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 1965-66 with the 21-25 age group the most popular for wives and the 26-30 group most popular for husbands. Table XXIX gives the numbers of registered marriages by age and sex group during the five years 1962-63 to 1966-67.
147. The trend for girls to marry younger gained momentum with a rise of 2.96% to 4,562. The numbers of girls marrying under 21 have grown as follows:
% of all Marriages under the Ordinance
1961-62
1962-63
1963-64
1964-65
1965-66
1966-67
Number
1,676
14.18
1,868
16.70
2,488
19.59
2,733
21.68
3,511
22.60
4,562
25.56
148. Many of the older husbands and wives had already been married before by customary ceremonies. Such marriages are expressly authorized by Section 38(2) of the Ordinance, which provides that the parties to a customary marriage 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 Odinance. 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 in order to obtain an official marriage certificate that will be accepted every- where as evidence of the marriage. During 1966-67, 1,517 marriages took place between parties already married by customary ceremonies of one kind or another. 48 of these remarriages were performed at licensed places of worship, the remainder at the Registries. The total of 1,517, amounting to 8.64% of the marriages between parties of Chinese race, was 210 more than that for 1965-66.
149. Of the 17,846 marriages registered, 17,568 were between parties of Chinese race; 96 marriages were between non-Chinese grooms and Chinese brides, and 11 between Chinese grooms and non-Chinese
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