NEW ZEALAND MARRIAGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 92, 19 April 1928, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND MARRIAGES.

The chief attraction to United Kingdom girls who do, or desire to, emigrate to°this country is the possibility of early marriage. I have read that in Auckland there are five thousand more women than men, and ia Dunedin and Christchurch an excess of six thousand women in each. How is it, then, that Home girls are led to believe that, with us, marriage prospects are good? Is marriage really unpopular among New Zealanders? Rents have dropped, "time payment" hasoarte the formation of a simple home quite easv there is a free clinic for expectant mothers) and to any couple of modest desires the average wage is not so low as to involve disaster. Free treatment in sickness and confinement is available, and, finally, the married state is natural and therefore happier than any other. The "old man's darling" and the "young man's slave" can be equally happy on a foundation of affection and unselfishness and common sense. Why do so many young men remain unmarried? I am fearful'that it is because the voufig women are too unreserved. In England the churches are the unofficial matrimonial agencies, and this is better than for young people to "pick up" anybody in the street, or at a dance hall, or on the beach, because the best of either sex are not so found. There are about (or nearly) enough men to go round, taking the whole of the north inclusively, but girls have crowded into town and upset the balance (in more than one sense), and these girls, if captured by the men in the country, would—after a period in town —threaten to pine and die. The whole matter is very serious from a national and health point of view, and although the newly-estab-lished "marriage mart" of France "is too advanced for us, public opinion—the most powerful force in the world in worldly affairs —should guide the young women to a standard of conduct, making marriage a reward for thrift and patience and industry among men. A young friend of mine, recently married, saved sufficient money to start a home entirely free from debt, I think with the assistance of his future wife, and yet his wages have been small and his position purely subordinate. FATHER OF SONS.