DIVORCE ACTIONS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20060, 5 October 1939, Page 4

DIVORCE ACTIONS

“ALARMING INCREASE” DECLINE IN BIRTH-RATE The alarming extent to which divorce cases were increasing was remarked on by 'Sir John Reed, when he spoke at the farewell given him by the legal profession in Wellington upon his retirement after 16 years as a judge of the Supreme Court. Sir John said that the worst features in connection with divorce cases were, first, that so many of the marriages had been of short duration, and, secondly, the absence of children bom of the marriages. It used to be said that the economic position ruled the size of a family, and that given good social conditions a reasonable number of children would be permitted to be born.

“Wages had been raised to a sum which is based on providing for at least one child in a home, but this does not seem to result in the production of a child,” Sir John said, “Perhaps the fact that the cost of rearing a child would limit the amount of petrol that could be purchased for the motor car may affect the position. I don’t know; what I do know—l have recently seen it authoritatively stated—is that the increase of population threatens to come to a standstill in New Zealand in 194& four years hence —if the birth-rate continues to deteriorate and unless emigration sets in again to fill the gap. This, however, is not the time or place to discuss this question. Having called attention to the position as revealed in proceedings in the courts, my duty is at an end.”