"ALMOST A FARCE."

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 124, 28 May 1925, Page 6

"ALMOST A FARCE."

t A DIVORCE PRELIMINARY. THE FAVOURITE PLEA. "It seems almost a farce sroing tliroujrli those proceedings," declared Justice Reed at the Supreme Court this morninpr. when an order for the restitution of conjugal rights was being , sought. '"The law,"' added his Honor, "'might as well be amended to enable the parties to make .1 declaration that they havii separated. That is all the application amounts to these days.' Counsel in the particular case. Mr. McLiver, said that he understood that such an opinion was expressed by a learned, judge before this particular procedure was confirmed. His Honor replied that when Mr. Justice Dennison mado that comment restitution of conjugal rights was quite a rare application; now it w<l3 quite the accepted way of getting a divorce. It was no good making two bites of a cherry. It might be just as well to have divorce by consent. When another decree was asked on the grounds that an order for restitution had not been complied with, his Honor asked the petitioner, a woman, if she was disappointed. "Yes!" the petitioner replied meekly. "Very!" added his Honor. A matter of procedure was also raised by his Honor concerning the eerTice of a petition. The mere 'statement m the affidavit, that so and so was personally known to the person who served the petition, he said, was insufficient, ihe person must have some definitevidence how the person on whom the petition wns served was known. Concerning another case his Honor Stated: "If you want costs against the co-respondent you will have to prove that the co-respondent knew the respondent was married.'