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LETTERS TOTHEEDITOR

THE BEST AGE FOR WOMEN TO MARRY

Sir,—When in Auckland last week in connection with the Baby Saving Campaign, I was asked by the Joint Committee of the Plunket Society and their business advisers to speak on the above matter, and the very condensed report which appeared in the newspapers has led to my being questioned evory day since by people who suppose I stated that eighteen was' the ideal age for women to marry. What I' really did say was that it was better for marriage to take place between eighteen and twenty-five rather than delay to botween twenty-five and thirty—better for the homo, better for the mother, better for the children, and better for the race.

The putting off of marriage longer and longer during the last fifty years has not been based on fitness or physiological grounds, but on what.are called prudential or economic considerations. Naturally the French took the lead in this, and in the restriction of the family, because with them the virtue of les petites economies readily grow into a national vice. The anxiety of the parents to ensure as substantial a dowry as possible for the daughter was a first consideration; and, as among ourselves, there is a growing aspiration on the part of each successive generation to start housekeeping with most of ihe worldly advantages to which their parents attain only towards the close of life—from absoluteiy assured means, income, and social status, to motor-car, etc. Among many grounds of advantage given by people who have married early and had families beyond ihe modern average is the fact that, not having formed such definite and different ways and habits as -where marriage is delayed, a closer bond tends to grow up between husband and wife, the pair moulding ono another in character, ways, and ideals, and each becoming more to the other —moro like one another and more devoted to tho home and home life.

Tho same, of course, applies to the children in large families. They are easier to manage (indeed, manage one another), more unselfish, more devoted to the home, and less anxious to leave it and seek outside distractions.

One does not need to draw attention to the difficulties which, have to he faced by married couples nowadays; they are obvious enough, especially the difficulty and high cost of getting help in the home, particularly where there are young children or where children are expected. However, when everything pro and con has been taken into account tho balance of advantage and happiness is still a long way in favour of fairly early marriago in the great majority of cases.

I have not touched on the moral question, though it is one of the strongest arguments against the prevailing custom of late marriages.

The following passages from Letourneau's book on the "Evolution of Marriage" are significant:—

But the principal causes which influence matrimony are the greater or less facility of existence and the extreme importance attached to money. We can scarcely attribute to anything else but an excessive care

for money_ and a forethought pushed to timidity some very disquieting traits in our marriage andpirth rates in -France. I will merely re* call, by the way, tho continually

decreasing excess of our births, which, if not stopped by radical social reforms, can only end in our final decay. [Since this was written the births have fallen below tho deaths in France—she is on the downgrade.] The fear"! of marriage and the family is the particular feature of French matrimoniality. The desirable age for marriage, says A. Bertillon, is from twenty-two to twenty-five for men, and from nineteen to twenty for women. . . . At Paris, where the struggle for existence is severe, and whero tho care for money is predominant, late marriages abound. . . . Marriage's, are becoming more and more simple commercial transactions, from whence arises the worst and most shameful of selections-

selection by morfey.

Finally, the following are important points in favour of fairly early marriages and larger families:—

(1) Tho risks of childbirth are loss, for both mother and child. (2) The chances of v complete breast-feeding are greater. (3) On the average the children from the third onwards tend to be stronger; and fitter than the first or oven the second child, this being due partly, but not solely, to increasing knowledgo and skill as to rearing. I am, etc., F. TRTJBY KING.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19171208.2.32

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 64, 8 December 1917, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
736

LETTERS TOTHEEDITOR Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 64, 8 December 1917, Page 6

LETTERS TOTHEEDITOR Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 64, 8 December 1917, Page 6

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