The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-04-20
PLAN FOR A
CREMATORY
Company to Form This
Evening.
SITE ALREADY SECURED
George Castle and F. W. Lowrey are
The Promoters of a Brand
New Enterprise.

Honolulu Is to have a crematory. A
meeting is to be held tonight at the
Young Mems Christian Association to
form a stock company to build one.
George Castle and F. J. Lowrey are the
men chiefly interested In the matter
They have talked 1t over and deter
mined to put the project into action IL
they can secure cooperation. Accord
ingly they have issued a call for an in
vitation to to a number Of men to at
tend the meeting tonight to form the
company. They consider the question
of whether or not cremation Is q good
thing settled long ago In the affirma-
tive.
Both of these gentlemen said yester-
day afternoon that they were not go
ing into the matter as money-making
venture, but because they considered 1t
a good thing for the city. On the other
hand, It was neither philanthropy nor
charity. The intention was to charge
as low fee as possible for cremating
or incinerating bodies, pay expenses,
pay low interest on the stock, merely
enough so that the stockholders could
get some return for their money-per-
hAps 40 per cant .al-s4 -s..-sa - .ls-.
Mr.. Castle suggested perhaps even
less; and then to devote the surplus, IL
there was any, ito the good of the
Cause" that Is, improving the build
ings or putting up new and better
ones.
A site has already been chosen and
a thirty days option secured on 1t
from the Bishop Estate This ground
Is at the foot of Sheridan street, and
il will also be at the end of Queen
street when the latter Is finished. There
are two styles of furnaces which are
under consideration-one to cost about
81, 900, the other $500. The promo
ters Of the enterprise fully expect that
their patronage will be little at first,
and that they will have to wait long
time before the existing prejudice
against this mode of dealing with hu-
man bodies Is overcome.
/ The most intelligent people, Mr..
Lowrey thought, are apt to take up
with the idea sooner than others. 1t
may be regarded as settled that ere
nation Is the most sanitary method Of
disposing of the dead" he said, land
| II remains to see how far In time the
prejudice against 1t can be overcome
before one can even guess as to what
measure OF support from the public the
new crematory can secure. The Japan
ese In their own country cremate their
| dead to a considerable extent, and IL
the fee can be made as low as Is now
hoped-s30 or s35, with a possible re-
duction later to $25-the poor Japan
ese may reasonably be expected to pat
| ronize II. They can even bring their
| dead on hand-carts, In cases OF the
very poor, and save much expense.
The introduction of the crematory,
| which can be placed on the site men,
toned. far from any house, would OBJ
viate the necessity of seeking ceme-
terles several miles from town-that
Is, for those who chose to take ad-
lvantage of II.
| The Chinese, on the other hand, will
probably never patronize the crema-
tory In any numbers. They have a
rooted objection to this method OF dis
posing of the dead, and their educa-
ton to other ideas would be a very
long II not hopeless matter.
AS for the Portuguese, there Is an
ancient set of instructions from the
Pope In opposition to the principle of
cremation. II Is not known whether or
not this prohibition Is still In force;
II may have become dead letter dur
ing the intervening years. But at any