DIVORCE INCREASES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 120, 19 April 1940, Page 6

DIVORCE INCREASES.

MANY CHILDLESS MARRIAGES. . AVHAT STATISTICS SHOAV. (Bv Telegraph.—Special to Standard.) AVELLINGTON, April 19. From the returns relating to divorce now available for the first time in respect to the year 1938 it is shown that the rate continues to rise. Ten years ago the number of divorces for every juj 000 of population was 4.12, but this proportion is now 6.53. For the first time tlie official records of decrees absolute in a year have passed the 1000mark, the total being 1050 compared with 917 in the previous year. The divorce rate demonstrates that for every hundred marriages in a year there will be nearly seven divorces. Of the causes ol divorce where decrees absolute were made, separation under agreement lor more than three years beads the list with 572 (184 husbands’ petitions' and 388 from wives). AVillul desertion was responsible for 203 cases (husbands’ petitions. 86, wives’ 117); adultery 157 (husbands’ petitions 91, wives’ 66); and non-com-pliance with orders for restitution of conjugal rights 96 (husbands’ petitions 71, wives’ 25). Childless marriages constitute the largest proportion of those dissolved, 161 being recorded in respect of husbands’ petitions, and 191 where action was taken by the wife. The statistics show the duration of all these dissolved marriages. It is ip the fourth year that difficulties appear on a definite scale, and marital trouble, judging by divorce decrees, is at its worst point between the fifth and the tenth years of marriage, the total number of petitions in this group being 122 from men, and 167 from women. Tlie number of children affected by the 1050 decrees absolute in 1938 was 1706.