Indian Marriage Reform.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 28 March 1891, Page 2

Indian Marriage Reform.

From Calcutta we learn that the Bill raising the age of consent in Native marriages has been passed. This indicates the great change that has been worked within the last few years. It was the custom to betroth mere infants, and the many inconveniences and miseries arising from such unions can easily be imagined. The subject has been one that has received a deal of attention in England, and Cardinal Manning has declared that the English Government should legislate so that no betrothal or marriage be valid except with the free and intelligent consent of the parties, and that parents should be, by penalty, prohibited from constraining their children without their free consent. Mrs Fawcett in the Contemporary Review traces the history of a Hindoo girl baby from her birth until the time she is married, and points out that the necessity of some amendment in the law is not based oil mere sentiment or theory, but on the existence of the gravest and most cruel injury to a defenceless section of the population. She asserts that the law if amended, would be in harmony with the practice of the most enlightened and the most numerous part of the population. The Times correspondent writes about these same infant marriages, and says the public conscience is " constantly affronted " by them. We may hope that the Act wiU be accepted pleasantly.