Our Divorce Laws

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 19, 7 May 1903, Page 18

Our Divorce Laws

It is easy to go slithering down a slippery slope. And the path of divorce, like the descent of Avernus, is a sjnooth and easy one. Our Divorce Act of 1898 sandpapered and greased the track, and made it so easy that 85 couples went down it in 1900, as against 'A 2in 1898, belore it came into operation. We are following fast in the evil ti ack of legislation which is working such feaj-ful havoc upon domestic ties and family life in America. Jn some States of the Union there is, happily, a revulsion against the scandals of the divorce-while-you-wait laws. The legislature of California, for instance, has (according to one of our exchanges) ' passed a Bill which suspends the action of a divorce decree for twelve months. This object was attempted by a former legislature, but the " Heno " and

•' tug-boat marriages " defeated the provision. It is said that the present measure is efficacious. Our legislators have in this matter taken a step in advance. They have stopped the giddy waltz from the divorce court to tho license office. Nothing has scandalised the people more than the marriages following so quickly on the heels of divorce. Hardened as the public is it could not stomach these frequent and flagrant outrages on decency Oi com so,' our American contemporary adds, ' the measure does not abate the nuisance. It merely minimises the smell.'