NEW COURTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23182, 31 October 1938, Page 13

NEW COURTS

DOMESTIC RELATIONS GOVERNMENT SCHEME BRITISH PLAN AS MODEL REDUCING DIVORCE RATE £BT TELEGRAPH —OWN COHRESPQNDENT] WELLINGTON, Saturday Proposals for the setting up of Courts of Domestic Relations to effect reconciliation wherever possiblo are being considered by the Department of Justice, according to a statement made by the Under-Secretary, Mr. B. L. Dallard, in an address to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Women and Children at Wellington. Mr. Dallard stated that reports were being obtained on the results of the operations of such Courts recently set lip in England. Apparently, ho added, the Courts had not been entirely satisfactory there, but this result was considered to be due to the appointment of religious and social conciliators with a. .prejudice against divorce. Conciliation had been forced where it was not justifiable, amounting in some cases to a denial of justice. The Home Office had recognised the position and was appointing experienced conciliators. After dealing with the legal grounds for divorce, Mr. Dallard stated that it was disturbing to observe-that thero was a steady increase in the number of petitions filed and decrees granted in the Supreme Court. Petitions had grpwn from 785 in 1932 to 1155 in 1937, and the number of decrees had increased proportionately. High Rate of Divorce

"These figures, considered in relation to the marriage statistics, suggest that for every 100 persons who get married each year it can bo assumed that nine •will crash and seek relief in the Divorce Court —but, worse than this, ■without taking into consideration the large section who for economic reasons and religious scruples decide 'just to .grin and bear it,' there must be reckoned those who proceed by way of the separation order," continued Mr. Dallard.

"The statistics here also unhappily •how a growing increase, and from these figures it is safe to estimate that another 5 per cent irrevocably widen the rift in the matrimonial lute bv this process. Is there not room for reflection in the thought that one in every seven marriages is thus severed by judicial sanction? "In domestic proceedings would it rot be better to provide for conciliatory effort to bo preliminary to any judicial proceedings and thus avoid illconsidered and precipitate separations?" asked Mr. Dallard. "Once husband and wife are ranged against each other in a public Court and charges and bitter counter-charges have been made, the quarrel is accentuated.

Work of Conciliator "If, as a preliminary to formal hearing, the whole issues at stake were carefully examined and explained by an experienced and understanding conciliator many domestic tragedies might be averted. It could be explained that the attainment of their legal, rights is often biit a myth. "Probably few women who come before the Courts asking for a separation order realise at all what lies ahead of them if they get one. The present poems unbearable, and that is what they are thinking of; the future with a regular allowance from the husband seems an attractive prospect. "But the future frequently turns out to be far from attractive if it depends on the regular payment of such order,", stated Mr. Dal lard; "Notwithstanding the efforts of maintenance officers, husbands often cannot be made* to pay, and imprisonment is pftor satisfaction." '