A MARRIAGE BOOM.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16478, 22 March 1919, Page 8

A MARRIAGE BOOM.

INTERESTING FIGURES FROM

AUCKLAND

(press association* telegram.) AUCKLAND, March 21

Notwithstanding tho fact that so many Now Zealand soldiers are bringing "back English brides with thorn, there is at tho present time an unmistakable boom in marriages in Auckland. Tho truth of this is proved by a glance at the marriage figures recorded at tho Registrar's oilice. Evor since the beginning of the war there was a steady decliuo, month by month, in the number of marriages, with a particularly noticeable drop 1:1 191' and 1918, when tho eifects of compulsory service wero making tliemsolvtvi keeiilv felt in social as well as industrial life. There were 210 marriages rocorded in the Auckland district for the months of January and February of this year, as against 140 for tho corresponding period of last year The figuros for January, since 1916, are interesting, showing 142 marriages for that month, with a sudden drop to 80 in tho following yoar, 79 in January of last vear, and an encouraging leap to 108 in 1910. "There is no doubt at all that many returning soldiers are marrying," said the Registrar. "Tho number of marriages I have solemnised horo during th(T last few weeks has been greater than at any similar period since the men havo gone on active service. Apart from the marriagos of soldiers, some interesting unions have boon solemnised by the Registrar lately. Two of these were the marriages of two Chinese maids —spinsters from Canton, who had crossed the 6ea to marry their betrotliod. The little Oriental brides appeared in their native costumes —trousers and embroidered silken tunics, and very shy and embarrassed they were during the performance of this strange ceremony.

Among the least pleasant of the coremonies which tho Registrar is called upon to perform are marriages of New Zealand girls with men of enemy or alien birth. A few instances of marriage with Germans and Austrians have occurred, despite tho revelations of tho "war, and while these have not hcen frequent, they have revealed the existence of a spirit utterly foreign to the sentiment of New ZenJnfad's great majority of patriotic women.