CHEAPER FUNERALS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2666, 23 November 1909, Page 2

CHEAPER FUNERALS.

HOAV CREMATION • AIEANS ECONOAIIES.

Seeking some ideas on cremation, a “Dominion” reporter approached a c’-ty undertaker in order to discuss what seemed to be a matter of doubt, viz., which is the cheaper method of disposing of the dead—by cremation or burial? The undertaker held the view—a strong one —that cremation was not only going to be the cheaper, but would be the most popular method of disintegration in the not-far-distant full re. Asked to explain how ho came to arrive at that conclusion, he said that one of the chiqf items of expense in connection with a funeral was tbe cost of the polished casket (with its silver-plated fittings) often made of expensive woods which have to be especially imported for the purpose. This item would be almost knocked out in the case of cremation. It was not at all likely that they would ( burn what must be considered a fine piece of ca-binet-work, as most of the fjood polished caskets are—that* would be useless waste. AVliat will be, and has been already, is to confine tbe body in a whitepine coffin which will fit into certain standard caskets of approved designs and workmanship. The doors leading to the furnace will open, the casket will disappear from the view. Inside, however, the cheaper coffin, containing the 'body, will be removed from the more ornamental casket, and dispatched into the incinerating chamber, but the undertaker will claim his casket—which has really only been hired, and convey it back to liis factory, where it will, be fumigated in view of future contingencies. The proceeding is reasonable, and is dictated by practical com-mon-sense, and once the practice is adopted it will be taken as a matter of course.

‘•‘There is no disrespect to the dead or 'anyone’s feelings.” said the undertaker. “The caskets have hitherto been buried with the body merely as a concession to those looking on. After a funeral most people interested in the deceased wait to see the earth thrown on the coffin, and in many cases until the grave is filled up, and their‘feelings must be respected. But with cremation the last they see of the casket- is equivalent to the last they see before the earth covers it, and if the body is treated with decency and economies are effected—where they are badly needed in some cases—it will be a good thing to save the casket from the flames. The saving in such cases would be at least £10.”

The informant said that he had approached the Town Clerk with another idea, which he thought would be welcomed by many, in particular those whose means are limited. Assuming that in the ordinary course a body is cremated, the relatives as a rule fancy that it is incumbent on them to purchase a plot of ground in the cemetery where the ashes can be interred and a memorial-stone erected. Tbe rapidity with which the. great extent of .the. ICarori Cemetery is filling up lip pais those who only make infrequent to the municipal :: burial ground behind tlie hill, and already there a hint of the city acquiring mdfland. It is pointed out that .hundredkv pct'-. haps thousands, of people in Wellington' have relatives buried in, the old \Sydney, .Street; Cemeterys(how closed as far as n*ew graves are concerned), and he believes that in many cases people of advanced ideas will have deceased members of their family cremated, and the ashes interred in the plots of ground they or the.ir forbears have long ago paid for. Thus, if cremation did become a general practice in; the 1 disposal of our dead, a great deal less land would be needed for cemetery purposes. at present there is nothing to prevent a person burying the members of his family in the family grave in the old cemetery. There would be far less objection' to anyone depositing a tiny casket (six inches by tep inches) in an old grave. To look still "further ahead, it may be.that the graves of the future will be vaults, in which may be deposited tbe remains of members of a family praotically-for all time.