DIVORCE MADE EASY.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43211, 6 August 1907, Page 4

DIVORCE MADE EASY.

At a meeting of the Wellington Council of Churches the laws governing divorce were severely criticised, ;the clause which entitles a refusal to obey an order for the restitution of conjugal rights ho have the same effect as five years’ desertion , being denounced as a loophole. The Chairman, the iigv. Jfr North, said the "resenfi Acijt divorce had leaped up from on Average per year of 30 odd to an average' per year of 130 odd. This in the course of ten years. So, since the present Act came into force, divorce had quadrupled, and as this blemish, pointed out by 'Mr Fairplough, came to be more widely known it would be more than quadrupled. People could geti a divorce who agreed to get a divorce. Husband and wife, if prepared to face the odiumi of having their names in the press, could secure absolute separation in a few: months for a lawyer's fee of about .£25. That made our divorce law more retrograde than any in America, The Rev. Dr. Gibb said the state of affairs was appalling. N r ot long ago he had pointed the finger of scorn nt the people of certain States of lAimerica, We could, not have dreamed that we; should have had siuich a state of things here. Ten or 20 years ago we would have* scouted the idea that in this colony divorce could be obtained by collusion and knavery. We deplored the evils of drink and gamblin'*. but if the morality of this community was to be debauched practically bv the permission j of the Legislature in providing facilities for divorce what were we to ber come? How much better were things with us than in the, old Pagan days ? The sanctity of the marriage bond 1 was the foundation of all prosperity. The situation called for earnest attention on the parti of all Christian, people. The Council should impress the seriousness of it upon the Legislature, and rouse the people by letting them know what was happening.