YOUTH MARRIES AGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20426, 30 November 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

YOUTH MARRIES AGE.

WIVES OF SEVENTEEN.

HIGHEST DIVORCE RECORD.

A surprising feature of the RrjistrarGeneral's Statistical Review for 1928, issued uot Jong ago, is the large number of youths and men who married women much older than themselves.

Twenty-one women of thirty, for instance, married youths of twenty, and one woman of thirty married a youth of seventeen, while another woman of thirty-eight was wedded to a youngster of nineteen. Two women aged forty and forty-one respecively married youths aged twenty, and seventeen women between forty and fifty-one married men twenty-two years of age. Still more astonishing are the following age discrepancies:—

Wife. Husband 57 24 55 27 55 29 63 29 69 34

Women of seventy and upwards married men of thirty-five, thirty-seven, forty, forty-four, forty-eight, and fifty. Fifty-seven girls married at (he age of fifteen, 440 at the age of sixteen, and no fewer than 2499 at the age of seventeen.

The greatest number of -women—3o,o64 —were wedded at the age of twentythree.

The number of marriages solemnised in England and Wales during the year was 303.228..

The proportion of male to 1000 female births was 1044, a slight increase over the preceding two years. This proportion showed a great increase during tho war vears. and attained a maximum of 106' 'in 1919.

The number of decrees nisi made absolute during the year was 4018, or 828 in excess of that for the previous year. This total is the highest on record.