DIVORCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13684, 28 August 1908, Page 6

DIVORCE.

CASE UNDER LUNACY. Fer Press Association. WELLINGTON, August 27. By the new provisions brought'' in by an Act of last session lunacy., was made the ground of a divorce. The first case of the kind in New Zealand was brought on at the Supreme Court to-day before Mr Justice Cooper. By direction of the Court the Press were asked to refer to the parties as A v. B. The petitioner di.'- [ jKjsed that she married respondent in 1889 ab Wellington, and that there were | three children of the marriage, two of th-ini lining stijl alive. .Respondent- bad the said, been an inmate of Mount View and Porinia mental hospitals during the last 13 years. Corroborative evidence was given by Dr Hassell, superintendent of tho Porinia hospital. His Honour said he thought in this case that-' a decree nisi must be made. There was no discretion left to the Court if two mattciii were proved; these were if respondent was mentally afflicted' and had been "confined in the mental hospital for a- period of not less than ten years within twelve years prior to the petition, and . was not- likely to-recover from lunacy, and 'that- there had been nothing in the condition of the, petitioner or her habits to contribute to the lunacy. The Court must pronounce a decree. His Honour was satisfied '.that the case was established. . The patient was committed to a mental hospital in 1895 suffering from dementia- which took the form of religious mania. During ten years he had been under the care of Dr Hassell, a highly qualified superintendent. This was a case in which there was not any reasonable probability (of coi'ire, there was always a possibility) of" recovery, but in a case of thirj kind in which the dementia had been chronic and had extended for a long period the possibility cf there being any recovery was- exceedingly remote, and Dr -Haisell said so. His "Honour granted a decree nisi to be made absolute at the expiration of six months.