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 the 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.
153. The trend for girls to marry younger, which declined in 1967-68 for the first time since 1961-62, regained momentum during the year under review, when more than a quarter of all brides were under 21. The numbers of girls marrying under 21 during the past eight years were as follows:
1961-62
1962-63
...
...
1963-64
1964-65
1965-66
1966-67
1967-68
1968-69
:
F.
...
Number
% of all Marriages under the Ordinance
1,676
14.18
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
25.96
154. 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 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 in order to obtain an official marriage certificate that will be accepted everywhere as evidence of the marriage. During 1968-69, 2,125 marriages took place between parties already married by customary ceremonies of one kind or another. 17 of these remarriages were performed at licensed places of worship, the remainder at the Registries. The total of 2,125, amount- ing to 10.56% of the marriages between parties of Chinese race, was 225 less than that for 1967-68, a decrease of about 9.57%. This is
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