EPIDEMIC OF BIGAMY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 40, 17 February 1916, Page 7

EPIDEMIC OF BIGAMY.

In his charge to the grand jury at the opening of the December Sessions at the Old Bailey, the Recorder said that it was satisfactory to find the number of cases so small, and »that the cases were not of a heavy description. It was curious that since the war the number of persons charged at that court with bigamy had greatly increased and as they investigated the cases that had arisen it w&s not difficult to discover the reason. ■ As they were aware, during this war it had been the practice to give confeluC TaDle separation allowances to the wives or the gallant men who were fighting our battled- Therefore it was to the advantage of a man to be married. A great many who had joined the force seemed to have been living apart from their wives for some time and with other women. In order that the other women might have the benefit of the separation allowance the men went to a registry office and went through a form of m'arriage, knowing that their wives were living

somewhere else and were really entitled to the separation allowance. It was generally found when the wife

went to claim the separation allowance that the man had two "wives" —the wife who was really entitled to the allowance and the fictitious 'wife' who was not entitled to it. The result was that the number of bigamy cases had increased, and the number in that calendar was rather large in proportion to the total number of cases.