HUSBANDS FOR ALL

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3269, 7 March 1931, Page 6

HUSBANDS FOR ALL

By the time the young British school girls of to-day are of marriageable age there are like y to be husbands for all who want them —provided, of course, another war does not occur. The last one cost Great Britain the lives of 812,317 men. At all events it is certain that better times are coming for women who wish to marry (says the London News Chronicle). Six years ago " surplus " women numbered 1,900,000; to-day it is estimated in a Board of Trade Blue Book that that figure has been reduced by 400,000. Within the next two or three decades that excess of women over men, so far as those below 45 years of age are concerned, will probably disappear altogether. Scientific and statistical evidence indicates that. Two possible causes of the diminution in excess women are (1) the saving of infant life, which has reduced the loss of males relative to females. It is well known that more boys are born than girls, but that the greater difficulty of rearing boys has formerly caused them to die in far greater numbers. This point will be clear when we have the census figures for young boys and girls. (2) Reduction in emigration, which was one of the main reasons for ' the deficiency of males of early midde age. Another expert thinks that women's marriage problem will persist longer than it would otherwise because of men desiring to marry women younger than themselves.