THE MATRIMONIAL LAW.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 165, 12 July 1907, Page 5

THE MATRIMONIAL LAW.

LEGISLATORS AND STATUTES MIXEDi (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. New Zealand statutes in regard to matrimony seem to have become considerably mixed. Marriage with a deceased wife's sister or deceased husband's brother is legal in the colony, an amending bill to that effect having been adopted in 1906, but Sir William Steward, who makes a speciality of legislation in these matters, has discovered a serious flaw. A man who has been widowed may, he pointed ouE in the House, marry the sister of his deceased wife, though, however prepossessing her daughter might be, he could not marry the younger lady.

Mr. D. Reid (Taieri) objected to the legalisation of marriage with a deceased wife's niece, because it would put the niece into competition with her mother. (Laughter.) Mr. Heke ("the Northern Maori representative) said that a good many Maori women married by Euxo-pean-3 were deserted practically at the church door. He declared, apparently as a solution of the difficulty, that "legislation for the affinity of two persons may he separated and • gauged at the time of divergence." H would save trouble. He said, "It was recognised that husbands and wives had not a lease in perpetuity —(loud laughter)—but a lease according to the time their affection lasted and ended." He favoured the bill, which was in accord with the customs of the Maori people, it being usual for a dying wife to say to her sister, "You take my place," because the wife knew her family would be better reared and cared for if the sister became her husband's wife.

The bill failed to pass its second reading.