The Marriage Question.

Feilding Star, Volume XIX, Issue 84, 6 October 1897, Page 3

The Marriage Question.

yj Two illustrations of the marriage question come to us from Auckland. In the one case the body of a man is found floating in the harbor, presumably as the result of suicide because his wife was taking proceedings to obtain a judicial separation. In the other case the man was found bleeding to death from a selfinflicted wound, and the cause was a •imilar one. These instances do nol exactly raise the issue of whether divorce should be naore easily obtainable than it is in the case of couples who cannot lire in peace together, because in each in* stance the wife was moving for a separa» tion which can be granted by any magistrate. But the theological aspect of the puzzle is worthy a passing thought. If it be really true that all the fighting and snarling married couples in the world have been joined together by God, as is taught by the churches, or if, as the poet puts it, marriages are made in heayen, to what extent ought we to allot praise or blame to those who, according to the theory, are mere pawns in the game ? On the other band, if we take the common sense view that heaven has little to do with many marriages, and that the institution of wedlock is itself of human origin, purely th**re ought to be some means by which murried persona could part poaceably from each other if they find that they cannot agree. — Napier Telegraph.