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127
CREMATION.
The Cremation Act, 1902, described as " an Act for the regulation of the burning of Human
Remains, and to enable Burial Authorities to establish Crematoria," received the Royal Assent in
July, and will come into operation April 1st, 1903. It empowers the burial authority—in this
Borough the Council—to provide and maintain a Crematorium—an expression defined to mean
' any building fitted with appliances for the purpose of burning human remains '—under regulations
to be made by the Secretary of State, ' prescribing in what cases and under what conditions the
burning . . . may take place . . . and prescribing the forms of the notices, certificates,
and declarations to be given or made before any such burning is permitted to take place.'
The main provisions of the Act are as follows :—
A crematorium may not be constructed within '200 yards of a dwelling house except with
the written consent of the owner, lessee, and occupier of such house, nor within 50 yards of a
public highway, nor on the consecrated part of a burial ground.
No remains may be burned until the plans and site of the crematorium shall have been
approved by the Local Government Board, and the crematorium shall have been certified by the ,
burial authority to the Secretary of State to be complete and properly equipped for the purpose.
A burial authority may accept a donation of land for the purpose of a crematorium, and a
donation of money or other property for enabling them to acquire or construct or maintain a
crematorium.
Penalties are prescribed for breach of the regulations, and for carrying out or procuring or
taking part in a cremation otherwise than in accordance with the regulations and the Act; and
also for the making of any false declaration or misrepresentation, and the signing of any false
certificate with a view to procuring the burning of any human remains—offences, which, in addition
to any penalty or liability an offender may otherwise incur, entail liability to imprisonment, with
or without hard labour, not exceeding two years.
Such fees will be payable for cremation as may be authorised by any table approved by the
Local Government Board.
Nothing in the Act is to interfere with the jurisdiction of any coroner, or authorise the
burial authority or any person to create or permit a nuisance.
The Secretary of State, being required by the Act to make regulations prescribing in what
cases and under what conditions cremation may take place, appointed a Departmental Committee
to consider the subject. The Committee reported that the point they had considered of 'prime
importance' was to ' frame regulations, which, while avoiding unnecessary restrictions such as
might discourage cremation, or involve unnecessary delay in the disposal of the body, would reduce
to a minimum the risk of cremation being used to destroy the evidence of murder by violence or
poison.' The regulations proposed are stringent enough, and, with the report, furnish interesting
reading to public bodies and others proposing to " run " a crematorium.
It is not to be expected that the practice of cremation will make rapid progress in this
country, and not probable therefore, that burial authorities will be in a hurry to avail themselves
of the powers conferred by the Act. When Metropolitan Borough Councils do take action, it is to
be desired that they should unite for the purpose of erecting crematoria for the common use of the
combined districts. With respect to the Council's cemetery at Hanwell, after inspection of the
site, I think it doubtful whether there is a suitable spot on which a crematorium could be
erected, having regard to the restrictions of the Act. Closely adjacent to it, however, there is a cemetery
under the jurisdiction of the Council of the City of Westminster, somewhat larger, and having a
considerable area of ground in which interments have not yet taken place. It should, I think,
be possible to erect at that cemetery a crematorium which would not infringe the provisions of law,
qua distance from houses and highways; but whether there is available unconsecrated ground
remains to be ascertained. Should the Council of the Royal Borough and the Council of the City
of Westminster think it desirable to make provision for cremations, obviously the most economical
procedure would be to erect a suitable building, at one or other of the cemeteries, for their joint use.
WATER SUPPLY,
The daily average quantity of water distributed to each house by the Companies supplying
the Borough was : Chelsea, 244 gallons ; West Middlesex, '205 ; Grand Junction, 214 ; the relative
quantities in 1901 having been 273, 210 and 240 gallons. Complaints were received on more than
one occasion with respect to the quality of the water supplied by one of the three companies who