Evils of Improvident Marriages

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 250, 21 October 1893, Page 3 (Supplement)

Evils of Improvident Marriages

In the course of the sitting of the Manchester City Coroner's Courb Mr Smelb % Depuby Coroner, commented on the frequent improvident marriages amongst he working classes, and their relation to poverty. Addressing the jury be 'said.a thab one case bhab had oome under his nobice whilst acting in his present capacity be should never forget, A lad bad got married to a girl and neither of them was H sixteen years of age. They were both . working, and their joint earnings amounted to 22b a week. o,n the woman becoming a mother she bad to give up working, and the family had to be kept on the earnings of the father, which were not more than 15s a week. Eight children were born and then the husband died. It was through the death of one of the children that the case was brought ynder his notice. At the time the mother was trying to keep toY family of eight on her earnings as a slippermaker, 9s per week, out of which she had to pay balf-a-erown a week for the rent of the room she and her children occupied. ■There was no bedding or furniture in bhe room, and the family had to sleep on planks, which had been placed on bricks. The only cooking utensil in tho place waa a tin pan. How was it possible, Mr Smelt asked, for children brought up like bhab to become respecbable members of eocieby ? The case he had referred bo was bypical of scores of obhers in which bhey could brace the poverty to early and improvident marriages. There was a lot of talk of providing homes for the poor, bu. if a stop was put to these mjy marriages there would n_ft be so many poor. The class of people he had r?ferr«*d to could nob pay for a decent hossue. and they had to* herd together packed iijfo) herrings in a barrel. Ib wrs, no doubt, a good thing to pronde dwellings for i>he working classes, but it would nob curfl the «vii, The very class that these dwellings wore inbendediojp * would nob bo able to bake"advantage of them, because the owner, rould j_ot allow overcrowding, and the people would not be able to pay for bho anMw olNtm^ikkn oagmVi.otkmgj, ■-.'*