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Mat a notice thereof be published in the Hongkong Government Gazette.
I must confess that I am much astonished at the statement made by the Registrar with difficulty and can with ... accept it as correct, who no more object to provide a ... by the Ordinance and a licence simply means permission;
I should have thought that the fact that marriages which have been celebrated in this Church have been worked to the Registrar General and have been registered by him without question was over sufficient license. The Government cannot pretend not to be aware of the fact that the Church of the Immaculate Conception was moved years ago from Wellington Street to its present position, and has been habitually used for celebration of marriages ever since.
I think that Your Excellency had better assume that the Church was duly licensed by the Governor at that time, and there being no form of application, and no form of licence prescribed, that no record of it has been kept. I shall certainly insist upon it, that in the absence of any objection from the Government to the celebration of marriages in the Church since the day it was opened until now the Church was licensed by the Government, and that the Government cannot now turn round and say that it was not licensed.
As to publication in the Gazette, that was the clear duty of the Registrar General, however publication of the fact in the Gazette is not essential to the validity of the License. The provision in the Ordinance as to publication is merely directory. A Church may ...