MARRIAGE AND TRADE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11656, 11 June 1912, Page 3

MARRIAGE AND TRADE.

SYMPATHETIC FLUCTUATIONS. NEW ZEALAND'S EXPERIENCE. Cupid bends bis bow just as merrily when times arc good as when times are bad, and hearts are hit. but the trooping of victims to tlie altar or the registrar's office slackens when trade declines. "It is a well known fact that the mamage rate fluctuates with the changes in the prosperity of a country," remarks Dr MTLraith in "The Course .of Prices m New Zealand." After comparing the variations of the marriage rate in sympathy with the cost of living he says:— "From this it would appear that, if the inflation or depression is slightly prolonged, a rise in the marriage-rate lags a rear behind a rise, and a fall a year behind a fall, in the price-level. Apparently the spirits of a minority of these who" contemplate matrimony are as easily depressed as they are elated. The effects of the bursting of the land boom in 1879 and 1880 are vividly portrayed by the sharp fall in the marriage-rate: so, too, is the gloom and depression of the 'eighties.' Retrenchment schemes and 'soup-kitchen' policies do not induce a high- marriage-rate, according to the tale told by the index numbers for 1886-89. 13ut hope of marriage springs eternal m the human breast, and the rather abrupt rise in prices in 1389, 1890, and 1891 is attended bv a rise of the marriage-rate in 1890-1-2." When in 1895 the pii.-e-Jevel "touched its lowest, >o, too, ci.d the marriage-rate. From that iime_v,ne m;;i : riage -rate rises coincidently witii, bit much faster than, the price-le»-.:!. A long-continued period of prosperity feci is to • encourage enterprise: the ma'.najsme' becomes much mere sensitive, and responds mere immediately to rhsngss >i the price-level. A slightly abrupt n?e in prices—e.g.. in 1890, 1906, and 1907 —sends up the rate immediately; while n temporarily fall—e.g., in 1901, 1904, and 1903—causes* merely a retardation or cessation of the upward movement. "If we compare the index rnmoer of the marriage-rate with the ; ndex -i-ml-cis of-farm, and non-farm commodities, find that, on the whole, the fluctuations n\ the marriage-rate correspond more closely witii variations in the prices of farm products than with those in non-farm products. In a coimtrv the chief wealth of which lies in its cornfields and pastures, this must cf n«oejsitv be so." "Thus the marriage rate,' conclude the investigator, "appears a. most faithful barometer of commercial prosperity. It. indicates mere clearly than the pricelevel the decline or fall in the prospenty ofthe nation."