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86
CHAPEL OF REST FOR THE DEAD.
With a view to correct the evil dealt with in the preceding paragraph, I recommended (No.
3 report, 29th March, 1902) the provision of a mortuary chapel at North Kensington. The grounds
for this recommendation were fully set out in the annual report for 1902, page 124. The Council,
upon the advice of the Public Health Committee, adopted the recommendation, and also my further
proposal to place the building at the south-east corner of Avondale Park adjacent to the park
keeper's residence. The building has now been completed, at a total cost of about £1,300. It
comprises a mortuary chapel, two waiting rooms for mourners, which are in course of being suitably
furnished, sanitary conveniences, etc. It only remains to hope that by the combined influence of
ministers of religion, medical men, district visitors, the poor-law and sanitary authorities, etc., the
people may be induced to avail themselves of the accommodation provided, for their benefit and for
the reverent care of the dead, and so put some limit to a state of things inimical to health, and,
from a social point of view, scandalous.
CREMATION.
In the report for 1902, reference was made to the passing of the Cremation Act, 1902,
described as " an Act for the burning of Human Remains, and to enable Burial Authorities to
establish Crematoria." The Act, the provisions of which were summarised in the preceding report,
came into operation 1st April, 1903. It imposes on the Secretary of State the duty of making
regulations, " prescribing in what cases, and under what conditions, the burning . . . may take
place . . . and the forms of the notices, certificates and declarations to be given or made before
any such burning is permitted to take place."
The Secretary of State appointed a Departmental Committee to consider the subject of
regulations, who, in their report, stated 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
Burial Authorities and others proposing to "run" a crematorium.
It is not to be expected that the practice of cremation will make rapid progress in this
conservative 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 combined districts. With respect to the Council's cemetery at Hanwell, I think it
doubtful whether a crematorium could be erected thereat, having regard to the restrictions imposed
by the Act. Closely adjacent to it 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, if there be available unconsecrated ground. 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 more economical procedure would be to erect a suitable building at one or other of
the cemeteries for their joint use.
WATER SUPPLY.
The Water Bill introduced into the House of Commons in the Session of 1902, became law,
and in conformity with its provisions a representative " Water Board " has been elected, which will
shortly take over the undertakings of the several waterworks companies. With respect to the
supply of the three companies (Chelsea, Grand Junction, and West Middlesex) which serve Kensington,
there has been no complaint on the score of quantity, but last year, and especially in the
latter part of it, the Public Analyst had occasion to make adverse reports as to the quality of the
water. The cause for complaint arose out of the bad condition of the river due to excessive rainfall
and consequent flooding of adjoining lands, whence large quantities of solid matter became
washed into the stream. The difficulty of filtration was thus greatly increased, especially in respect
to those companies unprovided with a sufficiency of subsidence reservoirs; the Grand Junction