A PATHETIC INCIDENT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 107, 27 April 1908, Page 4

A PATHETIC INCIDENT

lutein* indignation has been eXeiteif in Wellingborough as I lie result of tint deplorable iA-eiie at London ,road ceiiu* tery, when ti girl of 17, named Smith, who comuiitited suicide' lieeause she wad uiiUsed of .stealing is, w-.is ,refusel proper burial rites, and wias linally ill" Her red after a. innate without •'. surplice had read a ,prayA or two ami a IKirlioii of the Scripture. The colonel's juri. il. may be re-called, had found ;0 M'l-iliol of -Suicide," but that. lln-r--was 1 no evideucil to ,how I lie state 01' the girl's mind. This verdmi was l taken by tne curate (Rev. I!. Iliggins) as justifying his notion. In a statement to a representative of the local Kccning-Teh-graph, the rev. gentleman (who was openly critioiVrtl by the" crowd ui itfie gnivx'side) said lie di.V not conduct the. burial ,-ervice because' lie, like, :uiy other minister iu tin' Church of England, wtt.s not -allowed to uo-ording to,the kiw laid do'tvn. J/jok-> il".' at a prayer, kiok. lie puiuU'd oiu' tile first paragraph in t,he Order for 1 the liurial of r the Dead, -which is a-s> fo.llows:—"llcrei is to be noted UiaS the ollicW ensuing is not to U; used l for any that /die unbaptined, or ex-com-inunioated, or have laid violeim lutndi? ui»ou tlieiuselves." Several of the jury l men are veTy much distressed ,to tliank? tlittt ithe verdiob they came to kis beerf tJie eauso of so niuclh troitbji', and it) lias ken pointed out that such a ver l diet as theirs ihas ken /iiillicient foi' jnany other clergymen to conduct the full burial service in various plains: "The most pathetic ,part. of the affair," writes a corrostpondeii't to the Daily l Chronicle, "is that the 1 money of whicif she was accused of stealing was found, 01t«tr her death, at the bottom of akisket. The false aeeusatiun disturb-' ed her brain, and for this accident sin? waa di'uied an ordinary and Chris'tiai; 1 burial. If a elergyiuun is not allowed iby his Church to bury suicides, he breaks nitiny of its otlier laws when ill pleases Jiiui to do so."