PETITIONS FOR DIVORCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 174, 24 July 1923, Page 5

PETITIONS FOR DIVORCE.

FRENCH STATISTICS. INFLUENCE OF CHILDREN. LONDON, July 18. Remarkable divorce statistics published in Paris show that the petitions jfor divorce in France rose from ] 9,000 [before the war to 35,000 in 1920, apart I from actions for judical separation. There was a slight decrease in 1921 and 1922. There were 5200 divorces in 1922 in Paris alone, equivalent to one divorce for every seven marriages. The lowest rates were in rural dfstricts, but climatic conditions are seen to account for the fact. Cheerless and smoky Lyons had double the number of divorces compared with sunny Marseilles, which had approximately the same population. Divorces were much more frequent in households without children. Ten million French families -with children averaged 12,000 divorces per annum, ■compared with 1,600,000 childless homes, with an average of 8000. This was four times as many as families blessed with offsprings. Seventyfive per cent of the divorces were granted on the ground n ( cruelty, and barely 25 per cent for ndultery. which was almost the only cause in England. Out of eight eases in which adultery was I alleged, there were five erring wives to tbree guilty husbands.