Divorce Proceedings.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7923, 3 October 1904, Page 5

Divorce Proceedings.

Remarks by fir Justice Coope?,

At. the Supreme Court this mornfnf Miv Innes, counsel for one of .thepet_^ ioning parties in a divorce case, made a request for the proceedings to be taken in camera in the interests of the children of the marriage, a ground upon which the Chief Justice, at the last sitting, had taken a case in camera.

His Honor remarked that in that case there were special conditions. The children, were not young, as'in the present case, but ; were.at.school. Unless a case, presented special conditions, his Hon oxcontinued, and it was not desirable it should be heard in public, he thought Ft "■' should be taken in Court. On the grounds of the present application he did net think the case should be heard in camera. . He had previously expressed his .views • on this subject in Wellington, and : ■he had noticed that'''Mr ■ Justice Edwards had expressed tho same opinion, that, unless there were ■ special circumstances attendant upon the hearing of .a divorce suit, .it. was hot .the-proper 'thing to hear the case-•io v- ; camera. He entertained a very strong*' opinion that the courts of justice should be open to the public, and only in special cases should the jurisdiction of the court be exercised and the case heard In" chambers. He did not think the court should be closed. In this case the chil- * dren were very young and he could not say that because one of the parties had committed a matrimonialoffence that, the case should be heard in camera. ! a these applications, he thought/it was the intention of the legislature to provide for cases being heard in camera, not in the interests of the parties, but i a the interests of public morality. There was an increasing desire on the part of the parties concerned to hush thesemati ters up. Very few people khew the number of divorce suits that went through. Cases only occupied a few lines in tho public press, very few people attended the courts, and the result of the proceedings, the most important in the courts '" jurisdiction, was that the marriage bond was very easily dissolved. He was not disposed to make it any easier, and, except in cases in the interests of the piib-e He morality, he would not permit casesto be heard in camera.; If it were necessary, continued his Honor, he could forbid the., publication of details,* or, what he found just as effective, recommend the press not to publish it. Ho • had never found the press in New Zealand to err on the side of pruriency. Tho. application was refused, his Honor saying he had no right to institute " Stat* Chamber " proceedings.