"DIVORCE A GOOD THING."

Taranaki Daily News, 2 July 1921, Page 11

"DIVORCE A GOOD THING."

WHEN MUTUAL AFFECTION ENDS. MR. JUSTICE SALMOND’S VIEW. “All divorce is a good thing so far as it frees the parties from an obligation which is no longer based on that mutual affection and esteem in which it had or ought to have had its origin, and restores to them the right to live their own lives and to seek happiness in the way of honor,” said Judge Salmond in the course of a judgment at Wellington on Saturday, “But all divorce possesses at the same time the possibility of public mischief, inasmuch as it tends to lessen the sense of responsibility with which men and women enter into marriage, and the fidelity and content with which they accept and obey the obligations resulting from it. It is for this Court, in the exercise of the discretionary authority which the Legislature has seen fit to entrust to it, to weigh this private benefit of public mischief, and to grant or refuse a dissolution accordingly. “This being so,’ the chief elements for consideration are the reasons for the separation between parties, and the duration of that separation. Where separation Jias been based on grave anu sufficient grounds, there will commonly be no reason of public policy for refusing a divorce. In such a case the marriage has irremediably come to an end de facto, and its purposes have permanently failed, It is otherwise, however, where the separation has been unjustified, being the . putcome of mere levity and the wanton disregard by the parties of the obligations of the matrimonial state, or being a mere device to secure a dissolution of their marriage by mutual consent. In such a case a decree may be properly refused ‘ altogether or granted only after a period of separation substantially in excess of the minimum period of three years established by the Legislature. The longer the duration of the separation, the less is the danger of public mischief ensuing from such divorce, inasmuch as the necessary delay reduces the temptation to separate for insufficient reasons or for the purpose of procuring a dissolution of the marriage.”