The Globe. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1874.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 151, 27 November 1874, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1874.

It is to be Hoped that those people »«IK are endeavouring to obtain a refbrm/'in the matter of conducting funerals will not relax their efforts until thcey have accomplished tlieir purpose. That the absolutely idiotic paraphernalia with which those whofullow the remains of a relation or friend to the. grave are now required to be decked will be discarded, sooner or later, there can be no doubt, and we trust- that*- the day of emancipation from the thralls of the undertaker, in this respect, may not be far off. Many of the best-known men of modern days,, notably among them England’s greatest novelist, Charles Dickens, have directions in tbeir wills as to the manner of their funerals. Not one

of them has ever requested that his in-

terment should be signalised by a ? 'display of feathers and plumes, but one and alldiave tried to impress upon their surviving friends the fact that they wished their bodies to be quietly and .simply placed in their last resting £lace. What benefit can arise from a gorgeous funcri’l ? .is one of those questions which iluijuue asks, and yet the majority of funerals are characterised by an expenditure which would never have been sanctioned by

the person whose memory it is supposed to honour. This is more parti cularly the case among the poorer classes; and it is not uncommon to hear it stated, as a creditable trait in a deceased person’s relatives, that they ** gave him a splendid funeral.” If a veryrrich person departs this life it is not so much a matter of moment, to those who come after him, whether his

funeral obsequies cost ten pounds or two hundred ; though, as a matter ot -'taste, lavish expenditure is no more to be desired in one instance than another. But let us lake the case, let ua say, ot a professional man, whose income,

though it may have been large during his lifetime, dies with him. In this case every pound expended oH the present absurd pageantry —considered by so many to be absolutely necessary at a funeral—is so much robbed, by custom and its upholders the undertakers, from the pockets of the widow and orphans now deprived of their breadwinner. As a rule, most persons are ignorant of the charges which are in vogue amongst the undertakers, and in many instances relatives have been absolutely stunned at the frightful bills presented to them by these people, and usually presented, too, when the surviving relations are not in a position to object to the exorbitant items in the account. Anything which can be done by any association to lessen the present expensive system of burial, and which will have for its object the ridding of the persons attending the obsequies of those hideous adornments, plumes and scarves, will have our hearty support; and we trust that the inhabitants of Christchurch will soon follow the example that is now being set them by the residents of Adelaide,