The process of preparing a body for cremation may be

briefly described. The plan generally adopted is to place it in the usual shroud, in a light pine shell, devoid of any ornament whatsoever. For the shroud flannel instead of linen is adopted, as this leaves a white, not a black, ash. as the vegetable product would do. Immediately before the act of cremation commences the shell is opened, and the body reverently laid on the metal frame which enters the crematorium. By the Siemens gas furnac? process no flame touches the body. There is positively no escape of gas, or any efllnvium whatsoever, Io indicate the destruction of the body. The ashes can be sealed in a jar or buried, as may be the wish of the relatives. At Woking beautiful gardens are laid out, and many who prefer it have set up handsome vases and pedestals for the ashes of their departed dead. With others who believe that a greater economy should he observed in the disposal of the dead, the ashes would be buried at absolutely nominal cost. In England, if t’he crematorium is kept constantly employed, the cost per cremation would not be more than thirty shillings. At present at Woking, Liverpool, and the majority of other crematoriums, the charge is four pounds ten shillings to five pounds, this covering the interment of the ashes. The extravangances of funeral ceremonial. the grim and sometimes harrowing details of burial in the earth, are thus abolished, combined with consideration for the public health and welfare, and the use for parks, open spaces, or purposes of utility of those large and often dreadfully insanitary plots of land which form the burial places of our cities, townships, and villages. The progress of the Auckland Cremation Society will be watched with much interest, and it is the earnest hope of this paper that full measure of success and public support may be accorded it. 4* 4* 4* Tainted Benefactions. Should a church accept a benefaction from a person whose methods of accumulating his wealth are open to suspicion? Most people will remember the mild sensation that was caused some lime ago when the authorities of St. Paul’s Cathedral returned the gold Communion plate presented by the notorious E. T. Hooley. Even in New Zealand we have had some people objecting to accept Mr Carnegie’s gold for building a library. The latest instance of this repugnance of religious people to take gifts from doubtful sources conies from America, where Mr J. J). Rockefeller, of the Standard Oil Trust, has given, apparently by request, £‘20,000 to tlfe American Board of Foreign Missions. An earnest protest against the acceptance of this gift has, been tiled by a number of Congregational ministers in New England, on the ground that the Christian Church can not consistently receive “tainted money.” This has precipitated a hot debate upon the question whether money can be so tainted as to make it unlit for use in promoting the salvation of the heathen. There seems to be a general consensus of opinion among the contending clergy that if any money can be tainted to that extent Mr Rockefeller’s is. One enthusiastic defender of the benefactor does indeed go so far in his vindication as to say: “Personally 1 am not convinced that all Mr Rockefeller’s money is stolen money.” But few seem inclined to stretch charity so far. As a rule, the disputants agree on substantially’ this statement of the question: “Can the Church undertake to draw the line between honestly and dishonestly acquired money in accepting gifts?” At the University of Chicago, the problem excites only’ ridicule. “1 heartily disagree with these Congregalionalists,” says Professor Shailer Mathews, junior dean of the University Divinity School. “Mr

Rockefeller’s money ean be put to a good use if they ean accept it without going into the question of the methods of the Standard Oil Trust.” Professor Albion W. Small, who he Ts the Chicago chair of sociology, considers the agitation merely “pinheadedness”—a "play to the gallery”—and remarks: ‘'The whole question was settled by us long ago, or we would not be here to-day.” Dr. Parkhurst, of New York, cheers Mr Rockefeller with the reflection that the Saviour accepted services from a woman whose “character was not of the b'est.” ♦ + + Wrestling v. Jin-Jitsn. There has been a great deal of satisfaction expressed in America at the outcome of a match in New York between George Bothner. the American light-weight champion wrestler, and Professor Katsnkuina Higashi, in which the American was awarded three falls out of three. It has been explained triumphantly that" this puts jiu-jitsu out of the running and called “another Japanese bluff.” The story of the match does not seem to bear this out. It is true that the American got three falls, though there is some doubt whether the last two were strictly within the rules. It is also true that the Japanese did not

hold Bothner to the mat for the requifr rd five seconds, but it is worth noting that Higashi got two flying falls in which he flung Bothner over his head and to the floor with sueh force that he was stunned. Neither of these was allowed, but it looks as if it were a pretty good trick, and when practised twice on an American ehampion might be used a third time. The patriotic assertion that jiu-jitsu is now proved inferior to wrestling is not sound. No one knows the difficulty and the physical strain of the art of wrestling. Good wrestlers are very rare, their physique is a matter of years of training, and when they are at. their best, a moment will make vain •all that has gone before. But the jiu-jitsu expert is an ordinary, goodnatured. slim, ami contented individual, who does not have to practise hours every day to keep in condition, and who has not to wateh his diet as he would his life. And then there is not a Jeffries or a Bothner around every corner. Our best trained athletes find it hard to combat successfully with the Japanese jiu-jitsu man, and as a consequence we may well take a few lessons in what, a New York paper calls “the humiliating and blameworthy art of strangling a man with his own shirt.” It may be a “kind of legitimised garrothig,” but we still carry guns, spite of the bad form of killing burglars. In the Bothner-Hi-gashi contest all serious tricks were barred. It is the mortal falls we are interested in.