MARRIED IN HASTE

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9210, 2 December 1915, Page 4

MARRIED IN HASTE

■' ( ’ ;VIEN WHO SHIRKE& SERVICE?

SOME INTERESTING FIGURES FROM THE REGISTRAR. A first survey of the vital statistic! for the "Wellington district suggests very strongly that young men have boon marrying with the object of avoidmg tho special responsibility that waii imposes upon the single, able-bodied! •uan of military age. During the month;, of November 141 marriage licenses?’ were issued in tho Registrar’s office in , Wellington, as compared with 88 in the corresponding month of last year. Tho . number of licenses issued for tho eleven expired months of tho present year has oeen 1171, an increase of 202 on tho number for tho corresponding period of last year. The increase was specially marked during tho fortnight preceding the closing of tho National Register, which required every man to declare bis position with regard to marriage and dependents. A “New Zealand Times” reporter who made some inquiries on tho subject ■ yesterday gathered that the actual facts are not quite as bad as the figures would represent them to be. Tho num ber of marriages has been swelled b; some scores of soldiers, who have d< cided to enter into life contracts bi fore proceeding to tho front. Xho-nati ral inclination of the soldier to mal i sure of tho girl before leaving Ne Zealand has been strengthened by tl wording of the War Pensions Act. , wife can claim a pension if her husbai is killed or disabled. A girl who hj promised to marry a man on his i\ turn can make no claim on the State I the man of her heart is killed, and si 1 is not sure of getting a pension ifll returns disabled, and she marries She would be required to prove in tha case that there had been a “bindinl' contract” to marry before the soldie! went to tho front. Apart altogether from sentiment and the inspiration olspring, there are tangible reasons why’ the man who is going to the front should let the girl wait as his wife and not merely as his sweetheart. !

But when all allowance has been made - for the soldiers who marry, there remain other young men to bo accounted 1 for. The officials have no doubt at all, from their own observations and inquiries, that some of these men have married, or, at least, hastened their marriages, with the object of avoiding the urgent call to service that comes to the single'man. The marriage rate in Wellington nearly doubled itself during the period when tho national registration papers were in circulation, because certain men wanted to bo able to return themselves on their forms as “married” and not as “single.” When the registration period had expired, the figures fell back to normal. Most of the men who took part in this rush seem to have been quite young, and some of them were frank as well They were marrying because they did not want to go to the front.

DUNEDIN REGISTRAR REPORTS “NO RUSH.”

Press Association. DUNEDIN, December 1, For the eleven months of the present year, marriages show an increase of sixteen compared with 19X4. The registrar says there has been no rush on the part of young men seemingly eligible for active service to get married, and he is quite certain that tho evasion of military responsibilities by marriage is practically unknown here. There has been quite a number of lads in khaki who have got married before leaving for the front.