MARRIAGE CURIOSITIES

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160712, 27 July 1920, Page 7

MARRIAGE CURIOSITIES

AUSTRALIAN STATISTICIAN’S REPORT. The vital statistics in the annual report of the Commonwealth Statistician, on the face of them, do not seem inviting', but, as a matter of fact, they are full of human interest. Take, for example, one of the facta set out. A husband of 83 is shown as wedded to a woman of 24, and a child was born to this marriage. Again a wife of 53 and a husband of 41 had a child oom to them in the first year of their married life. Six girls of 14 became mothers, the fathers in their cases ranging in years from 21 to 40. The ages of the father and mother of another youngster are given as 17 and 15 respectively, and a girl of 16 and a young man of 23 had twins born to them. A man and his wife, whose ages were respectively 54 and 43, were also the proud parents of twins. New South Wales holds the record foe twins, both nuptial and ex-nupital, hut to Victoria falls the honour of providing the greatest number of triplets. As to marriage, the -Statistician records that a bride of 83 was led to the altar by a man of 44, and a man over 95 years of age took as his a young woman whose age was given as 28. December, in a proverbial sense, sir.v not be inconspicuous in marriage activities; butrihe statistics show that December, in \ustralia, is the least popular marriage month. Dealing with the size of families, the ; Statistician records that in one care 23 children have been born to one mar- , riage, and eight females and seven males survived. A remarkable case of “wedded bliss” is given. The records show that no fewer than ten couples who died last year had lived together for mote than seventy years. *