GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 September 1922, Page 6

GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE.

DISCRETION OF A JUDGE. AN IMPORTANT RULING. By Telegraph.- -Press Association. Wellington, Sept. 22. Sir J. Salmond gave judgment in the divorce case Lodder v. Lodder, which is akin to the well-known Mason case and promises like it to rank as a judicial classic. The marriage took place as far back as 1882,. the husband now being 65 and the wife 62. Since 1908 they had lived apart one here and the other in Auckland. The immediate cause of the separations was the objection taken by the wife to her husband’s friendship with another woman, but adultery was not alleged or proved, nor any other recognised form of matrimonial offence. The Judge found that the husband did give cause for jealousy, and it was in fact the immediate and effective cause of the separation, but the law, as amended in consequence of the Mason case, still gave discretion to the Judge, and, in the exercise of this discretion, Sir John Salmond held that therfe was no reason to refuse a dissolution of marriage, for it was evident its continuance would serve no useful purpose. either in the interest of the public or of the parties themselves.