A MARRIAGE BOOM.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 March 1919, Page 4

A MARRIAGE BOOM.

INTERESTING FIGURES FROM AUCKLAND.

Auckland, March 21

Notwithstanding the fact that so j many New Zealand soldiers are: bringing back English brides with ) them, there is at the present time an unmistakable boom in marriages in Auckland. The truth of this is proved by a glance at the marriage figures recorded at the Registrar’s office. Ever since the beginning of the war there was a steady decline, month by month, in the number of marriages, with a particularly noticeable drop in 1917 and 1918, when the effects of compulsory service were making themselves keenly felt in social as well as in dustrial life. There were 2xo marriages recorded in the Auckland district for the months of January and February of this year, as against 149 for the corresponding period of last year. The figures for January, since 1916, are interesting, showing 142 marriages lor that month, with a sudden drop to So in the followingyear, 79 in January of last year, and an encouraging leap to 10S in 1919 “ There is no doubt at all that many returning soldiers are marrying,” said the Registrar. “ The number of marriages I have solemnised here during the last few weeks has been greater than at any similar period since the .men have gone on active service.” Apart from the marriages of soldiers, some interesting unions have been solemnised by the Registrar lately. Two of these were the marriages of two Chinese maids—spinsters from Canton, who had crossed the sea to marry their be trot lied. The little Oriental brides : appeared in their native costumes— 1 trousers and embroidered silken < tunics, and very shy and embar- ( rassed they were during the performance of this strange ceremony. Among the least pleasant of the ceremonies which the Registrar is called upon to perform are marriages I of New Zealand girls with men of 1 enemy or alien birth. A few in- ; stances of marriage with Germans 1 and Austrians have occurred, de- 1 spite the revelations of the war, and t while these have not been frequent, c they have revealed the existence of ] a spirit utterly foreign to the senti- $ lneut of New Zealand’s great 111a- 1 1 jority of patriotic women."