The first legislation in New Zealand providing for divorce was passed in 1867. It was identical with an English Act of 1857. The grounds were adultery by the wife, and adultery by the husband if accompanied by certain aggravating circumstances. No question of wider grounds arose, the English authorities having indicated that only a copy of their own legislation would be acceptable. In 1898 adultery by either party became a ground, and new grounds were introduced, including desertion for five years (three since 1919) and non-compliance with a decree for restitution of conjugal rights. This last ground led to abuses of procedure by those seeking a quick divorce. Since 1953 the non-compliance has had to be for three years, a change which has meant the virtual disuse of this ground.

Additional grounds were introduced in 1907. An important amendment in 1920 permitted divorce to be obtained, at the Court's discretion, by either party after three years' separation under a Court order or an agreement. The effect of this was, however, diminished in 1921, when the Court was required to refuse a decree if the respondent proved that the separation was due to the petitioner's wrongful conduct. The same restriction was imported into a 1953 provision which gave divorce after seven years of living apart without likelihood of reconciliation. This became the subject of some criticism and was removed by the Matrimonial Proceedings Act of 1963, which came into force on 1 January 1965.

Further changes were made in the 1963 Act and the grounds of divorce available after 1 January 1965 may be summarised as follows: adultery; artificial insemination of the respondent wife without the husband's consent; desertion for three years; habitual drunkenness for three years, with failure to support or neglect of domestic duties (as the case may be), or cruelty; conviction for murder or certain attempted murders; insanity and confinement for this reason for certain periods without likelihood of recovery; non-compliance for three years with a decree for restitution of conjugal rights; separation by Court order or agreement for three years; living apart for seven years without likelihood of reconciliation; conviction for certain offences of violence or sexual offences; rape, sodomy, or bestiality (wife's petition).

For some years in New Zealand there has been about one divorce for every 11 or 12 marriages. In 1960, 1,648 decrees absolute were granted. The most common ground is three years' separation, 875 decrees on this ground having been granted in 1960, compared with 403 for adultery and 224 for desertion. It is interesting that, although slightly more divorces are granted on wives' petitions than on husbands', almost twice as many divorces are granted to husbands for the wife's adultery as vice versa. This could reflect a continued attitude that a woman's adultery is more serious than a man's.

As elsewhere, a section of opinion in New Zealand regards marriage as incapable of dissolution except by death. The majority adopt the pragmatic view that divorce may be a lesser evil than the continuation of a marriage that is one only in name. Accepting divorce, the question arises whether it should be based on the commission of a serious matrimonial offence or on the breakdown of the marriage beyond reasonable hope of mending. The law of most Western countries that permit divorce (Australia and the Scandinavian countries are among the exceptions) remains based solely on the traditional “offence” approach. New Zealand, also, for the most part accepts this, but in its provision for divorce on the application of either party following prolonged separation it goes some distance towards recognising the breakdown principle. One weakness of the traditional approach is that the offence is often merely a symptom and not the underlying cause. This may be the fault of either or both in varying degrees.

Important ancillary questions often arise in divorce proceedings, notably the maintenance of the wife and the maintenance, welfare, and custody of the children. Occasionally there is a claim for damages for adultery, which can be sought in divorce proceedings but not otherwise. The Courts have always had a wide discretion in maintenance and custody matters. The 1963 Act gives them more extensive powers, particularly in relation to the matrimonial home and the welfare of children.

From the early years of the South Canterbury settlement, the Timaru roadstead was dreaded for its treacherous winds and reefs. From November 1865 until 1890, when John Goodall's scheme of harbour works was completed, the port was the graveyard of 28 ships.

Although these wrecks were fairly evenly spaced over the years, two days stand out as being especially disastrous. On 27 August 1873 three vessels, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Wanderer, and the Fairy Queen, were stranded in Caroline Bay. The latter caught fire and became a total loss. The second day of disaster came on 1 September 1878, when the Melrose, Lapwing, Fanny, and Glimpse went ashore. Luckily no lives were lost.

