194 
PARK AND CE/AETERY. 
Cemetery Law. 
TAXATION FROM WHICH GRAVEYARDS ARE NOT EXEMPT. 
The exemption from taxation authorized by art- 
icle 9, section i, of the Pennsylvania constitution 
of 1874, it has been held relates to taxes proper, 
or general public contributions levied and collected 
by the state, or by its authorized municipal agen- 
cies, for general go; ernment purposes, as distinguish- 
ed from peculiar forms of taxation, or special as- 
sessments imposed upon property, within limited 
areas, for the payment of local improvements there- 
in, by which the property assessed is specially 
benefited and enhanced in value to an amount at 
least equal to the assessment. As graveyards are 
in the same category with churches, in the exempt- 
ing clause of the constitution, the supreme court of 
Pennsylvania now holds the above conclusion which 
was reached in a church case applies to graveyards 
and they are not exempt from assessments for pav- 
ing streets in front of them. 
ISOARDS OF HEALTH TO CONTROL BURIALS. 
A law has been passed in New Hampshire which 
provides that boards of health in cities shall have 
charge of the granting of permits for the burial of 
the dead; and no interment, disinterment, or re- 
moval from the city of any dead body of any hu- 
man being, nor deposition thereof in any tomb or 
vault, shall be made without a permit from said 
board or their duly appointed agent, nor otherwise 
than in accordance with said permit. No such per- 
mit shall be issued until there has been delivered to 
the board a satisfactory written statement con- 
taining the facts required by section i of chap- 
ter 173 of the Public Statutes, together with the 
certificate of the attending physician as required 
by said chapter, or in absence thereof such other 
evidence as may be required by law. Upon the 
receipt of such statement and certificate the board 
shall forthwith countersign the same and transmit it 
to the city clerk for registration. 
MINNESOTA CEMETERY LEGISLATION. 
Considerable legislation was enacted at the last 
meeting of the legislature of Minnesota, looking to 
the improvement of the Cemetery laws of that state. 
Chief interest centers in No 142, which disposes 
of a cemetery lot in such cases as sometimes occur 
where a testator fails to mention his cemetery lot 
in his will and makes some charitable institution or 
outside party residuary legatee. It also saves 
trouble among the heirs. The following is an ex- 
tract from the law: 
“Upon the death of any such proprietor” said lot, unless 
otherwise disposed of by will, as hereinafter prescribed, shall de- 
scend as follows: i. To the surviving wife or husband of such de- 
cedent. 2. If there be no wife or husband surviving, then to 
the eldest son of such decedent then living. 3. If there be no 
living son, then to the eldest daughter of said decedent. 4. If 
there be no living daughter, then to the youngest brother of the 
decedent. 5. If there be no living brother, then to the youngest 
sister of the decedent. 6. If there be no surviving wife, husband, 
son, daughter, brother nor sister of the decedent, then such lot 
shall descend to the association maintaining such cemetery, in 
trust, for the uses of a burial lot for the decedent and such of 
his relatives as the trustees of said cemetery may deem proper. 
But said association, or, with its consent, any person to whom 
such lot shall descend, under the provisions hereof, may grant 
and convey the same to any one of decedents’ sons, daugbiers, 
brothers, sisters or grand-children, and such grantee shall there 
after be deemed the proprietor thereof. Any proprietor of a h ■ 
may dispose of the same by will to any one of his relatives who 
may survive him, or to such cemetery association, in trust, as 
aforesaid, but no such lot shall be effected by any testamentary 
device unless the same be specifically mentioned in the will. 
No interment shall be made in any such lot, except by written 
consent of the association, of the body of any person who was 
not, at the time of death, the proprietor thereof or a relative of 
such proprietor, either by blood or marriage.” 
Should it occur perhaps that a cemetery was be- 
ing conducted in such a manner as to create a nuis- 
ance, No. 372, of which the following is an ex- 
tract, provides that the city or village could exer- 
cise its police power to abate. Cemeteries are not 
taxable or assessable in Minnesota; 
“That all lands adjoining any incorporated village in this 
state used as a cemetery, or for burial purposes, or that shall 
hereafter be used for such purpose, shall be and are hereby made 
a part of and included in such incorporation.” 
No. 400 clears up some uncertainties in the old 
law on which it was doubtful whether the trustees 
would be authorized to use any of their funds to 
purchase additional ground under any circum- 
stances. 
Any cemetery association heretofore or hereafter organized 
under the provisions of the General Statutes of 1878 and any 
amendments thereof, which is or may be conducting a cemetery 
within the limits of any city in this state having a population of 
more than twenty-five thousand (25,000), may by a two thirds 
vote of its board of trustees use any portion of the general fund 
of such association for the purpose of purchasing or acquiring 
additional lands, not exceeding four hundred acres, for cemetery 
purposes or to establish a new cemetery outside and adjacent to 
or lying near the city in which such cemetery is located. 
After such new cemetery shall have been established not 
less than fifty per centum of the proceeds of the sale of the 
lands or lots therein shall be annually paid into the funds from 
which such purchase money was taken, until the full amount so 
taken therefrom shall be paid with interest thereon. 
The question of statuary in the parks of Chica- 
go appears to be about to be solved if promises and 
prospects are realized; but like other of our large 
cities, it is highly important that competent author- 
ity should be called in to decide upon the merits of 
any particular work as well as the site most appro- 
priate for it. Several important works of sculptural 
art should soon be ready for such official approba- 
tion, and it is to be expected that satisfactory 
results will obtain. 
