DIVORCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 August 1920, Page 4

DIVORCE.

A NOVEL POINT. : REFUSAL OF MARITAL EIGHTS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, July 31. In his decision as to whether the refusal of marital rights was a sufficient ground for divorce upon n petition for constructive desertion, his Honor said that in one New Zealand case, in which a refusal of marital rights was only an element in the evidence, divorce was refused. In another case the Court decided in the other direction, and in a third case the judge had not decided one way or the other. In the majority of cases there was a great deal more than the refusal of marital rights, which Was treated an merely an element in the present case. The husband ,v <l wife were in the position of some parties who lived in the same house, practically as strangers for all he knew. They had been living '.in, all respects., as husband'and wife except that, for an undisclosed reason, jnarital intercourse had ceased. There was no reported case in lingland,,, Australia, or New Zealand in which divorce had been granted on that ground alone. His Honor' agreed to hear further evidence, after which ,he'said it sufficient to prove desertion, and a decree nisi was granted.