“WE WONT MARRY FOR A YEAR”

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 97, 19 January 1924, Page 15

“WE WONT MARRY FOR A YEAR”

WHY IMMIGRANT GIRLS MAKE THIS PROMISE

Solemnly—or laughingly, according to temperament—4o girls who are aboard the steamer Athenic. which left Southampton for Ne wZealand promised that they would not become brides for at least 12 months, writes a London “Evening News” representative. The “no wedding for at least a year” clause has become a necessary part of the contract (says the “News ) because of the rush of suitors which these girls from the Mother country are attracting. About 50 per cent, of the 2500 {girls helped to New Zealand (with a free passage and £2 for pocket-money) during the last three years have already been married. A large number of the others are engaged. # Girls who were unnoticed in English districts —where there are “three women to every man” —have found themselves sought by rival swains m a country where the marriage problem still resolves itself into the question of finding wives and sweethearts for the “surplus men.” A girl who went out as a domestic servant to New Zealand three years ago called at the Dominion offices m the Strand recently to show the officials her baby. She hr.d married a wealthy settler, and was on a holiday trip to Europe, evidently very happy and with no lack of funds. One of the matrons who accompanies these conducted parries was met recently by another bride who was driving a motor-car, and took her to her husband’s house for a three weeks visit. e . , In many instances weddings, have arisen from a renewal of acquaintanceshins formed when “the Diggers” were in England during tho war. The assisted passages are reserved for women between 18 and 40 who have had two year,s’ experience in domestic service or have done similar work at home. “New Zealand’s need is servants, and the Government’s one complaint against our scheme,” said Miss Hanlon (who interviews the applicants at the Dominion offices), “is that they nre marrving so quickly it has been difficult to get a year’s work out of them. “I am not running a matrimonial agency, but when I select girls I have some regard to the fact that they mav not he domestic servants all their lives.”