Wife.-Desertion for not less than three years; habitual drunkenness and neglect of domestic duties for a similar period; refusing to obey an order for restitution of conjugal rights; being imprisoned under sentence for three years or upwards; attempt to murder or inflict grievous bodily harm, or repeated assault on the husband within a year preceding the date of the filing of the petition. Wife v. Husband.— Adultery, provided that at the time of the institution of the suit the husband is domiciled in the state; desertion for not less than three years; habitual drunkenness with cruelty or neglect to support for a similar period; refusing to obey an order for restitution of conjugal rights; being imprisoned for three years or upwards, or having within five years undergone various sentences amounting in all to not less than three years; attempt to murder or assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, or repeated assault within one year previously. Relief can only be sought on these grounds should the petitioner have been domiciled in the state for three years or upwards at the time of instituting the suit, and not have resorted to the state for the purpose of having the marriage dissolved. In Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, divorces are granted principally for adultery on the part of the wife, and adultery coupled with desertion for over two years on the part of the husband.

In the subjoined table will be found the actual number of divorces and judicial separations granted during each of the years 1894-1900. It will be seen that, taking the states as a whole, with the exception of that for 1898, the rate for 1900 is the lowest shown in the table :

:

The following table shows the number of decrees of dissolution of marriage and judicial separation granted in each state, in quinquennial periods since 1871, so far as it is possible to procure the information.

Divorce was legalised in New South Wales in 1873, and the figures of that state for 1871-75 only cover the two years 1874 and 1875.

Taking the figures given in the foregoing table, and comparing them with the number of marriages celebrated during the same periods, the rates of divorce for the individual states, per 10,000 marriages, will be found below. It will be seen that the rate for New South Wales is higher than that of any country of the world except the United States and Switzerland :

From the appended statement, which sets forth the latest divorce rates of the countries for which accurate statistics are obtainable, such rates being calculated on an experience of ten years wherever possible, it will be seen that there is a larger proportion of marriages dissolved in Australasia than in any other part of the British Empire, but that the rate for these provinces as a whole is largely exceeded by a number of foreign countries. Of countries where divorce laws are in force, no reliable

statistics are available for Denmark, Hungary, Russia, and Spain. In Italy and Portugal divorce is not recognised by law :

In the United States of America no general system of registration of births, deaths, and marriages is in force. For the purpose of comparison, the marriage-rate of that country has been assumed to be 6.50 per 1,000 of mean population, and on that basis the 20,660 divorces granted annually during ten years would give an average of not less than 612 per 10,000 marriages.

In the Dominion of Canada divorce was, under the Union Act, assigned to the Federal Parliament; but those provinces which had established divorce courts before the accomplishment of federation were permitted to retain the jurisdiction which they already exercised. In the remaining provinces no divorce courts have been established since the constitution of the Dominion, and divorce can only be obtained by legislation, the matter being dealt with in each case as an ordinary private Act of Parliament, with this difference, however, that the Senate requires the production of such evidence in support of the application for relief as would be deemed sufficient in a court of law.

INSANITY.

The number of insane persons in Australasia, under official cognizance in the various Government hospitals for the treatment of the insane, at the end of 1900 was 14,846, equal to 3-29 per 1,000 lation, or corresponding to one insane person in every 304. above that prevailing in England, where one person in officially known to be insane.

of the popuThis rate is every 313 is

An inspection of the table given below of the insane persons, both male and female, in each state and New Zealand on 31st December, 1900, and the rate per 1,000 inhabitants of each sex, will disclose the fact that the rate of insanity varies greatly in the different provinces, and that the rate for males is everywhere higher than that for females.

2

Victoria has the highest general rate, with 3.69 per 1,000, Queensland coming next with 3.51, closely followed by New Zealand with 3:50. Next comes New South Wales with 3·25; South Australia with 2-71; Tasmania with 2.35; while Western Australia shows the lowest proportion with 1:58 per 1,000. Queensland shows the highest rate for males with 4.00 per thousand, and Victoria with 3.62 per thousand has the largest proportion of females.

There is one remarkable difference between the Australasian states and Great Britain, namely, that in England the greater proportion of insanity is found amongst women, whereas in Australasia it is found amongst men.

In England the rate per 1,000 males in 1900 was 3.16, and per 1,000 females 3:55. In Australasia the greatest disproportion was in Queensland, where the male and female rates were respectively 4·00 and 2·87 per 1,000. The smallest difference between the sexes is found in those states where the male population follow in greater proportion what may be termed the more settled pursuits. In Tasmania the excess of the male over the female rate was only 0-08 and in Victoria 0·12.

There seems to be little doubt that insanity is slowly but steadily increasing in the states, as it is in the United Kingdom and other countries. In England the rate has risen from 2-92 per 1,000 of population in 1884 to 3.36 in 1900, and in Scotland a similar rise has taken place from 2.75 per 1,000 in 1884 to 3:47 in 1900. In Ireland the rate has risen from 2-50 per 10,000 of the population in 1880 to 470 per 10,000 in 1900. The greater part of this increase is no doubt rightly attributed to an improvement in the administration of the Commissioners in Lunacy, by which а more accurate knowledge of the number of cases existent in the country has been gained; but the steady growth of the rate in recent years, when statistical information has been brought to a high pitch of perfection, plainly points to the fact that the advance of civilisation, with the increasing strain to

which the struggle for existence is subjecting body and mind, has one of its results in the growth of mental disease. In all the states of Australasia, with the sole exception of Tasinania, there is seen the same state of affairs as the insanity returns of Great Britain disclose, although the conditions of life press much more lightly on the individual here.

The experience of the various states is fairly represented in the following table, which shows the average number of insane in each state per 1,000 of population, arranged in three five-years periods :—

The only states where the rate is diminishing are Western Australia and Tasmania. In Western Australia the hospital accommodation is limited, and thereby many insane, especially males, doubtless escape notice.

It has been said that the trade depression experienced a few years ago throughout Australasia, was the cause of an increase in insanity; and at first sight it looks as if this were so, because since 1892 there has been a steady increase in the proportion of the population detained in asylums. But looking at the rates of admissions this view does not seem to be altogether borne out. Probably one effect of depressed times is to send to the asylums a number of harmless but demented persons who, under other circumstances, would be supported by their relatives. In England and Wales it is found that the increase in insanity has taken place amongst those who are termed the "pauper " class--that is, those whose relatives are not in a position to support them after they lose their reason. On the other hand, the admissions in prosperous times are kept up by insanity either directly or indirectly induced by the indulgence which commenly follows high wages and large gains.

The following table shows the average annual number of admissions and readmissions into the asylums in each state, and the rate per