NO DIVORCE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2142, 27 December 1920, Page 7

NO DIVORCE.

CUSTOMS OF JERSEY. LEGAL SEPARATION OF PROPERTY. The holiday season has again produced the famous collection of curious customs pertaining to the Channel Islands, writes the London correspondent of the "Sun and New York Herald.' "John Bull" making the grand tour on the Continent has alighted in Jersey, and some of the things he sees strike him as unique, and he immediately writes to his friends in the "Would you have believed it possible?" strain. Thus, "The thing that struck me almost immediately I arrived was the miles of glass houses growing nothing but tomatoes and cucumbers for the English market, but the strangest thing of all was the tombs in the churchvard. I wondered whether the people ever married there. The tombstones read like this: 'Sacred to the memory ot Mary Jones, wife of Thomas Brown.' On inguiry I discovered that a woman does not forfeit her maiden name when she marries, unless she wishes. They are a strange people, are they not?"

The Rubberneck Route, John Bi»l jnisses most of the curious customs. After a few hours he follows the usual line of amusement, riding, round the island,in a "rubberneck" wagon and learning to sing the national anthem, "Here we grow cabbages 10 feet tall," and learning to smoke the "Flor de Jersey" cigars and to relish the flavour' of the genuine "cognac" brandy that is vended so cheaply, no duty being imposed to spoil the flavour of his drink, another of the Jersey customs, and he forgets all about marriage in haying what he considers a good time. ,The things he misses are these: .If you get married in Jersey/you take, your partner literally 'until death do you part, there being no diVorce unller Jersey law. If you are a woman you cannot start a banking account without your husbands permission. You will have to live with your husband's mother unless he can provide her with, a dowfer bouse. Your husband will be entitled to sell your property and grab everything you possess unless you have your possession divided under the provisions of the Jersey Separation Act. This Act plays a big part in Jersey's life, and the separation of a married couple's property has almost become a feature of the wedding ceremony. As soon as the bride has been endowed at the altar with all his worldly goods she speeds to the magistrate's office with him to put her possessions legally out of his reach. Although- the "marriage , laws of Jersey have been handed down through the ages, practically unchanged since they left the hands of their Norman Compilers, the little island has led other lands in one instance. A Jersey man has been allowed to marry . his deceased's wiffes sister for more than 100 years. ■ ■ __•