DIVORCE AMENDMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1921, Page 5

DIVORCE AMENDMENT.

ACT NOW IN FORCE. A proclamation by His Excellentry the Governor-General, Admiral Viscount Jellicoe, was gazetted on Thursday, fixing Thursday as the date for the coming into operation of the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Amendment Act, 1919, with the exception of sections 9 and 10, which came into operation forthwith on the passing of the Act. The newly-operative sections of the Act provide that a British woman, being the wife of a person of enemy origin, may petition for a divorce if her husband leaves New Zealand for twelve months; and that it shall be no defence to the petition that the husband is willing to support his wife or to provide a home out of New Zealand. Personal service of the petition may be dispensed with; and, except in cases of collusion, the petition shall be. granted. In all cases the guardianship of the children of British women married to husbands of enemy origin, is to be vested in the mothw*, any law to. the contrary notwithstanding.

Section 9, previously in force, makes desertion for three years, instead of five, grounds for a divorce. Section 10 makes the Matrimonial Causes (Dominion Troops) Act, 1919 (Imperial), which confers jurisdiction on competent courts in the United Kingdom in matrimonial causes instituted by or against members of His Majesty’s forces, applicable to New Zealand.