A CIVIC MAUSOLEUM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 204, 23 May 1919, Page 6

A CIVIC MAUSOLEUM

TOWN-PLANNER'S NOVEL PROPOSAL. Ainong the papers read at yesterday's session of the Town-planning Conference was ono in which Mr. J. F. Munnings (architect to tho Government of Bihar nnd Oritsa) referred in passing to tho advantages of cremation over ordinary burial. Hβ so id that the disposal of the dead was a problem with which all were concerned. After a prolonged residence in India, whore one was brought into touch with other systems than ours, he could not help feeling that there was much to bn said for cremation. With the growth oT our cities, tho problem would require greater attention than ever, and greuter foresight in planning for the future. He had often been struck by tho enormous wealth and by tho enormous expenditure of skilled labour that cemeteries, with their monuments and tombstones, represented. Thoughts of a more beautiful system than tho present one were apt to arise. Tho most beautiful thing the writer of the paper had seen in hie travels was the Taj. Mahal at Agrn, a royal tomb erected by Shah .Tehan in memory of his wife. He felt sure that the nobility of its conception would appeal to all; and he was tempted to suggest that the adoption of cremation and the erection of a beautiful civic mausoleum fo tho memory of the dead would indeed bo worthy of consideration. Instead of the gloomy, depressing, and, he ventured to , say. insanitary burial places of, today, the people might have a noble and uplifting influence in their midst.