BOOM IN MARRIAGES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20917, 6 January 1930, Page 3

BOOM IN MARRIAGES.

MANY BRIDEGROOMS OF 70. While there is still the natural eagerness to marry in the early twenties, there is also a steady increase in the numbers of women who take a husband between the ages of 30 and 45. This is revealed in the latest return from the Registrargeneral’s register of national marriage, now being compiled at Somerset House. The • boom in marrying continues, and the term is official. But this boom' is not considered a normal condition, but rather the readjustment of a situation brought about by the coal stoppage and general strike of 1926, when many young people postponed their weddings. A well-known registrar of marriages said recently that women are not necessarily choosing careers instead of marriage. “ They are postponing the romantic chapter till later in life, he said. We notice that the bride of. say, 38, nowadays looks almost as young as the girl of 25 did during the period of the fashion for Jong skirts and coiffeurs.” Since the war the bachelor has been more marriageable than he was before, but on the other hand the widow is harder to catch. There is a heavv decline in the rate of widows who re-marry. Another interesting fact is that the m an who has married once, almost invariably rc-marries. It is startling to find that no fewer than 1292 men over <0 were bridegrooms last year, and the majority wed spinsters. Nearly 400 old ladies of 70 and over "■ ere led to the altar during the year of the Registrar-generaTs last review.