MOCK MARRIAGES.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1217, 27 January 1886, Page 5

MOCK MARRIAGES.

I "When the comic opera, " H.M.S Pinafore " was afc the height of its popularity in the United States it was the fashion to give representations of it with church choirs in the churches. The latest of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas, " The Mikado," appears to have become just as popular, and to have been repeatedly represented in America, with the result that a curious religious discussion has arisen with regard to it, A Buffalo correspondent of the •' New Tork Tribune" writes : '■ There has been some stir in the religious portion o£ the community over the celebration of mock Japanese weddings in Riverside, Westminster and other churches. The craze began shortly after the " Mikado," had been Derformed here, and the results gave the ministers some uneasiness. The last church ceremony was at the Eiverside Methodist Church, the principal performers being John 0. Adams, a book keeper, and Miss Mary Scott, a school teacher, the handsomest couple in Black Eock. They do not consider themselves married. It would be embarrassing if the marriage should prove to be genuine, inasmuch as it is whispered that both parties have other attachments. A leading minister said to-day, " 1 have not seen the " Mikado," but if what I have been told is correct, Dr Smith has been indiscreet in allowing a representation of the opera in his church. The name of Yum Yum is vulgar and slangy, and even a comical wedding between such a character and the Lord High Executioner is distasteful to religious people. I am told that the ceremony there is even more binding and formal than at Eiverside. It is shocking, it is demoralising,, and in common wtih ] other Presbyterians I protest against such practices." The Eev. Patrick Cronin, editor of the " Catholic Union," who is closely in sympathy with Bishop Eyan, has written a letter in which he says " Mock marriages are dangerous games to play. The essence of marriage is the consent of the contracting parties, and when this consent is clearly manifested, usually by words, there is no longer any mock about it. The consenting parties are wedded.' "