EXCHANGE OF WIVES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19834, 25 June 1934, Page 10

EXCHANGE OF WIVES

HARMONY REPLACES DISCORD CONVENTIONS FLOUTED Chesterfield (England) is the town where wives are regularly bought, sold, and exchanged (says a special correspondent of the “Sunday Chronicle"). I went down there to discover the truth about these marriage shuffles. These are some of the things I discovered:— Two step-brothers, after ten years of married life, mutually agreed to exchange wives and families, and are now living happily. A husband, tiring of married life, “sold” his wife for a motor-cycle to a local clerk. Another man “sold” his wife for Is, and another for £l, but bought back his own wife for £2 a week later. When I visited the homes of the step-brothers who have exchanged wives—they live only thirty yards apart —I found the two men cutting and sawing logs while the womenfolk were hanging out their washing. One of the women, fresh-complexioned, pretty, and dark-haired, told me the story of their queer household. “We all get on very well together now that we have changed husbands. There is nothing wrong in what we have done,” she said. “Many wives round here say that they are going to do the same thing. They will . . . If they have the pluck. Happiness to marriage needs courage, and there are hundreds of married women who are ruining their chances of joy because they dare not break conventions." In these two homes there is now complete harmony. Both of the men spoke enthusiastically of the exchanges. “Since we live so close together.” one told me, “we do not miss our own children. They all go off to school together, and play to the woods during the day. They certainly do not grumble about the exchange.” I was introduced to the clear-eyed, dark-haired cluster of healthy, young children who ran shouting through the woods. Tanned the colour of brown berries, they ran about leading a natural healthy life. “I’m glad for their sakes that we’ve oil settled down happily,” said one of the mothers. "Mind you. It needed a lot of thinking out, and since it has succeeded there's no chance that we shall take our own husbands back.” Here is the story of another marriage shuffle that did not work out so easily. A young miner, after quarrelling with his wife, gathered several of his friends round him to discuss his marriage troubles. “My wife and I don’t get on well together,” he complained. “Anyone can buy her for £l.” "Right,” came the answer like a shot, and the deal was completed. The wife was taken away to a motorsar, .amid cheers and laughter. A week later, the bachelor-husband, tired of stogie life, bought her back for double the amount he had been paid! Another unhappy married man declared to a party of friends: “Who want’s to buy my wife for Is?” His offer was accepted. Both men seem pleased with their bargains—and the wife declares that she is happier with her new purchaser. “Bachelor life suits me,” said the man who exchanged his wife for a motor-cycle. “All three of us are happy. She lives not so far away and I have one boy and she has the other.” Pastor William Edward Sanderson, of the Chesterfield Church Mission, who lias worked in the town for over twenty years, told me of his experiences. “I have come across cases where men have exchanged wives,” he said. “In one village there were two modernminded people who arranged mutually that when they went out to any entertainments they would take one another’s wives.”