MORE DIVORCES

Hokitika Guardian, 7 August 1928, Page 4

MORE DIVORCES

ALUiMIXG FIGURES IN XKW SOUTH WALES. SYDNEY. July 20. The divorce statistics for New South Wale", are. to say the least of them alarming, and it is not any wonder that those who think about such matters are showing great concern. The latest figures show that there is one divorce for every ten marriages celebrated in the State, and the Divorce Court is so congested that an additional Judge has been appointed to assist the two Judges who are faced with a sufficient number of cases To keep them occupied continuously every day for three or four months. And oven so fresh petitions arc being filed every day. On top of those conics a. suggestion that divorce should be made even more easy than it is. and one newspaper has praised the New /calami provisions relating to desertion, and has urged their adoption here. 3t is safe to say that the Government is. unlikely to further facilitate divorce. The Rev. D. F. Brandt, of the Chalmers Presbyterian Church, says that there is too much animalism in present-day marriages, and that the divorce laws are a lane. “What h the good of beating around the bush.” he declared, “or putting our heads in the sand to get away from the facts. The reason for the increase in divorce is plain for everyone to s-ee. In many instances people marry, not because they have any great love for each other, but because marriage is convenient and suits them. V lien the novelty is worn off and the parties find that they are not suited, friction begins, and one of the parties begins: to wander. And in the wandering the inevitable 'somebody else’ conies into the picture. Then self-restraint is thrown to the winds. 1 am not one to keep people together when they are totally unsuited, but, as a parson, my opinion is that our divorce laws are too lax, and ought to he tightened. If a cure .is to bo found it will come only by setting up a higher ideal of marriage. We want more of the human, instincts and less of the animal in our marriages.”

The Rev. Hugh Baton, of St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church, takes a wider view. “We need not kick ourselves and imagine New South Wales is singular in divorce figures,” he said. “Divorce is on the increase in England and in America. The principal reason for the increase is the lack of home training for the voting, and the want of real religion. Young people have too much liberty, and when they settle down to married life, with its exacting conditions, they kick against restraint.”

The Rev. H. C. Foreman, of the Central Methodist Mission, said: “The church views with alarm the increase in the number of divorces. Such increase, measured by percentage, must lx- regarded as a loosening of tlm great sanctions of life and a repudiation of the ideals of duty. It is undoubtedly due to a breakdown o* religious authority. Life tends to become materialised and pagan, and tin only true remedy is a revival o. religion.”