DIVORCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16559, 25 May 1914, Page 8

DIVORCE.

AUCKLAND’S HEAVY LIST. GREAT INCREASE IN PETITIONS. [From Our Correspondent.] AUCKLAND, May 23. Tho fact that there were no fewer than forty-one divorce cases down for hearing during tho civil sittings of the Auckland Supreme Court has caused a good deal of comment and lias raised speculation as to whether divorce is seriously on the increase in New Zealand particularly in the Auckland district. It is a significant fact that only two "of the cases now being heard by the Judge are defended, and in the overwhelming majority of the remaining petitions tho cause of the petitions is desertion, a remarkable commentary on the effect of the 1898 Act, which increased the facilities for obtaining divorce. Already the Judge has granted decrees. nisi in some thirty j cases. In 1900, when the population of • New Zealand was 768,278, the number jof divorces granted was 85. Last year the number of successful petitions ! reached the remarkable total of 222 j out of 274 tiled, despite the fact that j the population is only little over a mil-. I lion. Auckland seems to have at least \ its fair share of unhappy matches, for ! a hundred petitions a year is said to jhe about a fair .average for the j Supreme Court judiciary district. This ' district, it- must be remembered, does not include the Waikato, which is the Hamilton Court district. Last year’s petitions numbered 92, and seeing that the total number of separations sought during this, the first session of the year, is nearly one-half of that figure, it is little wonder that public interest has been aroused. Allowance must be made, however, for the fact that the present session covers the cases filed during a period of five months. ,High as these figures are for a district the population of which is probably considerably under a quarter of i a million, it is estimated hv one Auckland- gentleman professionally interested in divorces that, continuing at the • present rate, if the whole, of the divorce : cases placed’ in the hands of the legal i profession actually came into Court the total at the end of the year would reach 250. This estimate is based on a knowledge of the cases brought to the leading legal men of the city and includes petitions actually filed and cases in which proceedings are commenced but which are nob being eontinned at present, owing to lack of funds or insufficient evidence. Tn 1903 the divorces in England and Wales totalled 660, or 2.5 per thousand marriages. f New Zealand’s population in 1900 o*f 768.000 produced 85 divorces, or 14.4 per thousand marriages, a percentage which is now pro- . baoly muoh higher.