MARRIAGE REFORM.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 44, 17 February 1876, Page 4

MARRIAGE REFORM.

(JDuncdin Saturday Advertiser.)

A large number of influential ladies met the other evening in Dunedin for the purpose of taking into consideration the advisability of establishing a Marriage Reform Association. We have been requested not to make the names of those present public in the mean* time, but we trust to be in a position shortly to give our readers every information on the subject. The Chairwoman, in opening the proceedings, slated that the time had arrived when the sensible ladies of this city should take a determined stand against the tomfoolery, absurd pomp, and useless expenditure which now obtained on the occasion of a wedding. The Funeral Reform Association bad accomplished a vast amount of good by the action it had taken in exposing the absurdity of hearses, and mourners, and plumes, and palls; and if the ladies of this city were true to tbeir own interests, they would show their good sense by setting their faces against the cost and extravagance connected with the marriage ceremony. People could be united in wedlock by a clergyman without dressing themselves up like show-folk in gew-gaws and orange blossoms. She, the Chairwoman, for one, was determined to set her face againßt such nonsense, and trusted ber friends present would form a combination to put a stop to such stupidity. After a very animated and lively discussion, it was unanimously resolved : — " That the ladies present form themselves into a society to ba called the Marriage Reform Association, the object of which will be to counteract and oppose the useless pomp and senseless finery, and the absurd extravagance whicb at present disfigure the ceremony of marri-

age." A committee of five ladies was then formed for the purpose of framing rules for tbe guidance of tbe proposed association.