THE DIVORCE LAW

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 15 June 1925, Page 5

THE DIVORCE LAW

AN AMENDMENT NEEDED “The law,” observed Mr Justice Reed in the Auckland Supreme Court the other day, “might- as well he amended to enable the parties to make a declaration that they have separated—that is all the application for restitution of conjugal rights amounts to these days.” Judicial obite dicta have a curious attraction for the public attention. That learned judges, being human, are prone to err is undoubtedly true, hut it is frequently the case that in the discernment of legal futilities they hit the nail on the head. In his observations on the subject of divorce his Honour rightly noted that the machinery of the law was being used in a different spirit from that contemplated by the law-makers, but a good many people will disagree with his expressed opinion that a- formal declaration is all that should he necessary. The much-maligned state of matrimony is an indispensable item in the framework of the social organisation. Its primary function is to legitimatize parenthood and create a suitable sphere for the up-bringing of our future citizens. If the critics of matrimony, and those who, finding that holy state irksomely circumscribed, rebel against its obligations, would regard the problem more from the point of view of the children, and less from a selfish regard for their own indulgence and comfort, the public would have much less of divorce. —Wanganui Chronicle.