DIVORCE OR SEPARATION

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 20 June 1912, Page 5

DIVORCE OR SEPARATION

-^ AN IMPORTANT DECISION. Br TELEGBAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION. DTJNEDIN, June 19. Sir Joshua Williams gave judgment this morning in the divorce case Mararget Elizabeth Mac Donald v. John Wilson Mac Donald, on the ground of desertion. When this matter came before the court last week his Honor raised the question whether a separation order did not prevent desertion from being continuous. The order provided that the wife was not bound to cohabit with the husband, and that he could not compel her to do so. In such circumstances could a husband be held to have deserted his wife during the currency of the order? Mr H. D. Bedford, counsel for petitioner, pointed out that the question was settled by section 18, sub-section 52 and section 20, of the Destitute Persons Act of 1910. Those sections were introduced especially to give relief in such cases as the present. When the court sat to-day his Honor granted a decree nisi, to become absolute after three months.