FIFTY DIVORCE DECREES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23669, 29 November 1938, Page 7

FIFTY DIVORCE DECREES

GRANTED IN AUCKLAND YESTERDAY A CLERGYMAN'S PETITION (Per United Press Association) AUCKLAND, Nov. 28. About 50 divorce decrees to be made or moved absolute after the expiry of three months were f ranted by Mr Justice Fair and Mr ustice Callan in the Supreme Court to-day. In the majority of the cases a decree was granted after proof had been given that the parties had been separated for more than three years. A petition for divorce on the ground of separation by mutual agreement was brought by the Rev. Dr Cyprus Richard Mitchell against Lillian Mitchell. The petitioner said that they were married in Melbourne in 1928 and a month later his wife and he left for Seattle, his intention being to get a position in the Congregational Church there. They were of incompatible temperaments and agreed to separate. In June. 1930, his wife obtained a position as house-mother at Pullman College, Washington, and he studied for the degree of doctor of philosophy at Yale University. The petitioner said that they parted on the most friendly terms, agreeing to go their own ways. After he obtained his degree, he returned to Australia and she remained in America. In 1934 he came to Wellington to take charge of the Unitarian Church there and remained there for nearly two years, when he came to the Unitarian Church in Auckland. He had been here nearly three years and he intended to live permanently in New Zealand, Mr Justice Fair granted a decree nisi.