THE STATE OF AUSTRIA.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3577, 13 September 1920, Page 2

THE STATE OF AUSTRIA.

foreign invasion of BIG SPENDERS. I have mentioned the boom in maiciageg, notwithstanding the very lard times, writes the Vienna corresjondenc the “London Observer.” Chere is .such a large number '.aking dace very ciay that at the Catholic md Protestant churches and the synagogues the weddings last from early Doming until la c evening. But there s a simi.ar increase in the number f divorces, which have,, risen 75 per ent. compared with the years before he war, chiefly in consequence of the lany rash and inconsiderate manages contracted during the fatal years f (the war. The more modern laws f the republic have rendered it posible for divorced Catholics to marry gain, of which roght so far more than 0,000 persons have availed themseles, amongst whom figure peasants, j ourgeois, a Secretary of State, and member of the very religious Hapsurg dynasty. • Those latter marriages re, of course, civil ones, and the Catolic clergy, in conjunction with the hxistian Socialists, are up in arfms rain St this institution, which they alg,e, threatens the existence of the lurch. 4 ; j' ■ Vienna is just now flooded by wcaly foreign visitors, who are said to nount (to some 100,000. A large miniir of fugitive from Hungary, of mezants from the New States, Ital>, esteru Europe, and America stay re, and several thousand officers and ter military people from Italy, ■ance, as well as the members and iff of the Reparation Commission, e stationed at the capital. The oms of the hotels are ver\ expeu e, costing (nominally) from £2 to ) a day. For a short motor run to j environs as much as £IOO is paid, d it is estimated that the well-to- * foreigner spends an average of )00 a day. Naturally, the number dwelling-places and housing accomdation becomes scarcer from week week. Some places of Hapsburgs , 1 aristocrats who no longer live in mna have been claimed officially, ties of former noblemen i.ransforminto sanatoria, but it is a pity most aces are used as Government offithat a.te a burden for the whole mlation. He who witnessed the ; Derby cod'd hardly believe Vienna ie a starving* city. 25,000 visitors appeared, of whom about 2000 arrived by motor cars and pri--3 carriages. Ladies’ gorgeous ; ses in all colours of the rainbow sled the eye, contrasting scandady with the dreary, impoverished roundings of the “Prater” park, jre the races took place. On the ir hand', there is a deficit of one iar kronen (£640,000,000) in the te Budget. Of the .new Premium Loan, a favourable result of eh might have raised the value :he sadly depreciated krone, scarce>o million (nominally) were signed, arrangement proving an . utter are.