MEN AND MARRIAGE.

New Zealand Tablet, 8 January 1914, Page 26

MEN AND MARRIAGE.

TO THE EDITOR.^ Sir, —Will you kindly allow a space in your valuable paper for a few words from a ‘ plain woman ’ on ‘Men and Marriage.’ I would like to tell ‘Be Fair’ that at one time 1 thought it was the other way about Catholic men preferred Protestant girls, but we may both be wrong. It may be that the girls are too highly accomplished for working men’s wives nowadays, and women of that sort do like men with some spirit and ambition, and so, I suppose, the only remedy would be to give our girls less education, or encourage the boys when young to push and try to get on. There is. no law preventing Catholic men from becoming 'Members of Parliament even. But, anyhow, Catholics are not socialists, so there is another remedy—they can associate with those of their own choice. And if I was a working man and intended to remain a working man I would not want a wife who painted on celluloid and satin, and played the harp ; I would choose a good domestic servant to become the mistress of my home.• I am, etc., ' Dulcinea del Toboso. Nelson. Sir,—lt is somewhat refreshing to find a correspondent, Be Fair,’ pleading on behalf of the men that it is not altogether their fault if the marriage rate among Catholics is low in this country. My experience of New Zealand homes is that most of the men and all of the women arc willing, even anxious, to be married, but many parents* through selfishness and neglect, heartlessly oppose the honorable marriage of their children. Farming people especially seem determined to make of their homes a place of imprisonment for life. They have a sort of L.I.P. (lease in perpetuity) on their children as well as on their lands. In a typical farmer’s home a mother told me her daughter was 38 years of age. ‘ Did you ever,’ I asked, try to get her a home ; did you ever so much as speak to your daughter about getting settled in life ’ ‘ Arrah, Father,’ she said, ‘she has time enough'’ She had once, about twenty years ago Such parents would do well to revise the Fourth Commandment. It is no one-sided law; parents have duties as well as children. Respect or honor is the everlasting due of parents, but obedience has a limit, and it must be relaxecl as time goes on. Young people of marriageable agewhich does not mean 25 or 30, but at least 5 or ten years younger —must be left free in their choice of a state of life, and much more so in their choice of partners. They are urged indeed to consult their parents, because parents are expected to act in their best interests, but they are not bound to obey when parents are utterly unreasonable, as many are in New, Zealand, assuming rights that God or man never gave them, detaining their children in their homes, instead of urging them and assisting them to found, good Catholic homes for themselves. Excuse me for my severity on the parents, but I mean to be severe.l am, ’ etc., ‘ .. vU : ~ A . .... Sacerdos.

A mysterious disease is doing much harm in many Nelson orchards. Tn some cases the leaves are completely stripped, arid the fruit when only partially developed falls off 1 This disease, it is estimated, will cost the province some thousands of pounds, Orchardists do not know whether it.Js a fungus disease, whether it is due to certain spraying, or to climatic conditions. 't f v