MARRYING ON LITTLE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVI, Issue LVI, 27 October 1908, Page 7

MARRYING ON LITTLE.

With rents and other necessities of married life what they are, young men in this part of the world would think it rather a joke if it were gravely suggested to them that they should marry on 255., 305., or 355. a week. Yet if a "Silly Season" correspondence in the Daily Press is* to be trusted, young men in "genteel" occupations are doing it in London to-day, living happily, and saving a little money. We read of a man who brings up a wife and child on 265. a week, and puts away £5 a year, of a married man with 333. a week, who maintains that he lives well, and can afford a fortnight's holiday with his wife every year, and of a man who brings up six children on £2 a week after paying 12s. 6d. per week for rent. Details of these balancp-sheets^would be interesting. The Daily Express~is-de-lighted to learn that "so many people find the married state not only supportable, but even ideal, on salaries which leave not the slightest of margins for the frivolities of life," and declares the consensus of opinion to be that "marriage on small pay is not only possible, but also advantageous if only the young people are united in their, aims and compatable in their temperaments." There is as much virtue in that "if." 1 The wholesale discussion arose out of an article describing the dismissal of of a bank clerk for marrying before he reached the minimum salary — £150 a yoar in most establishments. Out of the question whether banks were justified in doing this arose a discussion on the relative value of the work of married and unmarried men. Some business houses seem to think that a young man married- is a young man marred. One large ' establishment is said to greatly prefer single to married men as employees. "The single men are keener and more alert," a member of the firm is reported to have said. "They show more ambition to get on in the business. The married men on the other hand come to me with pitiful tales of dootora' bills and increasing home exepenses. Their responsibilities entirely unfit them for work. The fault is theirs ; they have married on a small salary, and because they are worried at home they expect an instant increase of salary." This man should have been asked if he had ever read "The Princess." • .r Thy voice is heard through rolling drums f . That beat to battle where he stands ; Thy face across his fancy comes, And give the battle to his hands : A moment, while the trumpets blow, He sees his brood about thy knee, The next, like fire he melts the foe, And strikes him dead for thine and thee.