Notes and Comments.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 135, 30 November 1901, Page 2

Notes and Comments.

The marriages in New Zealand fot 1900 show an inmabriaobs crease on the number in for the previous year new zeaiand, of 899. The marriage rate in 1900 was 7.67 per 1000 of population, this being the highest since 1878, when it totalled 7.97* In the preceding year New Zealand’s rate of 7.28 was higher than that of any of the Australian colonies except that of Western Australia, the rate in that colony being 9.89. But high as our rate is compared with other colonies, most European countries are still higher. Germany heads the list with 8.5 marriages per 1000 of population, Belgium and Hungary coming close with 8.3 each* England and Wales being third with 8.2. Scotland’s rate is 7.6, whilst Ireland is very low down on the list with 5 per 1000. It is interesting to note that France, whose population is dwindling fast, has as high a marriage rate as Scotland and Denmark.

Of the marriages solemnised in 1900 in New Zealand, 529 G were between bachelors and spinsters, 184 between bachelors and widows, 287 between widowers and spinsters, and 93 between widowers and widows. Divorced men and women have been c’assified as bachelors or spinsters ; 21 divorced men and 32 divorced women were married during the year. Of ihe marriages in the year 1900,22.08 per cent were solemnised by ministers of tie Church of England, 20.38 per cent by •ministers of the Presbyterian Church, 13.23 by Wes.eyan and other Methodist Church ministers, 10.82 by Roman Catholic ministers, and 16.69 by Registrars, Tha number of persons married by the registrar has decreased slightly of late years. Of the men married in 1900, 31, or 5.29 per 1000, and of the women 30, or 5.12 per 1000, could not sign their names, and signed the register by marks. The illiteracy of tha people as measured by the proportion of persons who affix marks instead of signatures to the marriage register, has decreased greatly of late, having fallen since 1881 from 32.04 per 1000 among men to 5.29 per 1000, and from 57.98 per 1000 to 5.12 par 1000 among women. During 1900 tha proportion of illiterates was greatest among those married by the Registrar. Previously the proportion was greatest among Roman Catholics, but they now take second place. The figures for the chief churches are : Church of England, 301 per 1000 men and 5.27 per 1000 women; Pre.-byrerians, 2.59 men and 3.23 women ; Wesleyans, 3.88 men and 5.1 G women ;aud Roman Catholics, 9.46 men and 6.31 women.

Of the persons married in 1900, 08 bridegrooms and the 1016 brides were markyixg under 21 years of ■ age. age, six of the bridegrooms being between 13 and ID years of age. Of the brides, one was under 15 years of age, three were between 15 and 16, and thirty-one between 16 and 17* The proportion of men mamed is greatest at the ages of 25 to 30, and of women 21 to 25 years. The ages at which persons may contract binding marriages ate the same a? in England—l2 for females and 14 for males. Marriage may be con* traded at earlier ages than those stated, bus would be voidable at the diseretiou of , either of the parties upon reaching the age of 12 or 14, as the case may be, and without the necessity of proceedings in Ccurt. The average age of men married in this colony in 1900 was 29.91 years, and of the women 25,29 years. The average foe England was 28.41 for men and 26.15 for women. The proportion of bridegrooms under 21 is much greater in England than in New Zealand, but the proportion of brides under 21 is greater in the colony.