DIVORCES AND SEPARATIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1931, Page 9

DIVORCES AND SEPARATIONS

REGULATION OF REPORTS. OBJECT OF LEGISLATION. The object of the Judicial Proceedings (Regulation of Reports) Bill, which has passed its second reading in the House of Representatives and been .referred to the. Statutes Revision Committee, .is declared: to be to eliminate from published reports of. judicial proceedings any indecent matter, or indecent medical, surgical or physiological details, the publication of which would be calculated to injure public morals'. The bill proposes that it shall-not be lawful to print or publish, or cause or prbqure do be printed or published, in relation to any judicial proceedings for dissolution of marriage, for nullity of marriage, for judicial separation, for restitution of conjugal rights, or for an affiliation order, any particulars other than the'names, addresses and-occupa-tions of tfi'e parties and witnesses, a concise. statement of the charges, defences and counter-charges iff support Of which evidence has been given, submissions of any point of law arising in the course of the proceedings, and the decision of the Court, and. the summing-up of the judge and the, finding of the. jury (if any), and the judgment of the Court and observations made by the judge, provided that these Statements shall not contain any matter calculated to injure public morals. Any offence under the Bill incurs a liability of imprisonment not exdeeding four months, or a'fine not exceeding £5OO. Mr; P. Fraser (Wellington Central), who introduced th? Bill, said there had not been a single protest against the British legislation. He . agreed that the phrase “injurious to public morals” was obscure, and thia Was, perhaps, a weakness in the Bill, but the same weakness, was in the British Act. Everyone knew th© influence of environment and knew what an evil influence unsavoury and sordid details of court proceedings had oh the minds of young people. He said the Bill was supported by leading churchmen throughout ’ the Dominion, as well as by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Women and Children, the Federation of University Women of Auckland, and other authorities. ■