NATURALISATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 21, 22 December 1938, Page 8

NATURALISATION.

HUNDREDS OF NEW CITIZENS. (By Telegraph—Special to “Standard”) WELLINGTON, D6c. 22. The recent publication in the Government Gazette of the names of 230 males who have received, during the year, certificates of naturalisation in the Dominion suggests at first glance that the disturbed conditions of other lands had prompted somewhat of a rush for the privilege of becoming a British citizen. However, the records show that this total "s not abnormally large compared with recent years, for in 1936 practically the same number of certificates was issued. They are only granted after careful inquiry into the character of the applicant, who must have resided at least five years in a British country during the eight years prior to applying, and one year must have been in New Zealand.

The nationality status of married women was a somewhat indefinite question prior to the adoption by New Zealand of legislation similar in character to that prevailing in England. When an alien has become naturalised, his wife, if British horn, requires to make formal application for the issue of a certificate of naturalisation as a British subject, and this has been done by over a hundred women during the past year.