Marriage-à-la-New Zealand
For better, or for worse, 1887
New Zealand Observer and Free Lance, For better, or for worse, 1887, New Zealand Cartoon Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library
For better, or for worse, 1887
The New Zealand suffragette movement was a powerful advocate for the marriage law reforms ushered in by The Divorce Act of 1898.
Divorce was one of the key issues debated by the National Council of Women, formed in 1896 with Kate Sheppard as its inaugural president.
This unknown cartoonist mocks the church's vehement opposition to the new divorce laws, which were seen as 'undermining the sanctity of the marriage tie'.
Read 'The Evils of Divorce', a 1905 article in the Hawera & Normanby Star - Papers Past website
Permission of the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga O Aotearoa, must be obtained before any reuse of this image
