MARRIAGE MARKET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20978, 15 September 1931, Page 11

MARRIAGE MARKET.

DECLINE IN VICTORIA; FEELING THE DEPRESSION. CUPID'S BAD YEAR. [from our own correspondent.] MELBOURNE, Sept. 3. When the bright business girl of 1920 declared, "No, indeed, I shall never marry and spoil my career," the man of the world smiled complacently. Cupid, he knew, was having the time of his young life. 11, was the boom year for marriages in Victoria, 14,898 being celebrated, or 9.85 per 1000 of the population. The settling down of men who had returned from the war had as much to do as the post-war economic boom with this satisfactory position from the spinster's point of view. To-day, however, the man of the world does not smile when the charming business girl rather bitterly declares her deeprooted aversion to the married state. It is too delicate and serious a matter for banter. He may tread on a tender corn. For marriages, because of the trade depression, are becoming fewer as the months go by. For most of the .engaged couples the golden ship is a long time making harbour. In the first quarter this year there were 2346 marriages in Victoria, as compared with 2837 for the opening quarter of last year. In the second quarter the number improved by 292, but was 685 below the corresponding period of 1930. Some of the clergy may soon lose the art of marrying people through lack of practice. For instance, Christ Church, St. Kilda, famous as a great s ' marriage centre, where the strains of "The Voice that Breathed o'er Eden," scarcely lost themselves in the roof before they were reawakened for another bridal couple, has (his year witnessed only nine marriages. Last year there were but 15. Prior to that the annual average was 100. Other churches report a similar shrinkage in celebrations. Hitherto the usual kind of marriage has been that between the man of 25 to 30 years of age and the -woman of 21 to 25. The- trade depression, by postponing homemaking, will have the effect of advancing these ages for a period. Victoria, of course, is not exceptional in the decreasing number of marriages. For the first quarter of this year the marriage rate in Australia was 5.79 per 1000 of mean population, as against 7.06 for the corresponding period of 1930.