MARRIED BY REGISTRAR.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXV, Issue 18, 5 March 1909, Page 3

MARRIED BY REGISTRAR.

FUNCTIONS OF THE OFFICE. During the course of a conversation tvith a vv'elliugfcon 'i/ost' reporter the Wellington Registrar (Mr liodgkins) gave sumo indication or marriage business in the Registry Oiiice. Out of LU(U marriages last year 237 were celeorateu by tue Registrar, in i'.JU/ the proportion oi carriages in the Wellington district tbat belonged to the Registrar's oliico was 21.98 per cent, anu last year it was 22.14 per cent. The most marriages were solemnised by Presbyterian ministers. Ail that it costs to be married by the registrar is £2 ss. At a marriage in church the minister's fee ranges from £1 to £5, in addition to Registrar's fees, which, for persons resident in the district the requisite time, are £1 2s 6d. Additional expense is accounted for in choral services, tips, cabs with white horses and wedding favors and drivers in silk hats, besides the photographing of the party and the provision of a wedding breakfast on a large or small scale. It seems that many couples patronise the Registrar's office in order that they may apply their small savings to the' subsequent expenses of marriage. At the office a marriage can be fixed up in ten minutes. As far as Mr Hodgkins could see the intention of the parties that came to be married by him was not to avoid the religious obligations of matrimony but to avoid extravagance. He thought, however, that there was one advantage of the Registry Office that might commend itself to ladies—viz., the Registrar exacted no promise from the bride to "love, honor and obey." The Act does •not specify that a ring must be used. The Registrar's office in Wellington appears to nave come to be regarded as a general information bureau and the staff is kept busy all day and the Registrar himself is often oalled on to perform little duties outside of office hours k and oa Suadays aad holidays,