"GO ON WITH THE FARCE!"

Taranaki Daily News, 25 February 1920, Page 5

"GO ON WITH THE FARCE!"

JUiJGE'S CUTTING REMARK. DIVORCE LAWS CHANGED' AS RESULT. | A suggestion that the divorce laws of the Dominion lie amended so as to facilitate the dissolution ot marriage bond 9 that could no longer be productive Of good, was made by His Honor Mr Justice Edwards, at the Wellington Supreme Court, last Saturday, The criticism of the existing statute arose out of an application for dissolution of marriage on the ground of- constructive desertion. His Honor said: that at;one time in New Zealand tire, law; provided for an application fdr restitution of conjugal rights, and if an order to do '-so' were not complied with in the specified time it could be made the ground ot desertion. Tn England, and, lie believed, in Australian States, that law .still obtained, but unfortunately it had been repealed in the Dominion. This was due to an incautious remark by the late Mr. .Justice Denniston who, while hearing such a ease at New Plymouth a number of years ago, said: "Now, come on, Mr. So-and-so, play your pari, of the farce." "It was a small thing to say," said His Honor, "an idle joke; but it has borne lather disastrous con-sequences—-the repeal of very reasonable, very wholesome protection, tending to morality. As a result, it is now absolutely necessary to prove no less than four years' desertion. In other words, for four years a man and a woman, who know from the experience of their past lives that they can no longer live together as husband and wife, are compelled to remain neither husband nor wife." Such a law could not be in the interests of morality. Fortunately in the case under review there was no suggestion of immorality on the part of either the petitioner or the respondent, but ' unless he (His Honor) could be' satisfied that the law regarding desertion had been complied with, the petitioner was without remedy. "It is to be hoped," concluded His Honor, "that the Legislature will awaken to a sense of the injury that has been done in the past. The whole trend of legislation in England has been to facilitate the dissolution of ties when they can no longer be productive of good. The recommendations that have beei) made by a commission of most eminent persons at Home, including the president of the Divorce Court, went very far towards facilitating the termination of relations when they could no longer be relations except in name. I fervently hope that the Legislature, even during the coming session of Parliament, if it is possible,-will sec fit to restore the law to what it was before this unfortunate remark of Mr. Justice' Denniston and to what it is in England and in certain communities in Australia, where the conditions of life are practically the same as our own."