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16. It shall be the duty of the Custodian to see that these regulations are duly complied
with.
It may be mentioned that the body of a person who had died from any of the following
diseases; viz., diphtheria or membranous croup, erysipelas, puerperal fever, scarlet fever, small-pox,
typhoid fever, or typhus fever; or on which an inquest is to be held, would not be admitted to
the Chapel: provision for such cases is made at the Mortuary, in the Churchyard adjacent to
the Town Hall, Kensington High Street.
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." A Departmental Committee appointed to consider the
subject reported that the point they had considered of "prime importance," was, to "frame regulations
which, whilst 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.
DESTITUTION AND SICKNESS
There was a widespread apprehension in the autumn of 1904 that the coming winter would
witness a large accession to the numbers of the unemployed, which would entail a considerable
strain upon the resources of the Metropolitan Boards of Guardians. In view of this contingency,
the President of the Local Government Board—who had "received from many sources numerous
suggestions as to the measures which might be taken" in the circumstances; and "although he
was not himself disposed to take any pessimistic view of the situation"—had thought that "some
advantage might accrue if a Conference of Guardians were to take place at the Offices of the
Board, at which any practical proposals which the Guardians might wish to lay before him,
might be discussed and considered." Mr. Long therefore invited the several Boards to appoint
delegates to meet him on the 14th October. This matter was referred to in my tenth report, because,
in the event of the gloomy anticipations being realised, there certainly would have been a
considerable increase to the number of the sick in need of medical relief at the parochial infirmaries,
with consequent, and probably a great, strain on those establishments. Matters, happily,
did not turn out so badly as had been feared; partly by reason of the steps taken by individual
'Borough Councils to find work for the local unemployed, and partly by reason of the work
found for many others by the Joint Committee of Public Health and Poor Law authorities,
formed at the request of the President. Over fifty thousand pounds was subscribed by the public in
aid of the proceedings of the Committee, whose meetings were held at the Mansion House. In my
twelfth report I suggested two directions in which work might be found locally for a not inconsiderable
number of skilled and unskilled unemployed persons, viz., in the ventilation of the dead ends
of sewers (some 300 in number), and in the asphalte-paving of certain roads, to which references
are made at page 88.