DIVORCES IN AUSTRALIA.
SOME AMAZING FIGURES. DESERTION AS A CAUSE. [THOU OTTO OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] SYDNEY, April S. Although the point has not been reached when the number of divorces in New South Wales equals, the number of marriages, the gap between the two is narrowing rapidly. Divorce statistics for Australia reveal some amazing figures. Between 1871 and 1880 the average annual number of divorces in Australia was 29. For the period 1891 to 1900 it had grown to 358. It increased by 50 in the next decade, advanced 60 per cent, in th«» next, and doubled again in the fiveyear period, 1921-26. On the latest comparable figures there were 1071 divorces in New South Wales for a year, against 783 for the whole of the rest of Australia. Of course, the Northern Territory had the highest rats per head of population. There about 2400 adults manage to maintain a steady average of about 40 divorces a year. Actually in New South Wales more than 400 divorcee remarriages take place every year. A deeper study of the divorce statistic* is interesting, and from them it might bo possible to build precautions against divorce. Desertion, it seems, was the more prevalent cause of divorce. It resulted in many more broken ties than misbehaviour. The most dangerous years of marriage are between 10 and 14 years of married life. To be childless is also dangerous to a happy married life. Very few couples with more than seven children/, were divorced—the total for 1926 was only 12. Divorced couples last year had been married for anything up to 40 years. Those married for longer than that seem to be contented. It has been pointed out that it js not only the divorced parties who are affected by the breaking up of homes. The 1971 divorces during 1926, for instance, left 1443 children without a proper home. Two Judges sit in Sydney every day to hear divorce causes, and even so thjsre . complaint that the business of the Divorce Court is failing into arrear*.
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New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19917, 10 April 1928, Page 6
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339DIVORCES IN AUSTRALIA. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19917, 10 April 1928, Page 6
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