DOUBLE MARRIAGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19958, 27 November 1926, Page 13

DOUBLE MARRIAGES

NO LEGAL INFRINGEMENT,

AUSTRALIAN TEST CASE. (Press Association—By Telegraph—CopyrtgM.) MELBOURNE, November 26, In the Criminal Court the Crown Prosecutor announced that it had been decided by the Crown Law Office to enter a nolle prosequi in the case concerning a double marriage.

A Melbourne message dated the 12lh inst. said : The Victorian Crown law authorities are at present considering a number of prosecutions which it is proposed to launch in connection with declarations made by persons who, for religious and other reasons, are married in two churches. The first prosecution was at South Melbourne, where a man and , a woman were charged with having made a false statement on oath regarding their conjugal condition at the time of their marriage. The persons concerned were married first in a Roman Catholic church, and later on the me day in the Church of England, for family reasons. The man stated that he thought he was doing no wrong in describing himself as a bachelor on the occasion of the second ceremony. The magistrate said that a decision should be given. by a higher authority, and committed the accused for trial, stating that he would not take the responsibility of discharging them, though his sympathy was with them.