APPLICATION TO MARRY

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28541, 21 March 1958, Page 13

APPLICATION TO MARRY

Judge Finds Want Of

Jurisdiction

(New Zealand Preu Association) WELLINGTON, March 20.

An application by a young man to marry • his sister by adoption was dismissed in the Supreme Court today by Mr Justice Haslam. His Honour said he had no jurisdiction to grant the application.

Peter Thomson, aged 25, of Wanganui, applied to marry Lucy Janet Thomson. Thomson was represented by Mr W. G. Clayton, and Mr W. J. Bain, of the Solici-tor-General’s office, appeared to assist the Court Mr Clayton said that this was not the case of a family adopting a baby. The man was 20 when he was adopted, and had been living with the family for three years before the adoption. The vital question was whether the Court had any jurisdiction to entertain the application.

Mr Bain said he doubted whether the New Zealand legislature had wished to go further than the British legislature, and under British law the two would have been at liberty to marry.

His Honour said it was all too clear that the effect of the New Zealand law was to make the applicant for all purposes the child of the adopting parents. He was forced to find that he had no jurisdiction and the application must be dismissed, he said.