BROKEN BONDS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 79, 3 April 1926, Page 7

BROKEN BONDS

DIVOECE IN SYDNEY.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, 25th March. Chesterton once spoke of the Divorce Court as one of the typical institutions of to-day, because- of its facility for •'cutting up families with the speed of a sausage machine." Although the analogy is somewhat coarse, the truth of the remark is suggested by tho Sydney Divorce Court records. The figures, it way be stated by way of preface, show, ■ttiat the fewer the children the greater the number of divorces. Tho figures disclose also that more husbands peti- " tion for divorce than do wives; thfyt there are more cases of adultery against wives than husbands, but that in regard to desertion husbands are the greater offenders. During the past five years, in cases ill which adultery has been tho ground of divorce,' 629 wives aiid 453 husbands have been the offenders; ih' the case of desertion 1276 husbands have deserted compared with 671 wives. Desertion is easily tho commonest ground of divorce, and it may be added the easiest ground. Between 1873 and 1 1877 only 73 petitions were lodged. That was in tho good old puritanical days, the exemplary spirit of which the "flappors" of to-day aro urged always to romember by thoir grandihamaß. The petitions for divor.ee rose Readily in tho State until 1304, when '•' something like a marital uplfoaval must have swept tho country, for close oil • 1800 petitions wero lodged last year. '. The war period of 1914-17 witnessed .1 total of 3036 cases. While tho figures since then have declined, they are still off sufficient proportions to cause some disquiet among those who do not regard Kghtly the wholesale dissolution of the marriage tie. . The figures suggest tnat ten to fourteen yeais of married, life is the greatest average limit before the Court is invoked. During 1924, for example, the total divorces granted to people married for that period numbered 242 j followed by 146 for those married from 15 to 19 years, and 84 for those who had enjoyed or perhaptf only endured married life for 20 tr. a-i vu a rs fpflfni'rt tho o—•-'- ■