EASY DIVORCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 282, 28 November 1932, Page 7

EASY DIVORCE.

LAWYER FROM NEVADA RECORD FOR ONE DAY. FOUR CASES IN ONE FAMILY. "Under our law one can file a divorce to-day, have it granted to-morrow, and before the ink is dry on the pen that signed the decree the judge can remarry you in his chambers." This statement was made on the Aorangi this morning by Mr. Fred S. Alward, attorney at law, Las Vegas, in-the State of Nevada. He is a native of Tamworth, New South Wales, and a through passenger on a visit to his people in Sydney.

"Reno was the chief divorce centre of the State until recently," said Mr. Alward, "but Las Vegas lias become a thriving divorce city in the southern part of the State. We handle numbers of divorce cases from California, and people who do not want publicity come from all parts of the States, Since the work commenced on the Hoover dam, which is to cost 105,000,000 dollars, divorce business at Las Vegas, 28 miles distant from the work, lias grown by leaps and bounds. Many of the people engaged on the dam have been applying for divorce. I put up something of a record recently by filing four divorce actions in one family in one day." "Mental Cruelty" a Ground. Sir. Alward said that the advantage of divorce in Nevada was the saving of time. A residential qualification of six weeks was all that was necessary, and if a case was undefended, all that was needed was one witness to testify to tlio length of residence. Extreme cruelty, including "mental cruelty," was one of the chief pleas for divorce. "You can swear to almost anything • under this head," he said. Wilful desertion for one year or failure to support for one year were also common causes. "Just before I left," said Mr. Alward, "I received a letter from a resident of New York asking me to state the divorce requirements of the State, as he figured on sending his wife over to get divorced. Of course tiiat would be collusion, and that is not permitted, but undoubtedly there are many such mutual agreements." Mr. Alward said Nevada came in for a good deal of criticism by other States concerning its divorce methods, but general sentiment was to the effect that if people could not get on together, it was only proper that divorce should not be made a hardship. Idaho and Arkansas had fairly easy divorce laws, but their residential qualification was three months. The Utah laws were not widely different as far as divorce was concerned, but divorced persons could not remarry until sis raonths aliased.