BROKEN ROMANCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20508, 8 March 1930, Page 3 (Supplement)

BROKEN ROMANCES.

RECORD' YEAR IN LONDON.

Shattered romances in Britain plentifully sprinkled the year that has just passed. The figures of marriage licences obtained from registrars of marriages, paid for and never used, tell the story. There were nearly 3000 of these in 1929 a record. , A West End registrar, with over 50 years experience, told a Sunday Dispatch representative that the proverbial fickleness of brides is no longer the prime cause •of cancelled weddings. "In my own office," he said,' over 75 per cent. Of the cancellations have come from bridegrooms." . The acid test comes when the man or girl gets home with the licence. The registrar continued; ." In many casee the bride changes her mind after! discussion with her fiance of ways and means. She finds that he is not in a position to keep her in comfort. " Sometimes the couple have not been ahle to reach an agreement as to where the honeymoon should be spent. " Less than 5 per cent, of the cancel-lations-are due •to deaths. A frequent excuse is that after a heart-to-heart talk >vith the licence on the table in front of them the couple discover an incompatibility of temperament—and refrain from marrying; "In several instances the prospective bride and bridegroom haye not been aware of each other's ages until the licence has been obtained. Only last week a girl called off her marriage because the man was seven years older than she thought he was. And this week a man cancelled his licence because, the woman turned out to.baa-widows-