LOOSE LIVING

Hokitika Guardian, 14 May 1930, Page 5

LOOSE LIVING

A, SWEEPING jpfpjCTVIENT ( .

BY PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER)

(By Telfegrabh—Per Press Associatibfa.) If;

.;> •. ' f , ,• ■ WELLINGTON, May ill A sweeping indictment of loose "living by many women of to-day, p-as made by Rev. J. R. Blanchard Johns, Presbyterian church, yn/ pf . A-disinclination, to jear families (Aid the';.cocktail;jhabit lyere.iaipong. Hie charges levelled at them, • -; ~ . The' second Sunday in, May/ he (said, was observed, in many .places by the Christian Church as “Mother s Day”. . ' T For some, time lie had had a (fcjsp though he^tnteiisely" disliked* striking such a note, Jtlie' tih?e‘iiMd! it must|!be struck. •

About 80 of each year’s marriages ended in divorce before five years, pnd 160 before ten years, and about ;’9jso children were affectecL, Mtjre ;tnen ac|ipn on account of adultery, 110 on an average each year to 67- women. rj, •i‘£ futtlielr ’ma&ferfljf grave, was that there were 1300 illegitirijaite' births'every year. In addition 1r 00 children were born in wedlock, but before their time, making together just on one third of the children born every vear. Added to that, the birth rate had shrunk tremendously. The cocktail habit, he contended, had a sinister bearing on motherhood. In most cases it was pure swank, but was perilous.