INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 24 December 1913, Page 6

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION.

SENSIBLE PEOPLES. Scandinavia's three kingdoms are itmdering, by means of individual legislation, a number of their laws identical With one another. In 1910 the Kings of lienmark^ Norway, and Sweden, cornea in creating-a permanent ocsindin&vian commission, composed ot the most eminent lawyers of their countries, to bring about a unlEcation ot their respective laws. The statutes dealing with trade and commerce and the maritime laws already have been thus unified, and the three, Governments have now completed, a similar work with regard to their iaws of marriage and family government. The features of tthese new laws for the three kingdoms are: Establishment of a minimum age for marriage—2l years for men and 18 years for women. The authorisation of not only the fattier but *lso of the mother of the bride is neces«ary to render the union valid until she has attained her twenty-first Divorce can only be granted after one year's separation, so that the parties may have plenty of time to reconsider their decision to dissolve their union. Lunacy, imbecility, and deaf-muteness are an absolute legal bar te marriage, and a union can likewise be annulled if it can be shown that one of the parties nad concealed from the other epilepsy, leprosy, or those other afflictions which oome under'the eugenic anathema, and which it is unnecessary to specialise.