“MARRIAGE MENDERS”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1938, Page 5

“MARRIAGE MENDERS”

TROUBLES BROUGHT TO COURT. A COUPLE RECONCILED. Bright, attractive oak furniture, a cheerful, carpeted room, the gay colours of flowers, and an easy air of “homeliness” —this is the change the new Summary Procedure (Domestic Proceedings) Act has brought to Blackpool Matrimonial Court. In such circumstances the magistrates work unfettered to bring couples together. Instead of sitting, perhaps for hours, on the hard benches of the Police Court, stared at and criticised by neighbours and strangers alike, the warring couple are brought singly into this room. The door is shut, and husband and wife are free to say what each wishes to say, knowing their confidences will be preserved. When the magistrates listened to the stories of the first couple to bring their troubles to the new “court,” it was evident the atmosphere of the room was going to work wonders.

The wife entered first. She was given a comfortable chair at the table. A woman magistrate sat on her left.

The chairman, Mr T. Platts, and the magistrates’ clerk, Mr H. Singleton, also sat at the table in friendly fashion. Sitting discreetly behind were the two probation officers, Mr Yates and Mrs Cooper. The wife was accusing her husband of nhglect of her and the children. Mr Singleton interposed to stop her flow of allegations. “Come, come now,” he said, “surely you can be friends again?” The husband, seated -at the other end of the room, declared his willingness to try. The wife was a little hesitant. In turn thfe magistrate spoke to her.

Then, husband and wife, with Mr Yates and Mrs Cooper, went into another room.

In the interval a second couple appeared. Again it was the wife who complained. There were no children, she declared, but she could not live with her husband. “It’s no use trying to make it up,” she said.

“You mustn’t talk like that. You’re both young yet,” answered Mr Singleton. The husband spoke up to say the fault was not his. But as he began to make allegations against his wife the door from the other room opened. Mr Yates, Mrs Cooper, and the first couple entered. All four were smiling.

“Have they become reconciled?” asked Mr Singleton. “Yes, sir,” replied the two probation officers, “and they are not going to quarrel again.” “Splendid!” announced the chairman. “We wish you both every happiness.”

A moment or two later the second couple left to' enter the other room with Mr Yates and Mrs Cooper. After 10 minutes the same happy result was achieved. The room had done its work. Among the cases heard on this first day there was only one “failure.”