The year 1882, however, saw the worst disasters, with four large vessels being wrecked in four months. On 15 January, in a flat calm, the City of Cashmere dragged her anchor and became a total loss. On 2 May the Duke of Sutherland, heavily laden with wheat, bumped the bottom and sank—a total loss. The worst tragedy in the port's history, however, occurred on 14 May 1882. There were five ships in the roadstead, and two, the Benvenue (999 tons) and the City of Perth (1,189 tons), lay at the inner anchorage, about half a mile from the breakwater. The ocean swell shifted the Benvenue's cargo so that she developed a list. Later in the morning she broke loose from her moorings, drifted broadside on to the rock apron at the foot of the cliff, and capsized. Almost immediately the City of Perth broke loose. A temporary anchor checked her drift and, as the ship had by this time been abandoned by its crew, the harbourmaster determined to attempt salvage. Three boats had almost reached her when the last anchor rope snapped and the ship drifted on to the Benvenue. A choppy sea hindered the boats' crews, and in their efforts to regain land, all three boats were swamped, as also were a lifeboat and a surf boat which put out to rescue the crews. In all, seven men were lost.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington and Ronald Jones, Journalist and Script Writer, New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, Wellington.

A marine disaster of unusual character, the cause and manner of which was never definitely determined, occurred on 24 November 1959 when the m.v. Holmglen, of 485 tons, owned by the Holm Shipping Co. Ltd., Wellington, foundered 22 miles south-east of Timaru with the loss of all hands, 15 officers and crew. The Holmglen had left Oamaru for Timaru late in the afternoon, and at 9.24p.m. shore stations at Dunedin and Wellington received the international May Day distress signal over the radiotelephone from Captain E. J. E. Regnaud requesting assistance. His message was “Am heeling heavily to port … accommodation awash … preparing to launch boat”. He asked Taiaroa Head (Otago Harbour) to stand by for further messages, but nothing more was ever heard from the stricken vessel. There was a strong southerly wind at the time with a moderate to rough sea, but nothing which would normally worry such a craft. By dawn two naval launches and 17 fishing craft began a search and, later, three freighters and six aircraft joined in. The Holmburn, another of the company's ships, discovered an oil slick at 5.30 a.m. on 25 November. The Holmglen was eventually discovered by echo sounders in 30 fathoms of water about 6 miles from the position from which she sent out her distress call. Wreckage and two bodies were later picked up. Close examination by divers using television cameras disclosed nothing that could account for the sudden foundering of the vessel, and the Marine Court of Inquiry was unable to establish any cause of the tragedy. The ship was found to be resting on an even keel and there was no sign of a boiler explosion. The cargo appeared to be properly stowed; there was no evidence of its having shifted and, though the vessel was very close to her marks, she was not overloaded. The disaster remains a mystery to this day.

A holiday excursion to Mayor Island in the Bay of Plenty ended tragically on the evening of 28 December 1950 when 23 persons were drowned after the 45 ft passenger launch Ranui capsized and was smashed to pieces on North Rock, Mt. Maunganui, Tauranga. There was only one survivor, a 19-year-old youth. It was all over in a matter of moments and nothing could be done to help anyone on board. A Marine Court could find no fault with master or owners, and found that the disaster was caused by a single exceptionally high wave in a violent sea flinging the small craft on to the rocks.

When on 12 February 1909 the Picton-Wellington ferry steamer Penguin (824 tons) struck Toms Rock, abreast of the Karori Stream, in Cook Strait, 75 of the 105 persons on board lost their lives. With a dangerous sea running, the lifeboats and rafts found the shoreward journey hazardous and several capsized or were smashed. The one woman who survived, struggled ashore with her dead infant child in her arms, after rescuing a 17-year-old youth, and watching her other three children drown. The cause of the disaster was an exceptionally strong flood tide, and in the view of the Court of Inquiry, the master, Captain F. E. Naylor, ought to have put to sea sooner.

