“SUBSIDISING” MARRIAGE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 10 November 1925, Page 7

“SUBSIDISING” MARRIAGE.

AN HUSH EXPERIMENT. A remarkable experiment in the direction of subsidising marriage and penalising bachelors is what some English editors call a new ruling of the Irish Free State Civil Service, with regard to the salaries of its clerical grades. The proposal is announced in a new scale of salaries sanctioned by the Minister of Finance, writes the Dublin correspondent of the London Westminster Gazette. He tells us that the rules are that annual -pay as women —£60 on entry, rising to £7O at 18, jmd thence by annual increases of £5 to £1.50. Tlx is informant adds: “Men, on marriage after the age of *25, will receive annual increments of £lO. up to £2OO, and will receive a lump sum payment on marriage equivalent to 12 months’ back pay. In addition allowances up to £6O will be payable in respect of each dependent child up to 16 years. The cost-of-living bonus will also be paid. Women retiring on marriage after not less than six years’ service, may receive a gratuity of not less than one month’s pensionable emoluments lor each year .of service up to a maximum of twelve months. lhe gratuity is regarded as in inducement to marriage, and when marriage between, two civil- servants takes place the man’s bonus and the woman’s gratuity av)U amount to a handsome sum. Editorially, the Westminster Gazette is impressed by the fact that women will lie compelled to resign their positions as soon as they marry, when 'they will receive a “dowry” from the State. Unmarried men are to, be paid on the same scale as women, but “as soon as they many their salaries are to increase.” This British newspaper then says: “Nothing could show' more clearly the wide difference between Irish and English life. Marriage in Ireland is still presumed to involve the creation of a family which in this country would be regarded as exceptionally large. The average children per family, in Ireland lias long been almost the highest in Europe, and the Irish Government, in this novel attempt at finding a cure for overpopulation, evidently counts upon the continuance of large families; while it hopes to raise the low aggregate birth-rate by encouraging young men to marry at* a much earlier' age than has been habitual for many years. . . . Most of Western Ireland has long been over-populated in relation to what such poor land can yield, and the lack of employment is even now producing widespread emigration. But* civil servants are ehieflv in the south and the east., where economic development is much more possible. Apart from its economic risks, this new subsidy to marriage is already being criticised on grounds of equity, but the most remarkable aspect, of the scheme is that it assumes that the birthrate can be increased by merely subsidising marriage. whereas other countries in which the marriage rate is much higher than in Ireland have found it necessary to offer various forms of subsidy to encourage parentage.”