AGE FOR MARRYING

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 275, 16 August 1932, Page 14

AGE FOR MARRYING

/Mr. Justice McCardie and a Law FRANKNESS IN COURT "In my view the law which says that' do one can be married at a less age than 16 is imperfect,” declared Mr. Justice McCardie at the recent .Warwick Assizes. He was dealing with a case in which Bichard Stanley Burton, aged 33, was indicted for an offence in June against Matilda Alice Lawson, aged 15. Burton, it was stated, wished to marry the girl and the banns were put up. As she was under 16 the marriage could not take place. "I do not think I have ever seen n girl of 15 more fully developed physically,” said Mr. Justice McCardie, placing Burton on probation. “Her schoolmistress is rather understating it when she says the girl is equal in physical development to a girl of IS or 20. “It is a thousand pities that you, Burton, could not have been married before this. This girl is perfectly fit to marry. “Magistrates should be given the power to dispense with the provisions of the law if they are satisfied that it is in the interests of a girl or a man that a relaxation should be made in special cases.”