NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 127, 23 February 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Sitting on the bench at New Plymouth'on October 1, 1907, the late Mr. Justice Denniston said of an application for divorce: "All you have to do is to prove that the farce has been regularly gone through—that each side has regularly performed its share of the farce." Six weeks later, Sir Joseph Waiid introduced a Bill in the House of Representatives to repeal the provision in die divorce law to .which the Judge was referring— that, making non-compliance with an order for restitution of conjugal rights a ground of divorce without waiting the full term necessary to prove desertion. Judge Denniston's remarks were quotedas evidence of the need for the Bill, which was duly passed and became law. In speaking on the measure in the Legislative Council, Sir John Findlav said a very large proportion of the divorces in New Zealand in recent yca'rs—perhaps onc-third—had been obtained on the ground which it was proposed to remove. "It is quite clear," he added, "that the people of this country never meant that divorce should'be obtained by mutual consent." Twelve years have elapsed since Judge Denniston spoke, and Sir Bassett Edwards now tolls us that it was "an incautious remark," "a small thing to say," and "an idle joke." It is curious that this aspect of the matter never previously occurred to anyone. . Even the Taranaki Daily News reporter, who heard the actual words, was apparently quite unable to discover the joke, for he wrote ". . . it is very seldom that a Judge of the Supreme Court is, quite so condemnatory in his tone as Mr'. Justice Denniston was yestcrday'\ * * *

On whatever grounds the divorce laws may be amended, we do not think one of them will be that Judge Dexniston was joking at New Plymouth in 1907. In .taking away what was virtually the\privilego of obtaining divorce by consent, Sir Joseph Ward stated that it had only got into the Divorce Act by an accident. "When the Bill was drafted in 1898," he said, "a mistake was made in drafting." The clause regarding the restitution of conjugal rights was copied word for word out of the English Act, where it was the equivalent of drecrtion, but the s-Bill draftsman did not notice that its effect as placed.in our Act was to create an entirelv new ground for divorce in New 'Zealand. This fact, Sir Joseph Ward added, had escaped the notice of Sir Robert Stout, now Chief Justice, while in charge of the Bill in 1897, in which year it was introduced, but not passed. In IHO4, again, according to Sir JoSErn Ward, the provision was also passed, undetected by members of Parliament. Tho position would thus appear to he that a clause which got into the Divorce Act by n accident was removed because a,Judge joked about it, and the joke being publicly proclaimed for the first time- twclvo years after it.was uttered, Parliament should forthwith reopen this accidental door to liberty to quarrelling husbands and wives. no have heard many reasons for amending an Act of Parliament, but never such a one as this.

\u, who remember tho events of the Mesonotamian campaign will welcome the news that General Sir Frederick Townshend has withdrawn- his resignation from the Army, and that it was tendered under a- misapprehension. It was General Townshend's ill-fortune to have to surrender to the Turks at Kut-el-Amara, after he , and his division had gallantly defended that place in a siege extending over five months. Prior to this event, however, General Townshend had established a record of brilliant achievements accomplished with a small and ill-supplied force in face of extraordinary difficulties and against heavy odds. As a suWdinata, commanding an advanced force, he was in no way responsible for tho poor organisation of the Mesopotamian campaign as a whole in the earlier part of the war. Indeed, the fact was elicited in an oflicial'inquiry that, before entering upon the last ill-fated venture which ended in the investment of his force at Kut-el-Amara he made the Strongest protest that his and a due. respect for discipline would permit.

In commenting some time back on the decision to exhume, and transport to America the bodies of American soldiers who fell in France, we surmisedthat American sentiment had in this ease got the better of American Common sense. New light is thrown on the proposal by the opposition to it which is being organised by the American Field of Honour Association, and in which Bishop Brent, senior chaplain with the American Expeditionary Force in France,' is taking- a prominent part. Charges have been presented to Congress that the movement has been fostered by undertakers for tho purpose of private Rain, and that the body of real public opinion behind it is small and negligible. From the American papers at our disposal, it does not appear what evidence is adduced in support of these amazing charges, and it is difficult to believe that the worship of the Almighty Dollar has readied such a pitch that even the bones of America's most honoured dead cannot be suffered to lie quietly in their graves while there is a chance of making a profit in shifting thorn.

Greatness may be achieved in many ways, but there will be no more great explorers of the world. The passing of Rear-Admiral Peary. discoverer of the North Pole, which we chronicle to-day, is thus much more than a personal event, and marks a step towards the close of an epoch in geography. Peary conquered the North Pole in 1908, but it already seems difficult to realise that only eight years ago the South Pole still had the enchantment and clamour of the unknown. Comparatively young people can remember the days when Sir Henry M. Stanley toured New Zealand lecturing on his expedition which made the first crossing of tropical Africa, Now nothing remains to bo. discovered but perhaps the course of some tributary of the Amazon, and smallish gaps here and there on the maps. Interest in polar exploration has to be maintained by "fancy stunts" such, as going in on one side, and coining out on the other, or by file introduction of the aeroplane for polar work. An American professor is now experimenting with a mulcharge, high-efficiency rocket which he intends to fire at the dark side of the moon. If it hits it a brilliant flash powder will bo

ignited on impact, and bo plainly visible through a powerful telescope After the first". ™" M - ;" ;i ' ''nubtless come the first man jn the moon. So the romance of exploration maj not to-day tie as dead as we think.