CAUSE OF DIVORCE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 294, 6 August 1932, Page 3

CAUSE OF DIVORCE

JUSTICE McCARDIE'S ANALYSIS OF MODERN MARRIAGE PROBLEMS. LONDON, Saturday. "Why not recognise the obvious truth that half the present divorces are due to sexual maladjustment?" Mr. Justice McCardie, during an outspoken analysis of modern matrimonial troubles. The judgo made his observations during a cass at Birmingham Assizes in which a husband petitioned for a divorce. "The truth is kept back until people ask, What's the nnaning of all this divorce?" he said. "If they came to the courts and heard the cases they would realise that they are due to the failures, miseries, and tragedies of married life." Referring to Lord Merrivale's ruling of 1927, he said: "I cannot see all the veils Lord Merrivale saw. The Constitution would not fall because of a little recognition of life's actual facts. "I hope that the time is approaching for a far-reaching reform in the divorce law, enshrining broader and more liberal views." For Sake of Child. In another case, Mr. Justice McCardie criticised the inadequacy of the legitimacy laws, and promised to attempt to expedite a decree to enable an expected child to he born in wedlock. Later, when summing up a case in which a husband claimed damages, the judge said that the jury was confronted with a most degrading aspect of British Divorce Court jurisdiction, th'e husband seeking to profit hy his wife's dishonour. He explained that a wife was an asset when she possessed a substantial income or earned good money, or was a good housekeeper, working for love. But many wives were utterly worthless to hushands, and many husbands were worthless to wives. "In this case," he added, "th'e wife is only 18 and was drinking repeatedly. The husband ill-treated her and encouraged her relations with the co-respondent." •