RECENT BOGUS BURIALS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 312, 9 January 1908, Page 4

RECENT BOGUS BURIALS.

I IS SIR lIKCTOK MACUoXALD STILL ALIVKr Thi> statements in the Drure case with rejani t-> llit* aile)!«l trick-burial of the liuli Duke of I'onland are not without paraibl, and there are several mysteries of the kind which have never been > l>-jr*-u up. At the time of the Japanese successes in toe late war it was verily believed by the natives ui our Ka stern Kmpire that (ifucral Kuroki, that marvellous Jap*commander, was no other than Sir Hetlor Macdonald. ler.anly there are a large number of people alive who have never believed that the gallant general really ii dead. In tai-l, there appeared in the "Times" a reward of £l,OlO offered to anybody who hid «een the dead body. There is al~> Ihr fart [hat the general wan onw | invited to go to Japan to train the I-laj>aro**i* army: he actinlly meptiuned the offer to lord Robert*. I (tn the other hand, there is assuredly . a va-t deal of myatery concerning I Ii- 1 ' prrwnality of Kuroki. The Japanese { have acknowledged that there is murh : fori ign Mood in him. while an American ' war«vrre*pondent stated that he was i a Lfjtchman. Still, in the Kastern hauart it was generally credited that he was " Hghtrng Mae, who had undergone a trick burial, and these rumours variably baffle* the Western mind. A:*o it has been stated that " Fighting Mae" has been seen alive in Paris, ; »nd that hw coffin really contained noth- ' ing but stones. The general's widow, bowetw. has emphatically denied the al- ' legation, and hai referred to many well i known persona who knew her husband and «« h'i fccdy. Mr. Tnwtbeck. the Westminster coroner. hai «'..ited that many mysterious build* tike pi are. and that doctor*' cerhave often lieen granted on ground* «hi h certainly were not just I--1 Halite. Am.rding to our present mpth- , i«V- tWe i« n» opem-ion over tho iert : ficate« i**ued bjr medical men. and there are many in»tawei in which pre" ' -are ha< been brought to bear on a • doctor by the wealiiiv and influential * 10 ' rominoa as might be thought, and it it sometime* true that, where a doctor has i m?«»aiup»sl a n-f, the certificate is not

THere are also many instances in whirh crime has ocoirml when certifies If* I'f death have lieen given without anv f.-rm of independent inquiry. It i» not'>r>-His that there are many ways, vhirh <-*•»•! 1* eperified here, by which a buJy can 1* buried without registerioz the death at all and without any

lag lbe death at all and without any j medical certificate being given. All the statement* just given are based I upon Mr. Troutbeok's experiences, and ! he hi- stated that in one case a doctor ; »anied to certify that a patient had | Jied «f heart dtea-e. When an esamin- j a(Mn of the body wan nude, it revealed i ihe rnaan with a dagger through her heart —a rather peculiar form of the vumpUint- The faet to be noted i* that, where wealth; and inflaenti.il fiail'ff are roncetned, there are sometime- «4th and means of suppressing lart- with regard to evidence of death. In the Drarr «■*•* it i" alleged that the late Duke of Portland a»umeil death with the objei-t of getting rid of his dual peixiojlity. and that, as T. Druce, he m. apparently buried in Highgate Cemetery; in other word*, that the fun*ral <« spurious. and that there wan no death at all. Burial* of this alleged togas character have often taken place in connection with i»uranee frauds. and many canes ' ni l*e given where a box of stone* ha* taken the place of a supposed dead man. Recently -«me remarkable frauds were J>r«ugh! to light >n connection with a □umlrr <>| ierv clever rogues. who iranl their living by defrauding ill •oranr* companies In Ihm iutaniK the person actually was liuried. though it wj* none the li—. a trick-burial. The leader of ibis organisation of criminal* »a» a medical man. Whenever he had a dying patient he brought i the raw before another memtier of the an insurance agent, who took the nutter in hand. Where possible. lie proposal an insurance with some company for an amount varying according to cir- * twnttancf*. The fraud wa« worked by a healthy, living person being pre-entrd to the ! regular medical man of the company. iM tour*, the medical advi«-r would pa" Ihe case, and the premium would lie paid ' in tfce naval war. When the death of the doctor's patient t>wk place there wa« no difficulty in the »ay of drawing thr money, which was •hared between the do-tor. the insurance agent. and, in some i-a«e-., the relatives , »f the deceased. In one instance a patient was inured with no fewer than half a do/en o»n panic-. and altogether

the.* rogues mu«t have lm»il the In surann* companies out of .CSn/IDO.