THE BEST AGE FOR WOMEN TO MARRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1765, 15 December 1917, Page 1

THE BEST AGE FOR WOMEN TO MARRY.

When in Auckland recently in connection with the Baby Saving Campaign, Dr. Truby King was asked by the Joint, Committee of the Plunkef Society and their business advisers to speak on the above matter, and the very condensed report which appeared in the nawspapers has led to Dr. Truby King being questioned by people who suppose he stated that eighteen was the ideal age for women to marry. What the doctor did say was that it was better for marriage to take place between eighteen and twentyfive rather than delay to between twenty-five and thirty- —better for the home, 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 dr physiological grounds, but on what are called prudential or economic considerations. Naturally the French took the lead in this, and t in the restriction of the family, because with them the virtue of les I petiles economies readily grew 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 the worldly advantages to which their parents attain only towards the close of life —from absolutely assured means, income, and social status, to motorcar, etc. Among many grounds of advantage given by people who have married early and bad families beyond the modern average is the fact that, not having formed such definite and different ways and habits as where marriage is delayed, a closer bond "fends to grow up between husband and wife, the pair moulding one another in character, ways, and ideals, and each becoming more to the other —more like one another and more devoted to the home and home life. The 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 be 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 eon has been taken into account the balance of advantage and happiness is still a long way in favour of fairly early marriage in the great majority of cases. “I have not touched on the moral question,” continued Dr. Truby King, “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’ is 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 ohr marriage and birth rates in France. I will merely recall, by the way, the 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 the deaths in France —she is on the downgrade.] The fear of marriage and the family is the particular feature of French matriraoniality. 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 where the care for money is predominant, late marriages abound Marriages are becoming more and more simple commercial transactions, from whence arises the worst and most shameful of selections —selection by money.’ ” Finally, the following are important points in favour of fairly early marriages and larger families, concluded Dr. Truby King:— (1) The risks of childbirth are less, for both mother and child. i(2) The chances of 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 even the second child, this being due partly, but not solely, (o increasing knowledge and skill as to rearing.