BRIBES FOR BRIDES

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 25 January 1918, Page 4

BRIBES FOR BRIDES

STRANGE INDQCEMENTS TO MARRY News comes from far-off Wyoming that the Mayor of one of its leading towns has offered a reward of £6 to every couple under the age of twenty-one who seek the matrimonial alter during his term of office. This tempting offer is put forward to encourage youthful marriages and incidentally increase the scanty population of that Southern State. A strange inducement to wed was displayed outside the office of a registrar of marriages in a small town in Manitoba:— "To the handsomest couple appearing before me for a marriage license during the next calendar year a suite of bedroom furniture will be presented with my sheerest regards. Partiality will not be shown to the rich or influential." It might be mentioned that the gentleman from whom this tempting offer emanated was responsible for the issuing of marriage licenses, and doubtless found the investment a profitable one. A similar case was that of a registrar of marriages in the North of England who a few years back offered a huge turkey, a plum pudding, and a dozen mince pies to the youngest couple who wedded during the festive season. The municipal authorities of a French town hit upon a curious inducement to tardy couples to seek the alter. They publicly announced that all persons who married within a certain period should be exempt from local taxes for the space of five years, and this announcement was evidently so alluring that an epidemic of marriages set in at once in the town in question.