DIVORCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3511, 28 June 1921, Page 22

DIVORCE.

THE AMENDED LEGISLATION. SIR JOHN SALMOND'A VIEWS. WELLINGTON, Jui;o 25. A ruling given by Sir John Salniond at the Supremo Court this morning in tiro divorce suit, William George I.odder v. Cocilia Rutherford Lodder. is of great interest and importance, since it is the first decision as to the meaning of section 4 of the recently amended legislation dealing I with the grounds of divorce. The section provides that a judge may, within the exercise of Is is discretion, grant a dissolution of marriage in cases where the parties have lived apart under a deed of separation for a term of three years or upwards. In the course of a lengthy judgment, his Honor said that in general it was not in the interests of the parties, or of the public, that a man and wife should remain bound together as husband and wife in law. when for a lengthy period they had ceased to be so in fact. Hut the .Legislature recognised that as a general principle, subject- to exemptions and qualifications, and on account of the special circumstances of each case, the only resource had been to leave the matter to the discretion of the court. In the exercise of its discretionary power the court had • to consider whether there were any special circumstances which would render the granting of a decree, inconsistent with public interest, otherwise the facts that a man and wife had lived apart for three years made, the ground for divorce as of rignt, the legislation ‘ would tend lo produce and aggravate the very evils it was intended to cure. The harmony of married life was largely due to the fact that manage was a permanent tie. which could be dissolved only for a grave cause, and only at the cost of public discredit. To one at least, of the parties i'll divorce possessed the possibility of public mischief, inasmuch as it tended to lessen the sense of re.-pmiedbiliiy with which men and women entered into marriage, and it was for the court, in its discreliouary authority, to weigh that private benefit against the possibility of public mischief, and to grantor refuse dissolution aeeordingly. .11 is. Honor elaborated bis points, setting out his interpretation of the. clause, but made no oidr, either for or against the decree, in this particular case, as lie adjourned the matter for an agreement between the parties as to maintenance.