The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1946 A SOCIAL EVIL

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 27, 20 September 1946, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1946 A SOCIAL EVIL

CONSIDERABLE concern has been expressed recently by judicial and religious leaders at the extraordinary increase in the number of divorce cases reaching the courts in British countries. In the House of Lords a short time ago, the Lord Chancellor confessed that the British courts were bogged down with service cases, and it might take fifteen years to dispose of all the accumulated petitions. It was, he said, “a tragic but symptomatic feature of the disturbance brought about by the war in the field of family relations.” There is no evidence in New .Zealand that divorce has created such congestion, but petitions dealt with by the courts have shown a significant rise of more than 100 per cent, in the last ten years. The proportion of divorce in this country was always considerably higher than it was in the United Kingdom because the dissolution of marriage had been made easier than in England, but so far the Supreme Court has not had difficulty in coping with the post-war petitions. That situation, however, does not give any grounds for complacency, because it is clear that family life is not what it was. Service divorces following protracted separation of married couples during a war are probably inevitable, but attention has been called to the fact that divorces of parties not directly affected by the war hdve also shown a steady rise. In Auckland recently Mr Justice Cornish drew attention to what he described as “the mood and temper of our people and the. decline in moral standards.” “The divorce statistics,” he said, “are appalling.” He estimated that there were approximately a thousand divorce cases a year in Auckland alone. In London Cardinal Griffin stated the con-sistently-expressed view of his Church when he argued that the divorce courts should be closed. The Archbishop of York attributed the growth of divorce to “widespread indifference to Christian faith and morals.” “Undoubtedly the saddest part of the whole business is the casual way in which people will make the most solemn promises in a marriage ceremony, and then treat them with the utmost indifference,” said Archbishop Averill in Auckland. These comments suggest a serious concern among religious leaders for the readiness of many people to break the ties of married life. It is a social evil to which the community cannot indefinitely remain indifferent. Undoubtedly the war has encouraged a letting down of moral standards. It would be less disturbing if it could be assumed that the present popularity of divorce was a temporary phase, but it is feared that it is a movement which has been developing and has only been accelerated by the war. Church and judicial leaders are wise in sounding a warning against the current trend, and in urging young couples to think again .before making an approach to the court for divorce.