A NEW CRISIS

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 23 February 1922, Page 5

A NEW CRISIS

CHANGED SOCIAL CONDITIONS

MARRIAGE TOO COSTLY

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIOHT

LONDON, Feb. 21

The Daily Chronicle's Berlin correspondent states social conditions have so changed that a serious marriage crisisTTSfs arisen. The hetter class professional and business men cannot afford to marry, with the result that women of the same class find no chance of marriage, as they have no opportunities of becoming acquainted with the younger men of the new middle class.

Many reformers suggest that official supervision of engagements is essential, especially as divorces increased from 10,494 in 1916 to 22,022 in 1919. The National Association, for War Widows was successful for a time in arranging many marriages, though the marriage bureau was originally intended to introduce war widows to invalided

soldiers. Dr Kuhn, director of the Dresden Hygienic Institute, proposes an extension of such bureaux, making good physique a consideration. Houses of confidence will also be established to enable young members of the middle class to meet at concerts, lectures and dances. Housing conditions are so bad that young married couples are imitating the peasants and settling down -with their parents.