DIVORCE DECREE BY REGULATION

Chronicle (Levin), 29 November 1946, Page 7

DIVORCE DECREE BY REGULATION

-Press Association

By Telegraph-

ClLKiSTCii L'HOH, Nov. 2S. ' ' lii my view tlic (Juurt should uot be [tlaeed in Ihe positiou of making, under tliese regulations, a decree iu divoree which will purport to affcct the periuanent status of the partics, when the Court cannot know frqm the regulaaons thcmselvcs or from some statute whether the procoedings before it will be governed by regulations or not," commented the Hon. Mr. Jnstice fcjmith in a rescrved judgment on two petitions for divoree which- came before liim in the Suprcme (Jourt at Christchurch two wecks ago. The two suits were between Thomas Duggan Findlay, farmer, of Halswell, uud FJorence Vera Findlay, of Sandgate, England, and between Bernhard .James Mclvenzie Bagiey fcicott, school teacher, of Christchurch, and Patricia Diana Grace Seott, of London, England. In each case the liusbaud was the petitioner, desertiou by the wife being alleged. "lu each suit," said Mr.* Justice Wmith iu his judgment, "petitioner, a returned soldier, was married in England to an Eiiglish girl. At the time of tlie marriage petitioner was domieiled in New Zeaiand while the wife was, immediately before marriage, domieiled outside New Zeaiand. In these cases reg. 7 (2) (b) of the Matrimonial Causes War Marriages Emergency Regulations, 194(5, reduces the period of desertiou as a ground for divoree from three years to six months provid* ed that this ground shall not apply to any proceedings unless they were commenced not later than ■ five years after "the appointed day." By regulation 2 the appointed day is deiined to mean such a day as the Governor General may, by Order-in-Council, appoint. No such dav has yet been appointed and the question is whether, when desertion for six months has been established, a decree nrsi should be made although without the lixiug of the appointed day. It docs not appear from the regulations that cither suit will be within the regulations when the appointed day is iixed. Aecordingly I do not propose to make any decree under regulation 6 untii 'the appointed day' has been fixcd or untii thc regulations have bceu otlierwise rendored eilective. It would, of course, be niuch better if the rights of parties to wartime marriages wero rcgulated by statute »than by regulations under the Eniorgcncy Eegulations Act, 1939, whicli ctln be altered at any time."