FACILE DIVORCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18687, 17 October 1922, Page 9

FACILE DIVORCE

*'A DISGRACE TO DECENT SOCIETY.” DISCUSSION IN BAPTIST CONFERENCE One of the topical public questions conjjSdored by the Baptist Union Conference at its session yesterday morning was the divorce legislation recently introduced into the dominion. Strong views on the matter were expressed by more than one speaker. The Rev W. S. Rollings introduced the subject by moving the following resolution: ‘■'lhat the heads of the several chuiches be approached with a view to concerted action to bring pressure to bear upon Parliament to remove from the Statute Book the provisions for facile divorce by which the institution of marriage is imperilled, lie said that the family and the institution of marriage were in peril, and we had in place of marriage marriage on trial for a certain time. The law had been slightly altered since they protested at lastconference, and an innocent woman now had it in her power to grant, her husband a divorce. It seemed a disgraceful thing that a Government which could spend thousands of pounds on a racing commission to go up and down the land and recommend an increase of racing facilities iii' a report that was discussed for days, a Government which had received urgent demands from the responsible courts of Christian Churches to consider divorce legis-lation,.-could only spend a few of the dying hours of the session to deal with this matter vitally affecting the very foundations of the State. He drew attention to certain judicial rulings that were open to grave objection, in their results, one of which, he said, was to make divorce easy to men of wealth. The whole condition of our marriage laws was not only a disgrace to a, Christian country, but an absolute disgrace to a decent society. It was no use approaching Mr Massey or Parliament. They were too much occupied with other matters to deal with things vital to the very existence as well as to the wellbeing of the State. So this motion had been drawn up with a view to getting united action among the Christian churches to have these indecent blots removed from the marriage statutes. The Rev. A. H. Collins seconded the motion. The Rev. J. K. Archer said that a fatal defect in the resolution was that it was entirely negative and did not give any guidance. He was quite in accord with the speech of Mr Rollings, but in his work on the Hospital Board this divorce problem had ceased to be a theoretical question and had become a practical one. A very definite conclusion to which he had come was that it was a far greater sin to keep some women tied up to some men than to give them their freedom. Another conclusion to which he had been driven in regard to hundreds of cases in this dominion—perhaps he ought to say thousands, but he was quite sure of hundreds—was that marriage has absolutely ceased. The people were not married in any .true moral or Christian sense, and why should they keep up a legal fiction where there was no reality? There was one other remark he made with the greatest sense of rsponsibility—namely, that this legal fiction of maintaining the marriage relationship where true marriage had ceased encouraged immorality It did not encourage morality. It encouraged immorality ; and while he was in sympathy with the resolution theoretically he wanted to know as a man where the solution of this very profound problem was to he found. Personally he did not believe in keeping peonlo legally married who had ceased to he married. The Rev. R. SI, Gray said this was one of the thorniest and most difficult problems a Christian minister had to face. He thought there never would be a satisfactory appeal made either to Parliamentor, to Christian people until a special conference had been held by representatives of the different churches. They could not Id’scuss the nuestions raised by Mr Archer effectively there even if thev had time. It required the best brains and thought and devotion of the best men and women in this country to arrive at a suitable solution. Mr Rollings said he assumed that such a conference as Mr Gray had indicated would follow as a result of carrying the resolution. The resolution was unanimously adopted.