"BLOW TO MORALITY,"

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 46, Issue 14127, 26 May 1920, Page 6

"BLOW TO MORALITY,"

REPEAL OF A DIVORCE LAW. v i_iv Telegraph —Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. .Sitting in divorce to-day, M.r Justice Edwards was again prompted to express liis regret at the repeal of, the law which made failure to obey an order for restitution of conjugal rights a ground for divorce. The .origin of the movement for repeal is traceable to a. remark made once by the late Mr Justice Donnistou, in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth. Counsel was about to open a case in which the restitution of conjugal rights was the main question, when His Honour observed, “Go on with the farce, Mr .” This utterance led to a widespread opinion that divorce by way of proceedings for restitution of conjugal rights was a farce, and the Legislature barred the way to further “farces” of the kind. It has been contended that since the repeal there is a danger that married persons, who are no longer cohabiting as man and wife, may be induced to accept misconduct as the only “way out.’’ “ I. repeat what I said on a former occasion,” said Mr Justice Edwards today, ‘ • that the repeal of the provisions m the divorce law to which I have referred was a blow to morality. The remark made by Mr Justice Denniston was incautious, and I can now say, from my seat upon the Bench, that ho one regretted more than Mr Justice Denniston himself dhe fact that he had made that incautious remark, and that it had led to the repeal of provisions which His Honour recognised, quite as fully as I do, were in the interests of morality. .1 do not speak of- what I do not know. 1 speak of personal conversation with Mr Justice Denniston and other judges upon tjliis very matter.”