BAD RECORD FOR BIGAMY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 205, 31 August 1933, Page 6

BAD RECORD FOR BIGAMY.

Many people may be shocked to learn that England has about the worst record for bigamy of any European nation, nearly four hundred cases a year—and Scotland, I believe, the very worst (writes Mr. E- Blackwood Wright, formerly a colonial judge, in the '"Daily Telegraph"). This is not because we are more immoral than our neighbours, but because of our lax procedure, which might easily be altered. As it is, piratically no precautions are taken to prevent bigamy, such as seeking to ascertain whether persons asking to be married are, in fact, married already. In Germany, which has a population of 62,000,000, considerably larger than that of England, the annual average of prosecutions for bigamy is only about 100. Scotland, with not quite a twelfth of Germany's population, had 147 cases in 1031. England's population is just under 40,000,000, and that of France over that number, yet in France the average number of convictions is under a dozen. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that these statistics, for two reasons, do not show the actual number of bigamies, but give no more than an approximation to the actual number. The only bigamy recorded in the statistics is that for which a conviction has taken place, although the prisoner 1 may when accused have admitted several others. Then a large n«mber of cases never come before the public, because the victim does not wish to make a parade of her misfortune.

If our procedure were altered and made less loose, many bigamies could be prevented, and if the French system were adopted bigamy might become a rare offence, if not an impossible one. The French precautions are simple, and do not place real difficulties before law-abiding citizens desiring to get married. It seems obvious that some such system should be adopted, especially as no great expense is involved. The misery and shame that would be avoided would be great. Prevention must be better than trying to cure this crime by punishment.

The French, procedure is as follows: When parties wish to be married, they are required, besides giving the usual notices, to produce authorised copies of their birth certificates, in each case not more than six months old. Immediately after the marriage has been celebrated, the celebrant must send particulars of the marriage to the registrar of the parties' respective birthplaces. These registrars must then endorse such particulars on the birth certificates. If either party wishes afterwards to marry' again, such party can only produce an endorsed birth certificate, and must, therefore, prove before being remarried that the person whose name is endorsed thereon' is either dead or has been divorced.