"TILL DEATH DO US PART.'"

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 200, 24 August 1929, Page 15

"TILL DEATH DO US PART.'"

SEVENTY DIVORCES

The wedding party had just left the church, when one of the spectators repeated to a friend the solemn vow just taken: "Till death do us part." He then added. "Seventy divorces granted one day at the Supreme Court this week does not seem to fit in well with the oath at the service."'

"No," replied his friend, "the service had better be amended to read, "Till Death or the Court do us part."

Some converse then followed as to the reasons for the large increase in the number of divorces of recent years. One speaker claimed it was due to the changed outlook on life of the modern girl, which had unfitted her to become a true home-maker. "Women are fond of change," he said. "You can tell that by the rage for new fashions in costumes. Now, men have not altered the style of dress suits for the last century. Just the same, women like a change of residence, while a man becomes attached to the same house. Mind you, I can understand a woman shut up in a house getting tired of the same view from her window, whereas the husband is only there at nights and over the week-end." "There is, however, another point of view that has to be considered, -, said the first speaker. "It is just possible that girls going out to work have altered their outlook. They may find looking after a house rather humdrum. You see, if a girl had a go6d job she would have more money to spend on herself than her husband was likely to be able to allow her if she married. Now, unless there are children, that might raise friction/'

"That is so,' , said the friend, '"but there is not much encouragement to rear big families when it is so hard to find employment for boys and girls leaving school". No wonder the birth rate is declining' under such circumstances. I saw a young married woman the other day who had a new motor car and a fur coat. When a friend remarked that she must have come into a fortune, her reply was, 'It's cheaper than rearing children, and not nearly so much trouble.'

"Yet in Biblical days, when a man's possessions were stated, his children came first as the most valuable, but now many people look upon the little ones as a fetter to their freedom. No doubt, it is much pleasanter running round in a motor car on Sunday than minding a baby, but you can' take it from me that a little one in the home helps to bind a couple together, and, what is more. rußs off some of the corners, as it calls for sacrifice from both mother and father."