The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1889. VICE IN OUR CITIES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2258, 19 October 1889, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1889. VICE IN OUR CITIES.

Considerable attention has recently been devoted to the revelations which have been made public as to the sooial vices of Auckland and Wellington, and it is, we think, a fair inference ihat Christchurch and Dunedin are no whit better, for like causes produce like results irrespective of locality. 01 these causes the keeping cf late hours by young people, the frequenting of doubtful places of amusement, and promiscuous association have all been pointed to as playing a part m bringing about a good deal of the immorality the existence of which is undeniable, but yet another cause has been very truthfully indicated by the " Now Zealand Herald'a contributor " Mercutio " m tho almost enforced i celibacy of many young men— enforced because ot the difficulty of finding helpful partners m life. Marriage with the average " girl of the period " is only possible when the husband is possessed of a large income, because otherwise it meeos an extravagant expenditure and a wasteful mismanagement of the household, which for clerks and others with small salaries or incomes spell ruin. In view of this state of affairs Mercutio gives a very effective lay sermon upon the text m Genesis, where woman is spoken of as " an help meet " for man. He says :— " God never meant that when a woman had to consider marriage she should decline because she would have to do the washing, or scrub the floor, or make or mend her husband's clothes, or if 6he were living m the country, that she should object to milking tho cows or feeding the pigs. Woman was meant to be a help for man, and not simply the cause of augmenting the difficulties of life. I don't want to rail et the sex. To a very great extent they have been misled, and they find it difficult to get out of the meshes of the net of fashion. . . . But society is knit together m a mysterious way. And probably it would not be too bold a task to trace a connection of cause and effect between the refined lady who will net undertake the smallest portion of the labor and the drudgery of life, and the terrible scenes indicated by Mr Munro, revealing a condition which literally and metaphorically is poisoning the life-blood of society. Let those women who associated themselves with Mrs Aldis see to this. When they go farther they meddle with what they know nothing about. But they might do incalculable good by teaching the younger women that it is their duty to be a 'help* to any husband, and not merely a burden. Unless a wife is bo it is no marriage*" There is a good deal of practical common-sense m these r°marks, and they indicate at least OQ3 way m which the temptation to vice ia our cities might be removed, by rendering marriages more easily possible and happy marriages more generally probable,