GROWTH OF CREMATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1136, 21 August 1913, Page 4

GROWTH OF CREMATION.

The popularity of cremation may be growing slowly, but it is growing steadily, to judge by the “Transactions” just issued by the Cremation Society of England, which state that 1,134 cremations took place in 1912, or in more than in the previous year. There are 13 crematoria iu the country, five of which are municipal, and the fees can be as low as £2 12s 6d, which represents the cheapest cremation to be had—namely, at Ilford. A plea of the Cremation Society for this mode of disposing of the body is that it removes the possibility of being buried alive. Men fear to be buried alive because no test of death, except the signs of putrefaction, has been discovered of such accuracy as to prevent the possibility of coma being mistaken for death ; and the idea of suffocation in a coffin is revolting to healthy-minded men and women. Cremation makes such a possibility impossible. Though it cannot' prevent coma from being mistaken for death, it first doubles the precautions taken by necessitating two certificates of death, and then provides —should there have been an error, which is most unlikely —a death so speedy as hardly to excite fear. The fact that such a quick death is a possibility deceives thoughtless persons into imagining that cremation would only confirm a tragic error —but when errors are really tragic it is best for the subject of them to have them confirmed as swittly and surely as possible.