MARRIAGE LAWS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 100, 26 January 1928, Page 11

MARRIAGE LAWS

Sir, —Permit me to point out, and I im doing this for the benefit of others rho may possibly find themselves in a limilar predicament in the near future, chat a marriage ceremony took place recently in a foreign consulate in New Zealand. This may have been in accordance with the laws of that particular country, but it has no value in New Zealand, as our laws are clear ami explicit on the subject of marriage and regarding those who are authorised to perform it. It is to be hoped that what is required under our laws will be compiler: with (unless it was done at the time), it being the Consular representative’s duty and responsibility to point out what was necessary apart from the Consular ceremony.—l am, etc., ORA PRO NOBIS. Wellington, January 9, [When the observations made irf the above letter were referred to the Re-gistrar-General of births, deaths, and marriages, he said that marriage in New Zealand had to be according to New Zealand laws, irrespective of the nationality of the contracting parties. He did not know if such a marriage as stated had taken place, but if it had it was quite possible that the parties had been married according to New Zealand custom, either by an officiating clergyman or a registrar, and that they had again gone through the ceremony with the Consul so that records of the marriage might be forwarded to the country of origin of the parties. He took it that Consuls had power to solemnise, marriages of their own countrymen for purpose of record in the country which they represented, but not for recording the marriage in New Zea-, land.]