In most instances it is necessary to produce clear evidence of a marriage ceremony, but in some exceptional cases a marriage may be proved by long reputation. That is, if two persons live together as husband and wife for many years, and if they have always been regarded as such by their friends and neighbours, the courts will presume a legal marriage unless evidence is produced to prove that the parties were not lawfully married. DIVORCE.--An absolute divorce may be obtained according to the provisions of the Divorce and Matrimonial Compilation Act of 1904 by a husband or wife who has been domiciled in the Dominion of New Zealand for two years or upwards on the following grounds: 1. Adultery of either spouse. 2. Wilful and continuous desertion without just cause for five years and upwards. 3. Habitual drunkenness for four years with habitual cruelty or desertion on the part of the husband. 4. Habitual drunkenness for four years with habitual neglect of her household duties on the part of the wife. 5. Conviction and sentence to imprisonment or to penal servitude for seven years or upward for attempting to take the life of the petitioner. ANNULMENT OF MARRIAGE.--A marriage is annulled on the theory that true and proper consent to the marriage contract has never been given by the parties. The causes or grounds for such annulment are: 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 of the parties within the forbidden degrees of consanguinity or affinity. 4. That the marriage was procured by fraud or violence of one of the parties. 5. Mistake as to identity. 6. That the marriage was performed without the required legal preliminaries. 7. Insanity of one of the parties at the time the marriage was solemnized. Concerning the sixth cause the tendency of judicial interpretation and construction is to treat the legal requirements concerning formalities to be merely directory and to consider the marriage itself, if at least one of the parties acted in good faith, to be valid. The courts of New Zealand view many of the statutory requirements concerning marriage to be necessary and proper regulations, and which, if disregarded, subject certain persons to fixed penalties, but are not necessarily essential to the marriage contract. EFFECTS OF DIVORCE AND ANNULMENT.--The parties may remarry. During the pendency of the suit for divorce the husband is liable to provide his wife with maintenance or alimony. The amount granted is within the court's discretion, but generally it is about twenty-five per centum of the husband's income.