MARRIAGE EPIDEMIC IN WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8014, 9 December 1904, Page 6

MARRIAGE EPIDEMIC IN WELLINGTON.

Tbe Wellington correspondent of a Christchurch paper says : —A marriage epidemic has been noticeable during the last quarter, and there is speculation as to the cause. Ono explanation is that it is a sure sign of the prosperity of tho country ; another that it proves tho opposite —no independent employment for girls, and they have had to look for husbands. However, whichever the cause, business has been brisk, and the fees prolific both to church and registrar. Shopkeepers say they are feeling the loss of many assistants at what is generally tho busiest season of the year, and a firm noted for its fascinating milliners complains that it hasn't been able to keep a good looking girl for any time lately, and talks about compelling its staff for the future to forswear matrimony for a settled period in order that it may know " where it are !" Tho experience of the match factory, whoro thoy arc supposed to manufacture lucifors, not matrimonial alliances, is said to have been distinctly unique. In" a period of three months no fewer than twenty-five girls have precipitately thrown up their billets and sought the altar. There is consequently a shortage of female labour in tho factory, which is a serious matter in a business where girl labour is chiefly employed, not so much because it is cheap, but because experience has shown that girls perform the work more dexterously than lads.