Spinsters On The Marriage Ideal

NZ Truth, Issue 1001, 31 January 1925, Page 1

Spinsters On The Marriage Ideal

One of the most extraordinary things m life is the remarkable knowledge concerning marriage of the. unmarried, and the superabundant wisdom concerning children of the childless. Anent this, there was a very interesting lecture on "Love, Courtship and Marriage delivered to the public at Auckland last week. The lecturer (judging by the newspaper reports) seemed to know whole hogsheads, about the matter. Mankind had gone about the business of love ignorantly and blindly. . Proximity, unrestrained desires and accidents of circumstances had been permitted to function where knowledge would have: led into a "heaven, of bliss." Boys and girls read of ' Borneo and Julifetr— and then plunged blindly i into a career of .courtship, with the idea that the physical.side of love was the only one^ to. be" considered. ' '„ ; ■■■■, ■■■-'■'' Seemed pretty right, only .for -the inference' that Romeo and Juliet were fleshy lovers, whereas one' had been led by old Shakie to imagine that they were a bit too spiritual and; abstemious m their love-making. ' Then one cast hjseyes back to the top of the column and .observed what had before escaped

notice, that the lecturer was a lady — - and a spinster. Another slap m the eye for the old axiom that experience teaches. One hereabouts reflects' also that most of the lecturers on how to bring up children, etc., sqems to be unmarried ladies or unmarried men, and one is reminded that certain books on love, sex, parenthood and the like, showing a rno.st/intimate knowledge, of the sexual relationship, were written by a single lady. That lady, a doctor of medicine, was only a month or two ago married to another doctor.

But another, remarkable fact about these people who know so much about, and talk and write.: "so much about, the way to manage babies 'is that they mostly refuse to take a course m practical training m the/very best school of all — the . school of . motherhood. They are so. busy giving advice to other people as to how to bring up the.ir babies that they haven't any time to have babies of their own..

I Yet, ' what . does it matter? Having babies is going so much out of fashion that • soon there won't be any babies to bring up. But there will still be plenty for the sex specialists to write about. More m fact 1