INDIGENT PERSONS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 391, 24 March 1937, Page 6

INDIGENT PERSONS

QUESTION OF BURIAL. Reported Altitude of Clergy. Press Association —Copyright. Wellington, March 23. The statement That “unless they are paid for it Wellington clergymen will refuii e to bury inipoverished persons who die in hospital” was reported at to-night’s meeting of the Wellington Hospital Board to have been made to the purchasing committee of the board by a member of the Wellington Provinci'al Funeral Directors’ Association.

The committee had reported to the board that a tender of £77 10s lor condpcting funerals of indigent patients had been received from the Funeral Directors’ Association. this amount representing an increase of 114 per cent, on the present contract. This the association vas not prepared to give and the question was. therefore, referred to the board lor decision.

After a full discussion the board referred the tender back to the undertakers with a view to securing a reduction.

Libel on “It is more than a gross exaggeration; it is a libel on the ministers' who belong to the association." said Rev. L. J. Boulton Smith, chairman of the Wellington Ministers' Association, when 'asked to comment on the statement. “I know a good many ministers and I am sure none of them would refuse to bury impoverished persons unless they Were paid, i have been called upon many times to bury indigent persons and I have always done so as readily as I would, for anyone else. That, I am sure, applies to all other ministers in the city." ’ Mr Smith said that in any case clergymen of most sects charged no fees "for burials. Occasionally the relatives did make, a contribution to the minister, but that would nof happen more than on one occasion.in twenty, and the- minister did not, expect it.