ANOMALY REMOVED

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32126, 23 October 1969, Page 1

ANOMALY REMOVED

Efforts begun four years ago to give five-year-old Douglas Foote, of Christchurch, a legal father ended yesterday when Parliament passed the Foote Adoption BilL Under the Adoption Act, 1958, an interim Court order is necessary in all adoptions, and before a final order is made adopting parents have to wait a probationary period of six months. The final order in the Foote case provided only for adoption by Mrs J. C. L. Foote, because Mr Foote had died during the probationary period. The Foote Adoption Bill provides for the final order to be retroactive to the time when Mr Foote was

alive, and benefits previously denied Douglas because of Mr Foote’s death will now be available. Mrs Foote said yesterday that she believed her case was the first in New Zealand, although similar cases had occurred since. Mrs Foote said she first approached the former Minister of Justice, the late Mr Hanan, with her problem, but was told she would have to wait for an amendment to the Adoption Act, 1958, to remove the anomaly. “That was four yean ago,” she said. “Douglas has just started school, and the amendment has not come through yet I began to look Into the law because nobody I asked had a

clue what I could do about the situation. There was a good deal of research, but it was worth it.”

Mrs Foote said she had difficulty in explaining the situation Douglas was in and technical problems had arisen when he was enrolled at school. Although Mr Foote had been a returned serviceman, Douglas was previously not entitled to any benefits normally drawn through this connection.

Her case had been taken up by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Kirk) and by members of the Canterbury District Law Society and on Tuesday night Mr Kirk told her that the bill was to be passed at 2.30 p.m. yesterday.