MARRIAGES AND DIVORCES OF THE WORLD.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1262, 7 May 1896, Page 10

MARRIAGES AND DIVORCES OF THE WORLD.

—♦- (By LADY COOK )

The very important reports which have jnst been presented to the British Parliament on marriage and divorce in foreign countries and in the colonies at tho instance of Mr Hcnniker Heaton, exhibit singular diversities of opinion among Legislatures on some points, and at the same time singular unanimity on others. The minimum age at which marriage i 3 lawful varies very much. In England it is fourteen for the male and twelve for the female, when with the consent of the parents or guardians, but af:er the a-_ie of twenty ino both sexes are free of control. Newfoundland, Mexico, Natal, South Australia, Cape of Good Hope and tho Argentine Republic appear to bo the only ones whose laws agree with those of England on this point. IN NEW ZEALAND, Tasmania and Nov South Wales there is no statutory age for marriage of minors. In Switzerland and the Netherlands it is eighteen and sixteen for the sexes respectively, but while majority is attained in Switzerland at twenty, in tho Netherlands it is not reached until twenty three. Orecce permits boys and girls of fourteen and twelve to get married, and majority is reached four years later, but adults above eighty are prohibited. The same prohibition exists in Russia, where eighteen and sixteen, and in tho TransCaucasus, where tifteen and thirteen ate the lowest limits. Franco, Italy, Luxemburg, Belgium and Roumania agree in prohibiting marriage under eighteen and fifteen (except by dispensation from the highest authority), and in fixing the majority at twenty five, and twenty-one. In Austria minors may be married at fourteen and majority is reached at twenty-four. In Bavaria and Wurtemburg it, is twenty live and twenty-four and marriage may not take place before twenty and sixteen, as is tho law also in Denmark and Germany. In Chili marriage is lawful at puberty, and while in Brazil it is illegal under sixteen and fourteen, it miy take place earlier to avoid a criminal sentence.

IN SPAIN TDK LIMIT IS FOURTEEN, and twelve, or legal puberty, and both are of ;\!>e at twenty-three ; nevertheless a daughter is forbidden to leave the paternal roof without her parents' consent u.itil sho is twenty live. In the United States there aro always three parties to a marriage—" the man, the woman and tho State." The lowest ages for marriage with consent is fourteen and twelve in twenty-one States, eighteen and sixteen in nine States, eighteen and fifteen in six, seventeen and fourteen in four, sixteen and fourteen in three, fifteen and twelve in two and twenty-one and eighteen in the samo number. FOR MARRIAGE WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT, the ages are for males and females twenty ono and eighteen in twenty eight States, as in England in seven States, and twenty one and six'een, eighteen and sixteen, .and eighteen and fifteen in one State each. Eleven States forbid first cousins to marry and miscegenation is permitted in some States and forbidden in others. Other chief prohibitions, besides those arising from insufficient age, relate to excess of age, to religious differences, blood affinity, spiritual or canonical affinity, affinity by adoption, physical or mental incompetency and difference of colour. In Servia men over sixty and women over fifty are prohibited from entering into marriage. In most countries widows are not allowed to remarry until the expiration of ten months after the death of the husband, and in one, the widower must not reman y within three months of his wife's death, and in another, not under six. In Servia idiots, cripples, maniacs, deaf and dumb, school pupils, guardians with their wards, those very ill or suffering from hereditary diseas'j, and widows of priests and deacons may not marry. In Greece a nrui must not marry

THE RETROTHEI) OF HIS UKOTIIEK. In Brazil uncles and nieces, nephews and aunts may marry together, and in Belgium also by royal permission on advice of tho Minister of Justice. Marriage with a deceased wife's sister is legal in Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria, New Zealand, South Australia, Tasmania, New South Wales and Capo of Good Hope, and between brothers and sisters-in-law in Brazil and Sweden, and by dispensation in Belgium. Marriages are void between white and negro, white and Indian, and white and Mongolian, in Nevada and Oregon ; and between white and African or Chinese in Utah. The prohibition BETWEEN WHITE AND NEGRO exists in at least twenty-three of the States. In North Carolina they are void between negroes and Indians and are voidable from many causes, as insanity, consent obtained by force or fraud ; and ' in many States where contracted under

age without "consent." Forced marriago is punishable in Arkansas by death to the male participant. In tho United States South Carolina alone grants no divorce. The habitual use of opium or some similar drug, felony, infamous crime, long imprisonment, cruelty, intolerable indignity to the person, habittual manifestations of hatred and violent and ungovernable temper are each and all sufficient causes for divorce in most of the States. Three grant divorce if husband or wife j JOIN THE SHAKERS ; one if the husband is a vagrant, and three if the parties have lived separate from four to live years. In Illinois the court can divorce at discretion or where it decides it impossible for the couple to live together in peace and happiness. In Aus'.ro Hungary " Greek Orientals" may be divorced because of "irreconcilable hatred " and Protestants from "insuperable aversion." The latter is also effective in Germany should there be no i.s£ue cf tho marriage. DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER and quarrelsomeness aro sufficient ground in France and Germany, and a Frenchman may b'i divorced for ill-treating his mother in-law nrstep children, for calling his wife opprobiious names before her children, such as " Cuiiille," or for falsely accusing her of theft or some other grave crime and for a variety of other reasons. Marriage between a Christian and a heathen is prohibited in Greece, and a woman can be divorced for concealing from her husband a conspiracy against tho King, for slopping all night against h r husband's wish at any house other than her parents', or for attending, without his knowledge or consent, at rices, theatres or shooting expeditions, or for having attended against his wishes at banquets, or for bathing in the company of men. In some countries —Belgium and Roumania, for example — NO WIFE CAN lit-: DIVORCED after forty five years of age or twenty years of married life. In the latter country divorce may lie obtained by mutual consent if the husband and wife are not less than twenty-five and twenty-one respectively, and have been less than twoyears married, in which ease neither can remarry until three years havo elapsed. In Russia no one may marry a fourth time. Members of the Greek and (toman Catholic churches must not marry nonChristians nor Protestants heathens. CHANCE OF REUCION from Christian to Moha.nmedau entitles to divorce in Saxony. Loss of civil rights, with deportation, dissolves marriage in Russia, unless the innocent party accompany the guilty. This explains why so many faithful wives follow their husbands to Siberian exile. In Italy the wife must contribute toward the maintenance of the husband if his means are insufficient, and in France and Belgium s< ns-iu-law are compelled to maintain the fathers and mothers-in-law when necessary. — The Humanitarian.