REGISTRY MARRIAGES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20704, 30 April 1929, Page 18

REGISTRY MARRIAGES.

INCREASE IN VICTORIA, AIORE THAN 1000 LAST YEAR. In 1913 only 290 marriages in Victoria were performed in registry offices. Last year (says the Argus) marriages in registry offices numbered 1013 of th-‘ 13,186 celebrated. Until recent years, registry offices were used almost exchisively for the marriage of persons of different religions and of divorced persons or others who did not desire the pi olicity of church ceremonies. The cost of church ceremonies is given as one reason for the increasing number of marriages in registry offices. Dresses motors, and entertaining, in days of costly living, make even the most modest church ceremony expensive. Another reason for the increasing number of registioffice marriages is that some brides prefer a private ceremony, objecting to the presence of any but their most intimate friends. Alarriage in a registry office is about the_ simplest legal process in the law system. Notice ■ has to be given three clear days before the ceremony. The ceremony consists merely of a declaration and two or three signatures, followed by a handshake from tho registrar. Nothing more unromantic could be imagined. One registrar endeavours to relieve the austerity of the ceremonv by decorating his office nth flowers and pot plants. Saturday is tho most popular day foi registry office marriages, for it permits a honeymoon in the week-end and a return to work on Alonday. Old superstitions persist. Few marriages are pevfonned on Fridays, and none on the thirteenth day of the month. Thoumi leap year comes but once in four, years every year as many women as men make application for marriage licences, Oue woman who applied for a license recently called on the registrar on tho day appointed for the ceremony and told him that there would be no wedding. Coupl-s not infrequently alter their minds in the three days that Imre to elapse between the giving of the notice and-the marriage. A man who had given notice called to apologise to the registrar. His (luneee had neglected him for another man at a dance the previous night, lie said, and now the marriage was “all off. t Registrars, however, do not permit levity, If there is an indication that the- parries regard tho marriage tie lightly they remind them that the civil contract is as solemn an undertaking as a ceremony in a church. They are seldom deceived by persons who pretend that they are beyond the age at which parents’ consent is necessary. If the registrar has any doubt he asks the applicant for a licence to declare his or her age on oath pointing out that if an incorrect a<m be given a charge of perjury may follow. effect"* 11 n h'” "* Ually haS a SJllutar -V A registrar of marriages is entrusted nith many-secrets, and l,e keeps them we!l. A couple in Alelbonrne have been married for many years, but they prefer live apart, yet meet as friends. Tho registrar who married thorn is the only pei son who knows their secret—the wit!.*uT °f ri their , i s dend--although they have long forgotten him.