DIVORCES ANALSYED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 12, 5 April 1927, Page 9

DIVORCES ANALSYED

WHEN AND WHY STATISTICAL EXAMINATION AGE AND FIDELITY (From Our Oicn Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, To-day. There appears to be very little left for discovery about marriage and divorce after one has read the summary of the figures issued by the Government statistician respecting divorce and its causes in New Zealand during The statistician, Mr. Malcolm Fraser, remarks that of the 739 petitions filed during 192 6, which is 16 more than in 1925, 335 were by husbands and 404 by wives. Of the husbands’ petitions 111 were on the ground of adultery, 75 for desertion, 36 for non-compliance with orders for the restitution of conjugal rights, and 99 for separation for not less than three years. Of wives’ petitions 74 were for adultery, 3 for bigamy, 124 for desertion, 11 for non-compliance with orders for the restitution of conjugal rights, and 155 for separation for not less than three years. In the adultery cases the average age of the husband is less than that of the wife, and greater where the husband is the petitioner than where the wife has instituted proceedings. This leads to the supposition that the natural tendency for a man to marry a woman younger than himself has been departed from in the greater proportion of cases where the husband’s conduct is subsequently at fault, than in those where the wife becomes the offender. As a matter of fact the wife was older than the husband in 10 out of 72 cases where the husband was the petitioner, and in 13 out of 59 where the petition was filed by the wife.