MARRIAGE BROKERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 January 1917, Page 2

MARRIAGE BROKERS.

It h easier to be married in Scotland than in England. English visitor* to Scotland open their eyes in surprise when they read in newspapers an advertisement like this: "Marriages privately completed, including Court fees, 10s. Call or write. Particulars free." A new .profession is (leveloping, that of arranging swift marriages for. soldiers on leave, and certain firms find it worth their while to pay for daily announceuients' in newspapers . indicating their willingness to meet all legal requireme.nts on the cheapest terms. Before the war, marr.tigcs registered in the Sheriff Court of Edinburgh were about 000 or 050 a year. La3t year they were 1700. Soldiei.i on immediate orders for the front or soldiers and sailors on short leave account for this boom in the' marriage market. By Scottish law a marriage is fixed ana final if man and woman solemnly accept each other as man and wife in the presence, of two witnesses. The Sheriff's business is not to marry the parties, but to satisfy himself that the marriage ha s been contracted and to five his authority for its registration.' One or both of the parties must have resided in Scotland for twenty-omi days before the contract is completed Soldiers and sailors on short leave find this a convenient arrangement. Ti'o soldier may have been in the. trenches of Flanders until that morning, or the (jailor afloat in the North Sea; it h enough if liis promised wife has been on Scottish soi, for the requisite three weeks. Man and wife ge tegethor to the Sheriff's room, accompanied by the two witnesses who hear them accept each oth'r as spouses. They trfkei with them three documents —a declaration that tt.e parties have accepted each other as husband ana wife, an application to the Sheriff foi his certificate that the piut ; es are married, and his warrant for the registration of tlie arrangement, and the depositions of tjie two witnesses.. Court and registrar's fees amovju to lis.