DIVORCE AND DESERTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 February 1920, Page 1

DIVORCE AND DESERTION.

OPINION OF MR JUSTICE EDWARDS. A plea for amending legislation in order to facilitate the dissolution ofloveless marriages was made by His

Honour Mr Justice Edwards in the Divorce Court on Saturday morning at Wellington. Speaking with regard to a case before him, in which constructive desertion was set up as the ground for dissolution of the marriage, His Honour, in indicating that he would consider his decision, commented that it might be a case in which it would be desirable to make an order in the interests of both parties. He added that at one time the New Zealand law allowed a party to apply for restitution of conjugal rights, and if the order to do so was not complied with in the specified time, it could be made the ground of desertion. Such a law obtained in England, New South Wales, and, he believed, in other Australian States. Owing, however, to an incautious remark made by the late Mr Justice Denniston a good many years ago at New Plymouth, when His Honour, when proceedings for the restitution of conjugal rights were called on, said: “Now, come on, So-and-So, sad play your part in the farce,” an alteration was made.

“It was,” continued His Honour, a small thing to say, an idle joke; hut it has borne rather disastrous consequences. It was seized upon and legislation was passed repealing that 'c:y reasonable, very wholesome protection, which, as I have said before, emin ur.lv tended to morality; and now it is absolutely necessary, according to the law, to prove not less than four years’ desertion. In other words, a man and :j woman who know from the experiuiee of their past lives that they can no ■ longer live together as husband and wife, are compelled to remain neither .husband nor wife for four years. Well, one ean imagine how in most cases—not in this ease, fortunately—such a thing can no longer be in the interests of morality. In this case there is no suggestion of immorality on the part of either party, but unless I can be satisfied that the law regarding desertion has been complied with, the petitioner is without remedy.

i “It is to be hoped that the Legislature will awaken to a sense of the injury that has been done in the past'. The whole trend of legislation in England 'lias been to facilitate the dissolution of a tie that can no longer be productive of good. The recommendations that have been made by a commission of most eminent persons at Home, including the President of the Divorce Court, wont very far towards facilitating the determination of relations when they wore no longer relations except in name. I hope, and fervently hope, that the Legislature, even during the coming session of Parliament, will see fiT to restore the-law to what it used to he before this unfortunatt remark of Mr Justice Denniston, and to what it is in England and in some communities of Australia where the conditions of life are practically the same as our own.”