DIVORCES IN ENGLAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20269, 30 November 1927, Page 10

DIVORCES IN ENGLAND.

3500 SUITS IN A YEAR. GREAT INCREASE. SOME OF THE CAUSES. (From O t jr Own Correspondent.) 1 LONDON, October 4. When the year closes more than 2400 divorce suits will have, been decided in London alone, and cases heard by assize judges will bring the total to 3500. 'i his means that, including co-respondents, 10,500 persons will be concerned. The remarbabe increase of divorce is shown by the following table of the average yearly number of cases over five-year periods since t'.s beginning of the present century 19D1-1905 56 7 1916-1920 1510 1906-1910 624 1921-1925 2734 1911-1915 656 Mr Holford Knight, a prominent barrister, believes that the increase in cases is due first of all to the equalisation of the grounds for divorce. VANISHED RESTRAINTS. “ Again, recent changes in the law have given effect to deep social changes which have increased since the war. The divorce court, no longer holds out the terrors it formely imposed. Persons are not deterred by the publicity which such proceedings used t° entail. The statute limiting the reports of proceedings is bound to have an extending effect. If the figures continue to increase, the attention of Parliament will have to be given to the subject; not only because interference with newspaper reports of judicial proceedings is contrary to the traditions of our administration of justice, but because under cover of that secrecy abuses are bound to creep in. “There is nowadays less adherence to conventional standards, especially when they mean individual hardship, and there is greater readiness to seek facilities for ending unhappy marriages. I noticed that an American judge who has lately toured Europe declared that in the countries where similar limitations of reports were imposed there were increases in divorce cases. The judge added that the recent British Act would probably have the same result as had occurred in other countries. OLD-TIME DIFFICULTIES. “On the other hand, we must remember that the old divorce law in England placed serious handicaps in the way of persons seeking matrimonial relief Facilities were restricted. People were required to pursue their suits in London, and expenses were not inconsiderable. All these causes operated to disincline persons with just claims from pursuing them in the courts. Personally 1 consider the altered law in this respect a benefit to the State, because it is not in accord with social order that unhappy marriages should continue. Where experience has unfortunately shown flhaft particular marriages have worked harm, such marriages should be dissolved.”