New Guinea Laws.

Urgent Need for Revision.

WITH the rapidly increasing commer cial activity in New Guinea, the laws of the Territory are found de fective in various directions and the de mand for a revision and consolidation of the Territory’s ordinances is becoming more marked One direction in which a revision or extension of the law is urgently neces sary is that affecting the marriage rela tionship. Under present conditions there is no way in which a European can be compelled to support his wife.

A case in point has been brought under our notice. A young woman in 1929, resigned a good position in Sydney and married the owner of a plantation in New Ireland. The two lived happily together for a time, but in 1931 they quarrelled and there was talk of a divorce. The wife came to Sydney and the husband dropped divorce proceed ings. Since then the wife has been liv ing on the charity of friends and can get nothing from her husband.

Legal advice is that “In New Guinea there is no law enabling a wife who is forced by her husband to leave home, to obtain maintenance.” The husband is deaf to all appeals and the law does not affect him.

The wife, under the New Guinea law, is not able to obtain a divorce except for adultery, plus something else. The New Guinea divorce law is described as “fifty years behind the times.”