Plea For Establishment Of School Of Marriage

Chronicle (Levin), 3 June 1949, Page 3

Plea For Establishment Of School Of Marriage

♦ WELLINGTON, June 2. A proposal that a "School of Marriage" be set up in Wellington, both as a needed community service and also as a means of raising working revenue for the Family Guidance Council, ;was made by Mr. M. W. Fleisqhl at .ihe annual. meeting of the council. Mr. Fleischl, referring. ,to the : inability of men, and the difficulties of New. Zeaiand housewives, said Le thought training in. the small but important tasks such as napkin-changing, dish washing, and curtain hangi ug could well be given. He suggested that the Family Guidance Council cooperate with the National Council of Churches "and "'Ihe "Dunedin School of Home Science in establishing a school of hnrriage in every centre where trained students could give instructional talks. "There are a hundred things that could'. be taiigjit, said Mr. Fleischl. "I am sur6>theiv6 wqtild be an excellent attfe,ri(lauce ht a small fee and that such a! school would be The Rev. H. Squlres, diiy iVfism'^her, and retiring-.chairman . of the Family Guidance Council, expressed the opinion that the problem was not so much ns how to hang curtains as where to hang them. Sixty per cent. of people being married today had got nowhere to hang them. The majority of marriages went "on the rocks" because people were living in such terrible conditions. It was impossible to have children in one-room homes. "You can talk to them till you're black in the face, but it won't do any good, " he said. In replv to a remark by Mr. Fleischl that childless and broken marriages were not only peculiar to slum areas and that many people living in such conditions had large families, Mr. Squires said that he didn 't know whether such people should be congratulated. A motion proposed by the Rev. D. C. Spencer that the possibility of a school of marriage should be investigated was carried by the meeting.