Hidden death costs unveiled

Hidden costs for cremations at Maunu have been uncovered as the date for a crematorium revamp approaches.
Mourners can expect to pay more than $100 extra to use the chapel at Maunu crematorium once a new cremator is installed later this month.
The cost of using the chapel will be a flat rate of $270, without the previous option of having either a simple committal or a full service.
It has been publicly announced that the cost of being cremated will rise 32 per cent from $450 to $595. What was not mentioned was that the $40 medical referee's fee, formerly included, now stands alone, making the total cost $635.
People will also have to pay an extra $300 if they are more than half an hour late.
Morris & Morris general manager Gary Taylor said: "We are simply trying to deter people  from turning up late."
Cremations on Sundays or public holidays are more expensive.
It will cost $1310 to be cremated on such days and anyone who wants a service as well will have to fork out almost $1600.
Mr Taylor said the increase in costs was due to the $500,000 cost of the cremator, the rent for the building and staff pay.
  There would be six services held each weekday, from the current four, and three on a Saturday, which hadn't been available before, he said.
Auckland-based Maunu Crematorium Ltd, owned by the same people who own Whangarei's Morris & Morris Funerals, has been given the contract to run the crematorium by the Whangarei District Council.
Local resident Eunice Matthews asked if the Whangarei District Council would be able to stop the cost of the cremation services increasing now  the crematorium was privately owned.

Mrs Matthews' concern was that it was Whangarei's only crematorium and if people could not afford to use the facility, they would have to go  to Kerikeri or Auckland's North Shore.

 "I think residents needed to be informed and consulted before this decision was made."
Whangarei's District Council cemetery and conservation manager, Helen Cairns, said the council would have  input on any additional costs Maunu Crematorium Ltd put forward.
"We can't stop them increasing the prices, but we can have an input," she said.
The cremator will be out of action between  April 18 and the April 25 and the new one will be operating on April 26.