MARRIAGE DUTIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 112, 11 April 1929, Page 6

MARRIAGE DUTIES

prevalent lack of thought. INFLUENCE OF NIGHT LIFE. (By Telegraph —Special to Standard j AUCKLAND, April 10. Marriage is never a failure,, according to Major Annie Gordon, woman probation officer in the Auckland Metropolitan District, who has dealt with moi\men and women separated because of unhappiness after weddings than any other woman in Auckland. For 30 years Major Gordon has devoted her life to the task of endeavouring to re-conciliate not only discontented “newly-weds,” but also mothers and fathers who have parted because they believed that marriage had been a failure, v Major Gordon has helped hundreds of both sexes >to understand each other better and to look at life from the correct angle—a new and refreshing one. Night life influenced tlie habits of many young persons. Major Gordon knew of girls who danced from nine o’clock at night until three o’clock in the morning. Some people would ask if there was any harm in that, but when one knew that there were many smoking cigarettes and drinking eccktails and wines well after midnight, at the age of 15 and 17 years, one was perhaps justified in thinking, that all was not well. ■* 1 . “I know of young girls of lo years of age and women of 60 who dress alike and smoke and drink at the same parties,” said Major Gordon. “Ihey hive no idea of the sacredness of marriage or what duties and cares it entails. If happiness is to be found in it loti of them rush into it and take vows in a registry office and" never see the inside of a church from one year's end to the other. Their weddings are cold and mechanical and lack tire warmth and sanctity which helps them to discover pleasure in married life. “MARRIAGE NEVER A FAILURE.” “Marriage is never a failure. It is the people who marry who fail.” Once married life had been stamped as a failure, those people concerned never really cared much after. The Stipendiary Magistrate with whom she had laboured for years agreed with her that such people must be helped right' from the start and never allowed to think that they had failed. She had a store of anecdotes based on facts with, which she could illustrate her statements, and magistrates in Auckland who had heard pitiful tales from young and old married folk could bear her out., Not infrequently had she found , youths of 18 and 20 married to girls younger than they were, and who were unhappy and desiring " separation orders. One girl had gone to her a month or so after her wedding and said that she never would get on with her boy husband, and that she wanted to be free again. She told Major Gordon that four hours after the wedding she knew that she had blundered and made a mess of things. She had stood married life for about four weeks and was tired of it. ' i Cases such as this occupied a good deal of her time every day of the week. When people sail that there was little unhappiness in Auckland homes they did not know much -bout facts. . .