STATE MATCHMAKER

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 144, 19 June 1924, Page 9

STATE MATCHMAKER

THREE THOUSAND WEDDINGS^ REGISTRAR'S RECOLLECTIONS • TWO MEN-AND ONE WOMAN; (PEOa OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) SYDNEY,, 12th June.| During his .long. term as .Registrar for South' Australia' Mr. Garter has officiated at more. than three, thousand mar r nages, and he says that.for. various reasons civil, marriages are becoming more and more popular. He asserts that they attract people in : weil-to-do circumstances, for whom' the inexpensiveness of it cannot' tie the consideration. '•Sometimes they' have - conscientious ob- ' jections to the Church ritual, and sometimes they shrink from the fuss and flutter of a society wedding, preferring to be married quietly in my little sanctum, ' Mr. Carter remarks. "This was the case, for instance, with the heir to an English' earldom, whom I married to-the daughter of an engineer." "'" So wide an experience'as State matchmaker has supplied Mr. Carter with a rich fund of anecdotes, which gain by his admirable powers as a raconteur. ■Ma-mage, in Mr. Carter's experience,' is often somewhat lightly entered into.- On one occasion a young, woman!'whom he jjad married ,to a farmer, a fortnight before, came to the- Registrar's office -nd asked if the marriage could be cancelled. When pressed for a reason, f, ! h-,1 ld, say was: "I don't like the fellow. Mr. Carter sought to argue i.ier into a more amiable frame of mind, explaining that true "love never did run smooth, and suggesting that there must nave been .many such quarrels during their courtship, but the lady cut him short, informing him that she had only known her husband .for a week, before tne marriage. " Early one morning I found,1' says Mr. Carter, " three visitors-in my office —two' men and a woman. One of the f l6] 1 f** 3*^ t0 explain that the woman I)ad been- his housekeeper, but that his neighbour, a newcomer to the district, had made eyes at.her,. and thatshe had promptly succumbed; to' the glamour of his glances. I was asked to decide the extraordinary question:; .'To whom did the woman belong?" ■• : As the rival claimants could not agree, and as the woman herself seemed unable t 0 make >up her mind, this curious trio had decided to appeal to^me as-umpire. I explained that. I was not a judicial functionary, but that if they would accept my advice-1 would try" and- help . them. 1 cited the case of the rival mothers in the Scriptures,- and quoted the judgment of Solomon .thereon; but, finding that neither party would be content with half a housekeeper, I induced- them to agree to let the woman make her own choice. She promptly selected the wooer with the pleading eyes, arid the other went sadly away."

THE TRAGIC SIDE. Mr. Carter's experiences have not all been amusing. He has had many a glimpse of the tragic side of 'life. He tells a sensational story regarding the marriage of.a couple from the goldfields. During the" proceedings the bride, with a strained look on her face, whispered to him that she would never live with her husband; she would explain' later, she said. The woman, who struck him ar highly strung and strong willed/-sub-sequently told Mr. Carter that she had known her husband since his boyhood and had married him to fulfil a promise made long ago.. Before her marriage, however, she discovered that, her fiance, while'on a visit to the Eastern States, had become entangled with a cousin of hers. Some months.later Mr. Carter received an. urgent message from the bride, asking him to call and see her at a certain address. He complied with the request, and the lady, coming to him with a baby in her arms, asked him to register her child. There was no reason to suspect anything • amiss, and the baby's birth was registered accordingly. A few weeks later its death was notified, and then the episode faded from Mr. Carter's mind. One day, howfver, he was startled to read'in a'newspaper that the woman had been arresttd on a charge of bigamy. His newlyawakened interest in her fortunes was not allowed to flag.' Her two husbands called at the Registrar's office together and warned him that the woman, who was ■at large, on bail, seemed .to bo nourishing homicidal intentions, and that he might be the victim. Somewhat astonished, ■he assured • them that he was not at all nervous, as she could have no possible grievance against him. Nevertheless,-when he was subpoenaed to attend the trial, he informed the detectives in the case that it-would be as well to search the lady before proceedings began. The detective then showed him a telegram from the Boulder police tnat she had purchased a revolver, ammunition, and a box of cyanide tabloids. When the Court was assembled the accused was taken into an adjoining room to be searched. There were sounds if a struggle' and a fall, the. door was opened, and the Court' was staggered by the announcement that the woman was dead. A revolver, loaded in six chambers, had been found on her person, but the cause of her death waa cjanide, .self-administered. ,". "'",", ." •-■ '' This startling finale," said .Mr Carter, "told me all.- I understood why the sacrifice had been made, and saw that the baby which I had been misled into registering as hers was really her cousin's, and that the purpose of the revolver had been to avenge her cousin's wrong.,., : Had -she. V not. • - beea searched the Court would have been the scene of a double tragedy. In my opinion' that precaution had saved the life ol the man to whom I had married her. . :...