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VII. Whenever the Governor grants or cancels any such licence, the Registrar- General shall give public notice thereof in the Government Gazette."
Preliminaries to Marriage.
VIII. Whenever, after this Ordinance takes effet, any persons desire to marry, one of the parties to the intended marriage shall give notice thereof to the Registrar-General in the following form :-
Notice of Marriage.
To the Registrar-General of Hong Kong.
I hereby give you notice that a marriage is intended to be had, within three months from the date hereof, between me and the other party herein named.
Name
Condition.
Name of Bridegroom. Bachelor or Widower.
Name of Bride.
Spinster or Widow.
Witness my hand this
day of
Rank
or
Consent,
Age.
Dwelling Place.
Profession
if any, by whom given.
(Signature of the party giving the notice.)
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Every such notice shall be signed by the party giving notice.
IX. The Registrar-General shall file every such notice in his office; he shall expose one copy of such notice in a conspicuous place open to the public, and keep it so exposed until he issue a certificate as hereinafter mentioned, or until the three months expire; he shall also enter a copy of the said notice with the date of such entry in a book to be called the " Marriage Notice Book," and shall allow any person to inspect such book during office hours without fee.
X. The Registrar-General shall supply forms of notice gratuitously to persons applying for the same.
XI. At any time not more than three months nor (except when the Governor grants a licence) less than fifteen days after the giving of such notice, the Registrar-General shall, on the request of either of the parties, issue a certificate in the form A in the schedule hereto.
XII. The Governor may, at any time after a party has given notice as afore- said, grant a licence in the form B in the schedule hereto, authorizing the Registrar- General to issue his certificate on or after any day named in such licence.
XIII. If the marriage do not take place within three months after giving the above notice, the notice given and all other proceedings thereupon shall be utterly void, and fresh notice will be required before any marriage can be had between the parties.
XIV. The Governor may, when he sees fit, grant a special licence in the form C in the schedule hereto, dispensing with notice as aforesaid, or with the certifi- cate of the Registrar-General, or with both, and authorizing the celebration of a marriage between the parties named, between the hours of six in the forenoon and six in the afternoon, upon a day and at a place specified in the licence.
XV. Before the Registrar-General issues any certificate, and before the nce. Governor grants any licence, one of the parties to the intended marriage shall appear personally before the Registrar-General and make affidavit (which the Registrar-General is hereby authorized to take) that he or she believes that there is not any impediment of kindred or alliance or any other lawful hindrance to the marriage, and either that the consent of the parties required by law to consent to the marriage has been obtained or that no such consent is required.
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XVI. If either party to the intended marriage, not being a widower or a widow, age is under twenty one years of age, the written consent of the father, or (if he be dead) of the mother, or (if both be dead) of the lawful guardian of such party, must be produced to the Registrar-General before he issues a certificate, or to the Governor before he grants a licence.
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XVII. If there be no parent or guardian of such party residing in the Colony the Registrar-General may give his consent in writing to the marriage, if upon
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Inquiry the marriage appear to him to be proper, and such consent shall be as effectual as if the father or mother or guardian had consented.
XVIII. Any person whose consent is required as aforesaid may forbid the issue one of certificate of the Registrar-General's certificate by writing the word “ Forbidden" opposite the may be forbidden. entry in the
Marriage Notice Book," and by signing his name and the character
in which he forbids the issue; and if the issue of any certificate be so forbidden, the notice and all proceedings thereupon shall be void.
right to forbid.
XIX. If either of the parties to the intended marriage allege that the person The Registrar-General forbidding the issue is not authorized by law so to do, the Registrar-General shall may inquire into the inquire into the matter, and if he be satisfied that the person is not so authorized, he may proceed to issue the certificate in due course without reckoning the time that has elapsed since the issue was forbidden.
For the purposes of such inquiry, or of any inquiry under section XVII, the Registrar-General may administer an oath to any persou.
statement,
XX. If any person wilfully makes any false statement in any affidavit as Penalty for false aforesaid, or wilfully makes on oath any false statement or gives any false answer in any such enquiry, he shall, on conviction before the Supreme Court, be liable to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years with or without hard labour.
Celebration of Marriage.
XXI. Marriages may hereafter be celebrated in any licensed place of worship Marriage in licensed by any competent minister of the church, denomination, or body to which such place places of worship. of worship belongs, and according to the rites or usages of marriage observed in such church, denomination or body, provided that the marriage be celebrated with open doors between the hours of six o'clock in the morning and six in the afternoon, and in the presence of two or more witnesses besides the officiating minister.
No minister shall celebrate any marriage until the parties deliver to him the Registrar-General's certificate or the Governor's special licence.
Ministers may receive the fees ordinarily paid for the celebration of marriage. XXII. The Registrar-General shall cause to be prepared and delivered to the Marriage certificates. several licensed places of worship, books of marriage certificates in duplicate and with butts in the form in the schedule hereto. The certificate shall be signed in duplicate by the officiating minister, by the parties, and by two or more witnesses to the marriage.
The minister shall deliver one certificate to the parties immediately after the marriage, and shall transmit the other to the Registrar-General within seven days thereafter, and the Registrar-General shall file the same in his office.
The officiating minister shall enter in the butt the names of the parties and the date of the marriage.
XXIII. After the issue of a certificate by the Registrar-General, the parties Marriage before the may, if they think fit, contract a marriage before the Registrar-General, in the Registrar-moral. presence of two witnesses, in the Registrar-General's office, with open doors, between the hours of ten o'clock in the forenoon and four o'clock in the afternoon, and in the following manner:
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The Registrar-General shall first address the parties to the following effect :--- 'Know ye, Å.B. and C.D., that by the public taking of each other as man and wife in my presence and in the presence of the persons now here, and by the subsequent attestation thereof by signing your names to that effect, you become legally married to each other although no other rite of a civil or religious nature shall take place; and know ye further that this marriage cannot be dissolved during your lifetime, except by a valid judgment of divorce, and that if either of you, before the death of the other, shall contract another marriage while this remains undissolved, you will thereby be guilty of bigamy, and be liable to the punishment inflicted for that grievous offence.'
Each of the parties shall then say to the other I call upon all persons here present to witness that I, A.B., do take thee, C.D., to be my lawful wife (or husband)."
The Registrar-General and the parties and witnesses shall thereupon sign duplicate certificates in the form and manner hereinbefore prescribed.
The Registrar-General shall deliver one certificate to the parties, and shall file
the other in his office.
XXIV. Whenever the Governor's special licence authorises the celebration of a Marriages by special marriage at a place other than a registered place of worship, or the office of the licence at other placer