Short title.
Addition of new s. 12A to Ordin-
ance No. 7 of 1875.
Amendment
of s. 13 of Ordinance No. 7 of 1875.
Substitu- tion for 5. 26, ss. 2, of Ordin-
ance No. 7 of 1875.
410
A BILL
INTITULED
[No. 13-30.5.34.—2.]
An Ordinance to amend the Marriage Ordinance, 1875.
BE it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:
1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Marriage Amend- ment Ordinance, 1934.
2. The Marriage Ordinance, 1875, is amended by the insertion of the following section. numbered 12 A, im- mediately after section 12 thereof :-
12A. No licence of the Governor and no certificate of the Registrar of Marriages shall be issued under this Ordinance if either party to the intended marriage is under the age of sixteen years.
3. Section 13 of the Marriage Ordinance, 1875, is amended by the insertion of the words "of or over sixteen: and" after the word "is' in the second line thereof.
4. Sub-section (2) of section 26 of the Marriage Ordin- ance, 1875,
as amended by the Marriage Amendment Ordinance, 1926, is repealed and the following sub-section is substituted therefor :-
(2) A marriage shall be null and void if both parties. knowingly and wilfully acquiesce in its celebration in any place other than the office of the Registrar of Marriages or a licensed place of worship (except when authorised by a special licence), or under a false name or without a certificate of notice or licence duly issued, or by a person not being a competent minister or the Registrar of Marriages or his deputy, or if either party to the marriage is at the time of its celebration under the age of sixteen years.
Objects and Reasons.
1. The Marriage Ordinance, 1875, (as since amended), provides by section 13 that if either party to a marriage, not being a widow or widower, is under 21 the written consent of the father (or in certain cases of the mother, guardian or registrar of marriages) is necessary. Subject to such vicarious consent the age of personal consent in the case of "Christian" marriages in the Colony is the same as it was in England until 1929, that is to say, 14 in the case of males and 12 in the case of females. The Age of Marriage Act, 1929, (19 & 20 Geo. 5, c. 36), avoided marriages either party to which is under sixteen.
2. The Secretary of State desires the same age limit to be prescribed in Hong Kong.
R. E. LINDSell,
A
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