WARTIME MARRIAGES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 85, 12 April 1946, Page 4

WARTIME MARRIAGES

DIVORCE LAWS MADE MORE FLEXIBLE N.Z. REGULATIONS ARE AMENDED (P.A.) Wellington, April 11. Important amendments to 'New Zealand’s divorce laws are provided for in the Matrimonial Causes (War Marriages) Emergency Regulations, which are published with to-night’s Gazette. The purpose of part one of the regulations is two-fold. This part confers on the Supreme Court jurisdiction to pronounce a decree of divorce, or nullity of marriage, at the suit of a wife married during war to a person domiciled abroad if the wife was domiciled in New Zealand up to the time of her marriage It will also give authority for recognition of decrees of other British countries, granted under similar extended jurisdiction, and will invite recognition abroad of decrees pronounced under this legislation in New Zealand. Part two of the regulations has three purposes. In the first place it provides for recognition in New Zealand of American decrees of divorce if the husband were domiciled in the United States and the wife was, immediately before her marriage, domiciled in New Zealand. Secondly, it wil oermit, for a limited time, a wife formerly domiciled in New Zealand and married to a person engaged in any capacity connected with the war, to petition, on the grounds of desertion, without having to wait for a rei iod of three years to pass. The thud case provided for is the case of a New Zealand husband married abroad in a canacity connected with the war, and whose wife has deserted him. In the latter two cases the Court will reouire to be satisfied, on strict nroof, that desertion has taken nlace, but a period of six months will be substituted for three years as the time to expire before presentation of the petition. The regulations are strictly limited to marriages contracted between the outbreak of the war and the date to be fixed as the end of the emergency for which the regulations were created.