Another casualty of the Sydney-Auckland service was the Huddart Parker ship Elingamite, of 2,585 tons, which ran ashore on West Island in the Three Kings Group on 2 November 1902 and sank in 20 minutes with the loss of 45 lives. Steaming at half-speed through a thick fog, the ship could have been saved at the first sight of land, but for some reason the orders for stopping, or their execution, were delayed until it was too late. The Elingamite carried 136 passengers and a crew of 58, and 28 passengers and 17 of the crew died from drowning or exposure. A Court of Inquiry found the master, Captain E. B. Atwood, guilty of grossly negligent navigation and suspended his certificate, but eight years later an Australian naval survey proved that the charted position of Three Kings Islands was in error by as much as a mile and a half. Special legislation, passed to enable the Elingamite inquiry to be reopened, resulted in the Supreme Court completely exonerating Captain Atwood.

In October 1902 the Chong Shin Tong Society and other Chinese interests chartered the 3,961-ton twin-screw steamer Ventnor to carry 499 coffins, containing the remains of Chinese who had died in New Zealand, for reburial in their homeland. Besides these, she also carried 5,357 tons of Westport coal. On 26 October 1902, after completing her loading, the Ventnor sailed from Wellington bound for Hong Kong. Weather conditions were fine and the sea smooth at the time of her departure. Shortly after noon on the following day she struck a submerged rock off Cape Egmont and was holed forward. The engines were reversed and the ship managed to get free. As there were no suitable dock facilities at Wellington, the master decided to proceed to Auckland via North Cape for repairs. In the meantime the pumps were brought into use, but these could not cope with the water. By 9 p.m. on 28 October, when Ventnor was about 10 miles off Omapere, Hokianga Harbour, the ship became unmanageable and it was apparent that she would soon founder. Although all boats were launched, 13 lives were lost when the captain's boat was sucked under with the ship. The Ventnor's unusual cargo was not recovered. This was not the first occasion that Chinese corpses had been sent from New Zealand. In the 1880s a similar shipment had been made, though on a much smaller scale than that of 1902.

Scarcely less tragic was the loss 13 years later of the ship Wairarapa, of 1,786 tons, which was wrecked on Great Barrier Island, whose rock-bound shores have claimed nearly two score victims, large and small. Of the 186 passengers and 65 of a crew who left Sydney in the Wairarapa, 121 were drowned. On 29 October 1894, while 10 to 15 miles off course approaching the Hauraki Gulf, and steaming at full speed through a dense fog, the ship ran bow on into a steep 800 ft cliff. The impact smashed boats and rafts, and a great many people were still on board when the breaking seas swept away the funnel and the bridge, and washed the decks clear of life. The captain's certificate was suspended for a year when a Court of Inquiry found that he failed to take the correct point of departure at Three Kings Islands.

A total of 131 men, women, and children lost their lives on 29–30 April 1881 when the intercolonial steamer Tararua, of 828 tons, struck a reef at Waipapa Point, Southland, less than three-quarters of a mile from shore. Of her total complement of 151 passengers and crew only 20 were saved. Heavy seas and pounding surf made rescue work impossible, and at a subsequent inquiry it was shown that after noon on the day following the disaster, no help could have been effective by sea or land. The cause of the catastrophe was the failure by an able-bodied seaman to keep a proper lookout. The 65 casualties whose bodies were recovered were buried in the nearby Fortrose Cemetery in a spot still identified as the Tararua Acre.

The Fiery Star, a full-rigged clipper of 1,361 tons, London-bound from Brisbane, met with misadventure of the worst kind—fire at sea—when 150 miles northwest of the Chatham Islands. Fire broke out in her cargo of wool on 19 April 1865, and a course was set for Hauraki Gulf; but after four days the captain decided to abandon ship. Seventy-eight of her passengers and crew, with Captain W. H. Yule, took to the boats, and were never seen again, but the chief officer and 17 of the crew who stayed behind and fought the flames for nearly three weeks, while at the same time working the ship towards land, were taken off by the ship Dauntless half an hour before the Fiery Star foundered in a mass of flames. They were then only about 15 miles from the New Zealand coast.