EARLY MARRIAGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 114, 10 November 1943, Page 4

EARLY MARRIAGE

ADVOCATED BY CHURCHMAN

P.A. AUCKLAND, This Day. 1 A motion seeking to foster earlier marriage was rejected by the Anglican General Synod,, partly on grounds that the proposal was too vague and beyond the province of the Church. The subject was introduced by Archdeacon E. J. Rich, of Wellington, who moved: "That. Synod, believing that tendencies to late marriage and a falling birth-rate were harmful both morally and nationally urge church people to do all in tht\ir power to remove obstacles to early marriage."

The resolution dealt with something that was of vital concern not only to the Church but to the Dominion as a whole, said Archdeacon Rich. He referred to factors in the country's social life that were at present causing grave concern. The problem should be approached with sympathetic understanding of the difficulties facing young people today. The average age at which marriage took place in New Zealand had tended to rise in the past 50 yeai-s. reaching peaks after the last war and just before the present conflict. Correspondingly, the birth-rate had declined, while the death-rate had remained almost constant. In spite of a general increase in population, there were 17,000 fewer children in the primary schools than there were 15 years ago. • Bishop Chei'rington, of Waikato, said that while: the Church could legislate for its own members, he deplored overmuch interference with the population of the country generally. He also disapproved of excessive interference with the liberty of the subject. "Why should not people marry when they like?" he asked. "Some, want to have children and some do not. There is no law in the Gospel saVing Ihey mu^t have children." The Rev. C. W.- Chandler (Waikato) said that immorality and its attendant evils today were a 1 result of war and; could not be remedied by early marriage. , ' The motion w&s los^. '