DIVORCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3864, 3 April 1928, Page 7

DIVORCE.

SYDNEY, March 16. Although the point has not been reached when the mmber of divorces in New South Wales equals the number of marriages, the gap between the two is narrowing rapidly. Divorce statistics for Australia reveal some amazing figures. Between 1871 and 1880 the average annua] number of divorces in Australia was 29. For the period 1891 to 1900 it had grown to 358. It increased bv 50 in the next decade, advanced 60 per cent, in the next, and doubled again in the five-year period, 1921-26. On the latest comparable figures there were 1071 divorces in New South Wales for a year against 783 for the whole of the rest of Australia. Of course, the Northern Territory had the highest rate per bead of population. There about 2400 adults manage to maintain a steady average of about 40 divorces a year. Actually in New South Wales more’ than 400 divorcee remarriages take place every year. A deeper study of the divorce statistics is interesting and from them it might be possible to build precautions against divorce. Desertion, it seems, was the mor e prevalent cause of divorce. It resulted in many more broken ties than misbehaviour. The most dangerous years of marriage are between 10 and 14 years of married life. To be childless is also dangerous to a. happy married life. Very few couples with more than seven chit dren were divorced—the total for 1926 Divorced couples last year had been married for anything up to 40 ?J“ ars Those married for longer than that seem to be contented.

It has been pointed out that it is not only the divorced parties who are affected by the breaking up of homes. The ,»,7. i r r , during 1926, for instance, lett 1448 children without a proper home. Iwo judges sit in Sydney every day to hear divorce cases, and even so there is complaint that the business of the Divorce Court is falling into arrears.