FUNERAL COSTS
DEATH “BIG BUSINESS” Ever since the mythical Charon charged toll for ferrying corpses across the Styx, death has paid rich dividends. The grim, ghoulish machinery which creaks into action every time a heart stops beating has become Big Business, with a garish facade of polish, chromium plate and high-class lighting. Before the war, a middle-class funeral with an elm coffin, complete with nice brass handles, a hearse, one following car and a freehold grave cost around £3O in Great Britain. A -real bargain-hunter could get a rough job done for £3 (coffin 30s, discreetly disguised hand-cart, and a public grave).
Like the cost of living, the cost of dying his risen. In today’s burial budget £9 is about the rock-bottom price. Cheapest undertaker is the Co-op, which provides an elm coffin for between £ls and £25.
Private morticians keep quiet about their prices, say they carry with the social area, type of funeral and distance. Without the grave, an ordinary job runs about £25 to £3O.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BPB19470711.2.35
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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 52, 11 July 1947, Page 7
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168FUNERAL COSTS Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 52, 11 July 1947, Page 7
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