MARRIAGE AMENDMENT BILL.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19736, 28 September 1929, Page 15

MARRIAGE AMENDMENT BILL.

♦ SIR FRANCIS BELL'S OPPOSITION (abbidobd psbss association aSPOXT.) WELLINGTON, September 27. In the Legislative Council to-day, the second reading of the Marriage Amendment Bill, introduced in the House by Mr H. G. R. Mason, was moved formally by the Hon. Mr Gow. Sir Francis Bell objected to the principle contained in the measure, and declared that the Council had previously rejected the Bill. Whatever might be the principle of permission to marry a deceased wife's sister, it did not apply to the case of marrying the child of a deceased wife's sister because the c- ild * in innumerable cases had been brought, up under the man's roof, and the relation had been that of parent and child. He was not convinced that there was an anomaly in the present law as the mover contended, and he asked "the Council not to pass the measure on the assumption that it was to remove an anomaly. The Hon. Mr Gow maintained that Sir Francis Bell's presumption would not occur in the vast majority of cases. The Bill was a - natural corollary to what the law already contained. The second reading was carried by 13 votes to 9. The Council adjourned at 3 p.na.