"Taranaki Central Press” WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1937. DIVORCE LAW REFORMS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 448, 2 June 1937, Page 4

"Taranaki Central Press” WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 1937. DIVORCE LAW REFORMS

The passage of Mr A. P. Herbert’s Marriage Bill in the House of Commons is a milestone on the road to reform of the divorce law, but it is not considered likely that the House of Lords will pass the Bill. • , Conservatism is deeply engrained in the blinds of the most privileged classes in Britain. Until very recently no woman in England could claim a divorce on the grounds of her husband's misconduct, and it took many years of campaigning to do away with the double standard of morality. Even to-day the divorce law in England is hopelessly behind the times. Mr Herbert’s Bill extends the grounds for divorce to desertion for three years, cruelty and insanity, but the New Zealand law includes not only these grounds but also habitual drunkenness, failure to support, neglect of domestic duties (by the wife), imprisonment for attempted murder, conviction for certain major crimes and, of course, the latest and most liberal amendment of the law, mutual separation for three years. English judges have consistently condemned the English law. Mr Justice Swift a few years ago said that the divorce laws were wicked and cruel and that he wished “some of the learned ecclesiastics who have so much concern for the welfare of society could sit on thp Bench with him and see the effect of the law. The Lord Chief Justice has been even more scathing on the short-comings of the Jaw, but the legislature has been strangely illiberal. The concession by the Government of extra time for the passage of Mr Herbert’s Bill is some sort of a sop to public opinion, but it is extremely unlikely that the Government would have granted this concession if it had not been as sured of the rejection of the Bill in the House of Lords. However, the case for reform is greatly strengthened by the vote in the House of Commons, where the opposition to it is limited to a very small minority.