162. Table XXXI shows the ages or age groups of the husbands and wives married during the year as stated in the marriage certificates. This shows that 740 of the husbands and 5,327 of the wives were under 21 at the time of their marriage, and therefore required the consent of their parents or guardians or (in 129 cases) of the Registrar or the Direc- tor of Social Welfare as laid down in sections 14 and 15 of the Ordinance. The distribution of husbands and wives as between the various age groups followed more or less the same pattern as in previous years with the 20-24 age group most popular for wives and the 25-29 group most popular for husbands. In England and Wales the 20-24 age group is the most popular for both husbands and wives.
163. The percentage of girls marrying under 21 declined for the fifth year in succession during 1971-72 with about 18% of all brides in this category as compared with nearly 19% in the preceding year. The numbers of girls marrying under 21 during the past ten years were as follows:
% of all marriages under the Ordinance
1962-63
1963-64
1964-65
1965-66
1966-67
1967-68
1968-69
1969-70
1970-71 1971-72
...
...
4
Number
1,868
16.70
2,488
19.59
...
2,733
21.68
3,511
22.60
4,562
25.56
4,094
24.23
4,769
23.27
4,139
20.36
3,766
18.87
5,327
18.07
164.
Many of the older husbands and wives had already been married before by customary ceremonies. Such marriages are expressly author- ized by section 38 of the Ordinance, which provides that the parties to a customary marriage celebrated before 7th October 1971 may, if they so desire and provided they have not living any other undivorced spouse, contract with each other a marriage under the Ordinance, and that this shall not be deemed to prejudice the previous customary marriage. There are two reasons why people already married by a Chinese customary ceremony remarry under the Ordinance. Either they have become Christians and wish to be formally remarried in their Church for religious reasons; or more usually not having a marriage certificate that is acceptable to public authorities, local or foreign, they marry in a Registry
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