1. A prior and existing marriage of one of the parties. 2. Impotency or such physical malformation of one of the parties which prevents him or her from consummating the marriage by sexual intercourse. 3. Relationship within the prohibited degrees. 4. That the marriage was procured by fraud, violence or mistake as to identity. 5. That one of the parties was insane at the time the marriage was concluded. 6. That the marriage was celebrated without the consent of the persons by law entitled to give or withhold consent. 7. That the marriage was performed without legal license, or the publication of banns, or solemnized before a person not having authority to officiate. A marriage will not be annulled on the last ground stated if it appears that one of the parties acted in good faith and honestly believed that the person who solemnized the marriage had the required authority. JUDICIAL SEPARATION.--A decree of judicial separation, which is equivalent to the old form of limited divorce (_a mensa et thoro_) may be obtained in any of the States for the following causes: 1. Adultery of either husband or wife. 2. Desertion without legal cause for two years or more. 3. Cruelty or abusive treatment of one spouse by the other. It is an absolute bar to a suit for judicial separation that the petitioner has committed adultery since the marriage. DIVORCE.--Absolute divorces completely dissolving the marriage bond are granted by the courts of every State in Australia. As every State has its separate statutes on the subject, which set forth the legal causes for divorce, we shall consider such causes in our discussion of each State separately. DEFENCES.--In all the States condonation of a matrimonial offence, which is a legal cause for divorce, is a good defence to the petition. It is also a sufficient defence for the respondent to show that the offence complained of was committed by the connivance or active consent of the petitioner. Connivance in adultery as a bar to divorce is founded on the doctrine _volenti non fit injuria_, the consent consisting in acquiescence, active or passive, in the adulterous intercourse. Passive acquiescence is a sufficient bar, provided it was carried out with the intention that the husband or wife would be guilty; but it must be something more than mere inattention, indifference or dulness of apprehension. The presumption, where the facts are equivocal, is in favour of absence of intention. One spouse must not invite the other to commit adultery; but he or she may permit the licentiousness of the other spouse to have its full scope without being guilty of connivance. It is not connivance to watch for the purpose of discovering a suspected fact so as to make conviction certain.