NOVEL DIVORCE SUIT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 212, 28 August 1908, Page 2

NOVEL DIVORCE SUIT.

A PAINFUL CASE. By Telegraph.—Press Association Wellington, Last Night. B,y the new provisions brought in by an Act of last session lunacy was made the ground of a divorce. The first me of the kind in New Zealand waa brought on at the Supreme Court to-day, before Mr. Justice Cooper. By direction of the Court the Press was asked to refer 10 the parties as "A" and "B." The petitioner deposed that she married respondent in 1889 at Wellington, and that there were three children of the marriage, two of whom being still alive. Respondent had, she said, been ail inmate of Mount View and IPorirua Mental Hospitals during the last thirteen years. Corroborative evidence was given by Dr. Hassell, Superintendent of the I'orirua Hospital. His Honor said he thought iit this ca«> that a decree nisi must be made. There was no discretion left to the Court if the two matters were proved. That was, if the respondent was mentally iftlicted and had been confined in the mental hospital for a period of not less than ten years within twelve years prior to the petition, and yras not likely to recover from lunacy, and that there had been nothing in the condition of the petitioner or her habits to contribute to the lunacy, the Court must pronounce a decree. His Honor was satisfied that the case w established. The patient was committed to a mental hos- ; pital in 1895, suffering from dementis, which took the form of religious mania. During the ten years he had been under the care of Dr. Hassell, a highly qualified superineendent. This was not n case in which there was any reasonable probability—of course, there was ul- ( ways a possibility—of recovery, but in . a case of this kind, in which the de- ( uientia had been chronic and had ex- 1 tended for a long period, the possibility j of there lieing any recovery was exceed- , ingly remote, and Dr. Hassell said so. His Honor granted a decree nisi, to be • made absolute at the expiration of six j months. e