“ONLY QUAKERS”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8341, 30 January 1913, Page 8

“ONLY QUAKERS”

CEMETERY SCANDAL DEAD DISTURBED AND THROWN ON RUBBISH HEAPS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright HOBART, January 29. In connection with the Quecnsborough Cemetery scandal, S. Luckman was fined £5 for removing a body from a grave. Decision was reserved in a second charge of a similar nature. In tho latter case George Young, a gravedigger, gave evidence that Luckman instructed him to remove two bodies, as they were “only Quakers.” Luckman repeatedly said, “They will know nothing, see nothing, hear nothing.” Witness cut through many bodies in order to make the graves deep enough. His wife helped him to carry the coffins, because Luckman would not assist. Inspector Wadsworth, of the Public Health Department, in his evidence, said he had seen a coffin bearing signs of having been burned. There were others on a rubbish heap. One grave was opened, and there were throe coffins therein instead of five.

A Hobart message published on January 15th stated that a revolting state ot affairs ha/d been revealed by the Quecnsborough cemetery gravedigger, who was dismissed. He made a statement to the Health Department and the press, in which he alleged that it had been the practice for a year past to remove coffins from graves in order to permit ot fresh burials. There was no room to replace the disinterred shells nor their contents, .the result being that they were piled on one another on rubbish heaps, and in some instances burnt. Dr Sprott, reporting to the Board of Health, said that ho had verified many of the gravedigger’s statements, more particularly regarding inability to replace coffins after a fresh burial. He had no hesitation in saying the method of disposing of the dead had filled him with horror and amazement. It was a real danger to the public health. Inspector Wadsworth, of the Public Health Department, reporting on the scandal, stated that ho examined rubbish heaps and the remains of fires in different parts of the cemetery, and found the remains of a child’s coffin, partly consumed by fire; also two bones. Ho found another small coffin in another heap. The gravedigger had informed him that the coffin had been removed by the chairman’s instructions four months ago in order to put in another body. In another heap was disclosed a large number of broken coffins.