SURPLUS WOMEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1921, Page 11

SURPLUS WOMEN.

IN SEARCH OF HUSBANDS. New Zealand as an after-war matrimonial market is one of the latest functions credited to this country by a section of the American press. In a November issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, which arrived by this week’s mail, there is an article, entitled “Around the World for Husbands,” dealing with the “startling emigrations of Europe’s surplus women, who are moving to regions where surplus men give new chances for romance.” The writer-leads up to a reference to New Zealand by dealing wi'th the “eternal problem” of bringing the “Right Two” together, and the situation brought about by a preponderance of women over men. “Where are you going, my pretty maid?’ “To find a husband, sir,” she said. The startling fact is, says the writer, that all of a sudden, as it were, it seems to be necessary for even the pretty maid sometimes to go round the world. She is doing it to-day... .Men got themselves killed in war and this added to the desperation of social observers who are concerned in preserving the balance of the world. Meanwhile, English girls (says the writer) have taken matters into their own hands. Instead of asking changed marriage laws, they have looked squarely at the fact that there are too many of them in England just now—and they are undertaking to readjust the groupings on their own account. They are going away to places where future husbands are. The ship Tainui, flying the British flag, is now on its way to New Zealand (arrived here in October) carrying 200 British girls, who will marry if they can find the right sort of husbands. It is “up to” New Zealand to prove that its surplus men are the right sort. Miss "Ruth Mace, one of the passenger emigrants said, when the ship stopped at Norfolk, Va., in September: “There are few marriageable men in England.” Miss Mace doesn’t think very much of the attitude of mind observable in the few marriageable men that are left. “Their minds have undergone such a change,” she says, “that a girl has to be very careful with whom she goes.” 'South Africa, too, is bidding for Europe’s surplus of marriageable young women. From Cape Colony comes the announcement that homes and good husbands await the first thirty thousand whose migrations lead them to that part of the globe. One thing is certain, the article concludes:—Europe’s surplus women are going forth to meet the surplus men of other parts of the globe. The most spectacular emigration history ever has seen is a result not only of a condition of distribution but a new sense of privilege on the part of the world’s women. Though women are more cautious in making alliances than ever they were, they still wish to play their part in life and to play amid fair conditions of choice—under’conditions which do not force them to take a “second best.”