THE PROBLEM OF DIVORCE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 83, 22 June 1945, Page 2

THE PROBLEM OF DIVORCE

The number of petitions for divorce in New Zealand has grown year by year at an alarming rateIn the. latest edition of the Official Year Book the number of petitions liled are given as 78."> in 19152 and 1177 in 1942 a (ifly per cent, increase. This is a serious development especially in view of the fact that of the 1177 petitions filed in 1942 638 were made on the basis of separation for not less- than three 3'ears. It is this means of "easy divorce" which makes the problem of divorces significant in our community, and makes the future insecure. The separation plea which formed the base of these petitions was without doubt in many cases merely a legal plea which covered a more serious breach of the marriage contract, and this makes the problem more acute, since it makes divorce "respectable."

The solidarity and the .harmony of our national life depends upon the. and anything which tends to break up home life should be regarded as an offence against the community and so treated. Every difficulty should be placed in the way of those who wish to break a solemn which has implications beyond those immediately concerned. A great deal of sentiment is wasted upon those people who are "unhappily married," There are very few problems, of married life which cannot be settled by the application of a little common sense } and by the exercise of the Christian virtue of forgiveness. If sentiment is to be expended it might well be spent on the unfortunate, children —1732 in 1942 —whose future and happiness were gravely affected by the divorce petitions of their parents. As all social workers know many of these children become problem children. j A great deal of very valuable work is being accomplished by ministers and social workers in conciliating husbands and wives who have | been and there is no ques- ; tion that without their unheralded but difficult and important service the incidence of divorce would be much greater than it is. There is room for even more service in this direction. If it is the duty of the law to hinder the breaking of a marriage covenant, it is the duty of ministers and social workers to do their utmost to bring together those who have been parted by .misunderstandings or even by and. so to prevent greater tragedies to individuals and greater harm to the community. It is easy, to place a wrong emphasis on the incidence of divorce and to jump to the conclusion that the marriage bond is generally loosely held. Many such statements have been made from

time to time. The facts contradict the scaremongers. While it is true that the rate of petitions for divorce has increased very seriously, the fact remains that the marriage bond is held secure and in reverence by all but a very insignificant proportion of married people. Figures of the number of married people in New Zealand are not available to us but some comparison can be made by using the number of marriages consummated in any one year. Thus in 1940—the latest year lor which statistics are available—there were 17 -148 couples married and in the same year there were 1189 petitions lor divorce. These figures can form a fair basis for comparison and clearly show that the percentage of people who take their marriage vows seriously and who find happiness in married life is considerable. While we find satisfaction in the general solidarity of home life in New Zealand Ave must not fail to see the dangerous trend which the figures for divorce reveal. There is a real danger to the community in the divorce problem and an increase of fifty per cent, in ten years is too great to be passed over without serious consideration.