NEW BILLS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 9138, 15 June 1880, Page 2

NEW BILLS.

» Maeeied Women's Peopjerty Peo^ TECTion Act, 1880 (Statutes Revision Commission). — This Bill is devised for the consolidation o£ existing statutes and for the obviating certain inconveniences arising in the interpretation of clauses of the existing Acts. A wife may apply to a Court for an order protecting any property she may acquire against her husband or his creditors, after the happening of any of the following events : — (1) Desertion without reasonable cause ; (2) subjection to cruelty without adultery ; (3) when the husband is guilty of living in open adultery ; (4) when he is guilty of habitual drunkenness, and (5) when he habitually fails to maintain his wife aud children, without such failure being caused by sickness or other unavoidable cause. By the 17th clause of the Bill it' is also provided that " the Court (Resident Magistrate's Court or Court of Petty Sessions) sitting at any place where an order was originally made shall have jurisdiction to discharge, vary, or reverse an order for protection, or to make any other order authorized under the Act, although such Court . may not be composed of the person or persons originally making auy such order. Masbiaoe Act, 1880 (Statutes Revision Commission). — This Bill is devised for the consolidation of existing Acts, and to render certain parts thereof more specific and to the avoidance of ambiguity in language. Thus clause 12 provides that every list of officiating ministers, and certificates under the hands of office-bearers or householders shall 1 continue in force for one year from the day of the .month in December in which the same is sent to the Registrar General, until the gazetting of the official list of ministers in the succeeding December, and no longer, and in clause 33 it is provided that every marriage solemnised before a Registrar shall, for the purposes of the Act, be deemed to be amarriage solemnised by such Registrar, the ex» plan at ion of this being given in the preceding portion of the clause, which reads thus: — "Any person who shall object to be married under the provisions of this Act, in the presence of any officiatingminister.may.aftercompliance with the provisions of this Act, in all other particulars, contract and solemnise marriage at the office, and before some Registrar, in the presence of two witnesses, with open doors, and between the hours aforesaid." The Bill provides for the forfeiture of. property acquired on marriage of minors without consent, the declaring of illegal marriages, and all settlements thereunder null and void, and. empowers the Attorney-General to sue for forfeiture of all estate and interest in property accruing to the offending party. Offences under the Act will be deemed misdeameanors, and false pretence of being an officiating minister and illegal issue of Registrar's certificates will be deemed felonies. Pboclamations Validation Act, 1880 (Hon. Mr Whitaker).— This Bill, which has passed all stages, provides for the validation of certain proclamations made on the 4th March last, constituting districts under the Acts affecting marriage, public health, and registration of births and deaths. Deaths by Accident Compensation Act, 1880 (Statutes Revision Commission). T This Bill, as explained by the Commissioners, comprises what is commonly known as " Lord Campbell's Act," already adopted in the colony, and an amending Act passed iv England, but not yet law in the colony. The Bill provides for the recovery of damages by parent or child (to second degree) of any person whose death has been caused by wrongful act, neglect, or default, such action to be brought by the executor or administrator of the person deceased, and the jury to apportion damages among the parties on whose behalf action has been brought, whether such damages are awarded after trial or the money is paid into Court. Every action must be brought within twelve mouths from the time of the cause of action arising, and if it shall happen that there is no executor or administrator o£ the person deceased, or if, there being such executor or administrator, they do not take aotion within six months, action may then be brought in the name or names of all or any of the persons beneficially interested. A Washington correspondent has discovered that old salts do not marry as quick as landsmen. Thia proves that the man who is accustomed to salt dreads getting into a picklu.