The Globe. FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1875.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 236, 12 March 1875, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1875.

The subject of funeral reform seems to have suddenly become one of very general interest. To some of our fellow colonists in South Australia is due the credit of having been the first in this part of the world to protest against the present absurd pageantry that custom has surrounded, death with. In Dunedin a start has been made, and a society formed, for the purpose of saving expense to the surviving members of the family of any member of it who may die. Cannot a similar society be formed in Christchurch ? We are perfectly certain that if a few of our prominent citizens would call a meeting for the purpose, they would find numbers of people who would be only too glad to free themselves from the tyranny of the custom, which at present compels them to submit to both discomfort and extortion on the death of any relative. One sentence from the Pall Mall Gazette comes home with peculiar force to many a family in Christchurch this year, "it would be " an interesting subject of enquiry to " ascertain how much money has been " wasted in this city alone, during the " late sickly season, upon ceremonials " and costumes, which could not pos- " sibly benefit the dead, and which, in " many instances, must have seriously " impoverished the living." Cannot every one living in this town remember many an instance of a funeral of some friend or acquaintance, in which money was literally squandered in the paraphernalia attending the funeral, though it may have been grudged for comforts or attendance to the person who was then beyond caring for any of these things? If the further remarks of the Pall Mall Gazette, relative to the wearing of mourning, which will be found in another column, are applicable in England, with how much greater force must they apply here, where our climate throughout the summer time is so much hotter on an average than it is in Great Britain ; and where the great majority of our citizens are compelled from their different avocations to be much more exposed to the changes of climate, these changes being so infinitely more sudden than is the case at home. "We regret that no action in the matter of funeral reform has yet been taken in Christchurch, and we call upon those who feel the urgent necessity of such reform, to be up and doing, and not to stand idle whilst our fellow colonists, both in Australia and the other provinces of New Zealand, are striving to free themselves from one of the greatest social tyrannies that all English speaking people suffer from. That the movement will ultimately be successful no one can doubt, and that this success may be accelerated by vigorous action being taken in a number of towns at the same time, we firmly believe. We hope that Christchurch will be one of these towns, and that its inhabitants will join in the movement, with a unaminity of purpose which will allow of no defeat at the hands of the undertakers, or of those who are so wedded to old customs that they shrink with horror at the thought of dispensing with the plumes and scarves which at present are the accessories of almost every funeral.