73.-(1) Upon an application for maintenance or periodical payments the pleadings when completed shall be referred to a Judge who shall investigate the averments therein contained in the presence of the parties or their advocates, and who for that purpose shall be at liberty to require any affidavits, the production of any document, and the attendance of the husband or wife for the purpose of being examined or cross-examined, and to take the oral evidence of any witnesses, and shall direct such order to issue as to the maintenance of either party to the marriage or the children of the marriage as he shall think fit.
(2) Pending the final determination of an application for maintenance or periodical payments an interim order may be made upon such terms as shall appear to a Judge to be just and without prejudice to the order to be ultimately made.