N.Z. DIVORCE LAW

Hokitika Guardian, 23 September 1931, Page 4

N.Z. DIVORCE LAW

1930 AMENDMENT VALID. /By Telegraph —Per Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 22. The validity of the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Amendment Act, 1930, was argued extensively before both divisions of the Court of Appeal in the suit of Worth v. Worth, heard on Ju'y 7th and Bth last. The Court delivered its reserved\decision to-day, each of-the .seven judges who sat at the hearing holding that the legislation was tra vires by the Parliament of New Zealand, and valid, and that Airs IVorth, who petitioned for 1 a divorce under that statute, was entitled to a decree nisi.

Sir Michael Myers, reading the judgment of the members of the Bench, said that Air justice Herdman concluded hi s survey of internatunal effect and validity of the legislation by saying: “It may be that, in legislating' as it has done, Parliament has paved the way for scandal, injust ce, and the suffering of innocent people, but no matter how strange and fantastic may be the legislation which Parliament enacts, our sole duty is to interpret it. In .my opinion the Court below had jurisdiction to efitertain the 1 petition.” , . The case has now been remitted back to the Supreme Court, with a direction that a decree nisi be made.