Section IV.—Of the Grave-diggers.
(32.) The Church and Cemetery Commission appoints the sextons and their assistants, who are bound by oath to fulfil the regulations and necessary arrangements of the Commission.
(33.) The Church and Cemetery Commission appoints one of the sextons as chief, who must always live in the town, and to whom the Interment Commissioner must make known the event of a death, in order that it may be notified to the Church and Cemetery Inspector, who thereupon orders the preparation of a grave.
This chief sexton has a register, in which he enters all the notifications of interments that have been sent to him, and which, when asked for, he must lay before the Church and Cemetery Commission.
No grave can be prepared, unless the warrant for it has been signed by the Church and Cemetery Commission.
Every grave must be six feet deep, three feet and a-half wide, and seven feet long for an adult.
The measurement for children is regulated by the Church and Cemetery Inspector on each separate occasion. Between the graves in the ordinary course there must be an interval of one foot.
(34.) The whole of the sextons, in which is included their assistants, are under the inspection of the Church and Cemetery Inspector, who must keep them to their duty, and who is answerable for any misdemeanor, or offence or neglect of the sextons.
(35.) The sextons must always be respectably dressed in black during the interment, and those who go to the house of mourning must always appear in neat and clean attire, and must be studious at all times, whether engaged within or without the churchyard, to preserve a modest and proper behaviour. Drunkenness, neglect of duty, or abuse of their services, will be punished by the Church and Cemetery Commission, and on repetition of the offence the offender will be dismissed. The sextons are forbidden, on pain of dismissal, from making any alteration in any family vault, or grave, or in the ordinary graves, without especial orders. They shall, on the other hand, keep all the flowers, borders, and shrubs in the neatest order, and one of the sextons must be an excellent gardener, whose office it shall be to keep the plantations and borders in good condition.
Any assistant who has been guilty of any fault which has led to the dismissal of the sexton, shall not be able to be employed again as sexton.