Marriage and Divorce Laws of the World Part 49

VICTORIA.--The Marriage Act of 1890 (54 Victoria, No. 1166), ent.i.tled "An act to consolidate the laws relating to marriage and to the custody of children and to deserted wives and children and to divorce and matrimonial causes," is practically a short code on the subject of marriage and divorce.

CELEBRATION OF MARRIAGE.--The following persons, and none other, may celebrate marriages:

1. A minister of religion ordinarily officiating as such, whose name, designation and usual place of residence, together with the church, chapel or other place of worship in which he officiates, is at the time of the celebration of the marriage duly registered according to law in the office of the Registrar-General.

2. A minister of religion being the recognized head of a religious denomination.

3. A minister of religion holding a registered certificate that he is a duly authorized minister, priest or deacon from the head of the religious denomination to which he belongs, or, if there be no such religious head, from two or more officiating ministers of places of worship duly registered according to law.

4. The Registrar-General or other officer appointed for that purpose.

JEWS AND QUAKERS.--The law permits Jews and Quakers to be married by such persons and in such manner as is considered regular and lawful according to their respective beliefs and usages.

FORMALITIES.--A marriage must be preceded by a license or the publication of banns.

A marriage celebration requires the attendance of two witnesses of full age.

DIVORCE.--A domicile of two years or more is a condition precedent to bringing a suit for divorce.

The following are legal grounds for a divorce or dissolution of the marriage bond:

1. Adultery on part of the wife.

2. Adultery on part of the husband if committed in the conjugal residence or if it is coupled with circ.u.mstances or conduct of aggravation or of a repeated act of adultery.

3. Desertion without just cause continued for three years or more.

4. The habitual drunkenness of a husband for three years, if the husband has habitually left his wife without support, or has habitually been guilty of cruelty to her.

5. Habitual drunkenness of a wife for three years, if the wife has habitually neglected her domestic duties, or rendered herself unfit to discharge them.

6. Imprisonment of either spouse for not less than three years, and being still in prison under a commuted sentence for a capital crime, or under sentence to penal servitude for seven years or more.

7. If the husband has within five years undergone frequent convictions for crime and has been sentenced in the aggregate to imprisonment for three years or more, leaving his wife habitually without means of support.

8. That within a year previously the respondent has been convicted of having attempted to murder the pet.i.tioner, or of having a.s.saulted him or her with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, or that repeatedly during that period the respondent has a.s.saulted and cruelly beaten the pet.i.tioner.

FORM OF DECREE.--Divorce decrees are entered, in the first instance, _nisi_, or provisionally, and cannot be made absolute until after the expiration of three months following the decree _nisi_.

IN FORMA PAUPERIS.--Special provision is made enabling poor persons to prosecute suits for divorce by an interlocutory order in _forma pauperis_, which relieves the person in whose favour it is granted from certain charges and expenses, but does not furnish him or her with the free services of a solicitor or barrister.

RECENT DECISIONS.--An important divorce decision holds that visits to brothels by a pet.i.tioner who seeks a divorce on the ground of his wife's adultery const.i.tute misconduct conducing to the adultery of the wife and bars the pet.i.tioner from a decree, without entering into the question of whether or not adultery was committed by the pet.i.tioner in the course of such visits.

However, the fact that a husband has conduced to an act of adultery by his wife is not a bar to him obtaining a divorce based on subsequent acts of adultery.

NEW SOUTH WALES.--The requirements as to age, consent of parents, or of persons standing in _loco parentis_ are the same in this State as throughout the rest of the Commonwealth and have been set forth in the first part of this chapter.

No marriage can be celebrated except by a minister of religion ordinarily officiating as such, whose name, designation and usual residence have been and continue registered in the office of the Registrar-General for Marriages in Sydney or by a district registrar.

Parental consent is not required of persons who have previously been lawfully married and whose former marriage has been dissolved by death or divorce.

A marriage must be attended by two adult witnesses.

By the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1899 jurisdiction in respect of divorces _a mensa et thoro_ (judicial separations), suits for nullity of marriage, suits for dissolution of marriage (absolute divorce), suits for rest.i.tution of conjugal rights, suits for jact.i.tation of marriage, and all causes, suits and matters matrimonial are vested in the Supreme Court of the State.

CAUSES FOR ABSOLUTE DIVORCE.--A husband who has been domiciled for three years or more in the State may pet.i.tion for a dissolution of the marriage on the following grounds:

A. That the wife has committed adultery.

B. That the wife has, without just cause or excuse, wilfully deserted the pet.i.tioner and without any such cause or excuse left him so deserted for three years or more.

C. That the wife has, during three years and upwards, been an habitual drunkard and habitually neglected her domestic duties or rendered herself unfit to discharge them.

D. That within one year the wife has been imprisoned for a period of not less than three years and is still in prison under a commuted sentence for a capital crime, or under sentence to penal servitude for seven years or more.

E. That within one year the wife has been convicted of having attempted to murder her husband, or having a.s.saulted him with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm.

F. That during one year previously the wife has a.s.saulted and cruelly beaten her husband.

A wife may obtain an absolute divorce from her husband by proving:

A. That her husband has committed incestuous adultery.

B. That the husband has committed bigamy with adultery.

C. That the husband has committed rape, sodomy or b.e.s.t.i.a.lity.

D. That the husband has committed adultery coupled with such cruelty as without adultery would have ent.i.tled the wife to a divorce _a mensa et thoro_ (divorce from bed and board) under the laws of England as existing before the enactment of the Imperial Act 20 and 21, Vict. c. 85.

E. Adultery of the husband coupled with desertion without reasonable excuse for two years or upwards.

JUDICIAL SEPARATION.--A judicial separation may be granted on the ground of adultery, cruelty or desertion without legal cause or excuse continued for two years and upwards.

QUEENSLAND.--In this State marriage may be celebrated by any regular officiating minister of religion, or by any district registrar, or by specially authorized justices of the peace.

CAUSES FOR ABSOLUTE DIVORCE.--A husband is ent.i.tled to an absolute divorce if his wife has committed adultery, but a wife is not so ent.i.tled unless her husband has committed incestuous adultery, bigamy, rape, sodomy, b.e.s.t.i.a.lity, adultery coupled with cruelty, or adultery coupled with desertion without reasonable excuse for two years or more.

Incestuous adultery is adultery with a woman within the prohibited degrees.

JUDICIAL SEPARATION.--A limited divorce or judicial separation can be obtained by either spouse on the following grounds:

1. Adultery.

2. Cruelty.

3. Desertion without legal cause for two years.

LEGITIMACY.--Illegitimate children are legitimatized by the subsequent marriage of their parents.