ENGAGEMENTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 241, 31 December 1927, Page 17

ENGAGEMENTS

An engagement is announced between the Rev. W. G. Burgis, 8.A., M.C., vicar of Cheddleton, and Mrs. Harris, of Basford Hall, Leek, Staffs, widow of Mr. F. C. Harris, of China, and daughter of Mrs. Beans, of Riccarton, Christchurch, N.Z. The engagement is announced of Beatrice Bullow, of Queenswood School, Hastings, third daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Bullow, Surrey, England, to Thomas Shirley Bicknell, Kiritaki, Bannevirke, second son of the late Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Bicknell, of Willowbrook, Hawke’s Bay. Tile engagement is announced of Madeline Ruth, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Sadler, Standon Farm, Broadwood, to John Crellan, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Kelly, Sylvan Farm, Tutekehua, Hokianga. * • * The engagement is announced of Kathleen Brackenbury. only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. Kelly, of Sylvan Farm, Tutekehua, Hokianga, to Ralph Nevitt, eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. W. Sadler, Broadwood, Hokianga. <* • • The engagement is announced of Miss Zira May, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Howarth, of Morrinsville, to Ernest Alexander, son of Mr. and Mrs. T. A. Cooper, of Matamata, and formerly of Hamilton. The engagement is announced of Verona Zoe, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. Black, of 5 Linwood Avenue, Mount Albert, and Arthur Edwin, only son of Mr. and Mrs. G. Bews, of Park Crescent, Parnell.

LOVE AT ITS LAST GASP FLATTER IT BACK TO LIFE! The older I grow the more convinced L become that married love is jeopardised most of all because it is regarded as a sort of poor relation. Husbands and wives treat each other with an offhandedness they would never display toward the humblest of their guests. They take it for granted that they belong to each other “for keeps.*’ Bhe has a permanent breadwinner; he has a permanent housekeeper. That, alas,* is too often the relationship into which marriage drifts. The companionship that began on the heights of romance comes toppling down to the grey level of economics; of mutual vested interests, as it were, in the same cncern. Then comes a day when t£e husband, or the wife, or both, discover they can obtain a different sort of comradeship outside. If they are tired of each other they agree to go their own way without “going over the top’* and inviting public scandal. Not a pretty ending to a honeymoon fairy-tale. But if, as is more often the case, one or other of the parties to the marriage-contract cannot subscribe to this fifty-fifty arrangement, sheer tragedy supervenes. A tragedy, none the less, that could be so often averted if the still-loving partner determined to make a gallant fight for romance that is on the wane. If one cares sufficiently, that one can exercise a magic influence over the other. Not by a parade of griefs and resentments, but by the adoption of those tactics which are pursued by the stranger within the gates. He—or she —“gets away with it” mainly by the judicious use of one omnipotent weapon—flattery. Love at its last gasp can be flattered back to life. It has been done since first the world began. The breadwinner has but to be cajoled back to his former status as the hero of a real-life love-story; the housekeeper has but to hear the breadwinner praise her eyes instead of her pastry; and romance takes on a new lease of life-. But the rejuvenation process must not be delayed too long! The methods of rivals are insidious; the methods of the breadwinner and the housekeeper must be more skilful and more sure. Long knowledge of each other should suffice to give them the advantage. It is up to them to use it for the salvation of a happiness that too often is appreciated only when 11 iS lOSt - M.C.