DIVISION OF ASSETS

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30110, 19 April 1963, Page 10

DIVISION OF ASSETS

Change Sought In Divorces (N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND April 18. Changes in the matrimonial laws to provide for equal division of assets after divorce were advocated by Mr G. E. Bisson, Crown Solicitor at Napier, in a paper presented to the law conference at Auckland today. Mr Bisson said the present laws perpetuated the ‘legal subjection" of wives.

“If she is not a wageearner, or possessed of private means, a wife is in a position of ‘economic servitude,'” he said. It is wrong in principle that she should have to rely on her husband’s good will for her well-being and have no remedy if he treats her financially in a manner which has no regard for her services in the home or her contribution to his own fortune m life."

Mr Bisson said he believed that today the law should make it possible, where appropriate, on judicial separation or dissolution of marriage, to provide for each spouse a fair share in the capital of the marriage partnership. Mr G. H. Skelton opposed amendment to the legislation during the discussion on Mi Bisson's paper. He said the present statutes did justice to ‘‘our lady friends.” The suggested changes would only do justice to “our greedy married women."

Mrs C. P. A Wallace (Auckland) said she agreed ■with Mr Skelton. There were already adequate provisions for a woman to acquire an interest in her husband's assets before a marriage broke up. She considered women had an unfair advantage over their husbands.