COMMENTS FROM THE BENCH

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 42, 13 November 1926, Page 10

COMMENTS FROM THE BENCH

Sir, —Under the heading, "A . Complacent Husband" in a recent issue: of The Dominion you report the scathing comment of a Judge in the ...Divorce Court,- but I know nothing of the circumstances, .beyond those contained in your report. Yet it seems to me; reading your report, that the matter may be viewed, from another angle, and-that perhaps the scathing comment may not have been justified. • In answer to a query, the petitioner stated that his children were in the custody of his wife and the co-respondent, which excited the remarks of His Honour to the effect that the last person fit to bring up the children was the wife or the co-respondent, and that the excellent State institutions were preferable. , ' ’ May I ask how many men are there who would care to have, their children educated and brought up in'a State institution with its necessarily strict discipline and.dack of..parental affection, how- ' ever excellent it might be. in preference to the care and attention' of a, perhaps, loving, although erring mother. We have advanced in thought sufficiently to recognise that, although a woman may disregard the moral ..law,, she may, in : other respects have many excellent characteristics, arid be a. fond and loving : mother. The petitioner m this case brought upon his head further scathing remarks, by honestly admitting that he had not strenuously and: aggressively objected to j his wife running off .with another man. i Again may I ask, is there anything remarkable in this ?' The very fact that his wife did run off with ; another man clearly demonstrates that there was an incompatibility of temperament, no affection or sexual attraction between them. Why should they, therefore,. continue to live together in misery find discord and consequently, in a state of immorality. to merely satisfy Mother Grundy ? Morals are after all a matter of opinion, if not of climate, and what was immoral a few generations ago, is quite respectable todav, and what is fearfully immoral now will be regarded as being a matter of course fifty years hence. It is almost high treason to comment upon the remarks of His Majesty’s Judges, and I vield to no one m my respect for the Bench, yet I feel that this reluctance to criticise approaches servility. .: Judges are appointed to interpret the law and administer it, bnt are they .entitled to express and advance opinions, especially as anyone who had the temerity to contradict or dispute these opinions when thev are given, would be liable to be committed for contempt of. Court? ft this quite fair, for surely if a debatable point is raised by one P a rt?> S r , n l d to argument am,