MARRIAGE CURIOSITIES

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 22, 26 July 1920, Page 2

MARRIAGE CURIOSITIES

IN AUSTRALIAN STATISTICIAN'S

REPORT

(FROM OCR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

SYDNEY, 14th July.

The vital statistics in the annual report of the Commonwealth Statistician, on the face of them, do not seem inviting; but, as a matter of fact, they are full of human interest.

Take, for example, one of the facts set out. A husband of 83 is shown as wedded to a. woman of 24, and a child was born to this, marriage. Again, a wife of 63 and a husband of 41 had a child born to them in the first year of their married life. Six girls of 14 became mothers, the fathers in their cases rang ins in years from 21 to 40. . ■-•

I The ages of the father and mother of another youngster are given as 17 and 15 respectively?" find a girl of 16 and o youngman of 23 had twins born to them. A man and his wife, whose ages were respectively 54 and 48, were also the proud parents of.twins. New South Wales holds the record for twins, both nuptial and exnuptial, but to Victoria falls the honour !of providing tho greatest number of triplets. ■ » As to marriage, tho Statistician records that a bride of 83 was led to the altar by a man of 44, and man over 95 years of ago took as his bride a young woman whose age was given as 28. December, in in a proverbial sense, may not bo inconspicuous in marriage activities, but the statistics show that December, in Australia, is the -least popular „ marriage month. Dealing with the size of families, the Statistician records that in one case 23 children have been born to one marriage, and eight females and seven males survived.

A' remarkable case of "wedded bliss" is given. The records show that no less than ten couplei who died last year had lived together for more than seventy years. s