MARRIAGE BOOM IN AUCKLAND

Taranaki Daily News, 25 March 1919, Page 6

MARRIAGE BOOM IN AUCKLAND

MARKED INCREASE IN WEDDINGS THIS YEAR Auckland, March 21. Notwithstanding the report that so many New Zealand soldiers are bringing back English brides with them, there is at the present time an unmistakable boom in marriages in Auckland. The truth of this is proven by a glance at the marriage figures recorded at the registrar's office. Ever since the beginning of the war there was a steady decline, month by month, in the number of marriages, with a particularly noticeable drop in 1917 and 1918, when the effects of compulsory service were making themselves keenly felt in social as well as in industrial life. There were 210 marriages recorded in the Auckland district for the months of January and February of this year, as against 149 for the similar period of" last year. The figures for January since 1916 are interesting, showing 142 marriages for that month, with a sudden drop to SO in the following year, 79 in January of last year, and an encouraging leap to 108 in 1919.

"There is no doubt at all that many returning soldiers are marrying," said the registrar. "The number of marriages I have solemnised here during the last few weeks has been greater than- at any similar period since the men have gone on service."

Apart from the marriages of soldiers, some interesting unions have been solemnised by the registrar lately. Two of these were marriages of twe Chinese maids, spinsters from Canton, who had crossed the seas to marry their bethrothed. The little Oriental brides appeared in native costume, trousers and embroidered silken tunics, and very shy and embarrassed they were during the performance of this strange ceremony. Among the least pleasant of the ceremonies which the registrar is called upon to perform are marriages of New Zealand girls with men of enemy or alien birth. A few instances of marriage with Germans and Austrians have occurred, despite the revelations of the war, and while these have not been frequent they have revealed a spirit utterly foreign to the sentiment of New Zealand's great majority of patriotic women.