NE TEMERE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 156, 31 December 1923, Page 8

NE TEMERE

MARRIAGE REFORM IN N.S.W. (THOU OCR OWN CORMSPONDENI.) SYDNEY, 26th December. One of the most debatable measures ever introduced into the State Legislature is the Ne Temere Bill, further consideration of which has been deferred until the next session. According to the decree Ne Temere, marriages celebrated' outside the Roman Catholic Church, if either party is a Roman Catholic, are null and void in the sight of the Church.

The Minister of Justice (Mr. Ley), in moving the second reading of the Bill, which, in some quarters, is regarded as sectarian and an unwarranted attack upon Roman Catholic citizens, gave several instances where the validity of a lawful marriage had been impugned. He cited cases iv which statutory declaratoons had been furnished. He denies that the Bill is sectarian, and says, that it will be applied to all persons in the community, irrespective of creed. A big battle is sure to wage round the Bill. Another object of the Bill is to legalise marriages,-as in New Zealand and in England, between any person and the widow of the deceased brother, or, conversely, between a widow and her deceased husband's brother. For those who deny or impugn the validity of a 'IV vSL ma"iage the™ W'U be a penalty of £100, either alone or with imprisonment for a term not exceeding twelve months ; also, ons conviction, disqualification from celebrating marriages. Another provision will sound the death knell of what the Minister describes as marriage shops-ie., in the case of those who make a 1 business of celebrating marriage for the purpose of gain