4067.
No. 40.
(BARBADOS.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
MY LORD,
Royal Courts of Justice, 7th March 1885. We were honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Wingfield's letter of the 25th ultimo, stating that you were to transmit to us a copy of an Act passed by the Legislature of Barbados, and entitled "An Act to make valid the marriage of a man with the sister of a deceased wife."
That copies of Acts with a similar object, which had been enacted in Canada and the Australian Colonies, including New Zealand, and also a copy of our Report on the New Zealand Act before it received the Royal Assent, were enclosed for reference.
That Mr. Wingfield was to point out that the Barbados Act differed from all the other Acts in expressly validating in the Colony marriages celebrated or contracted elsewhere than in Barbados, and that it did not contain a saving clause similar to those contained in the Canadian, South Australian, Tasmanian, Queensland, and New Zealand Acts.
That our opinion was requested as to whether Her Majesty might properly be advised not to disallow the Barbados Act.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands, we have the honour to
Report
That we are of opinion that Her Majesty may properly be advised to disallow the Barbados Act as now framed.
It appears to us that the effect of the Act in its present form will be to render invalid a lawful marriage contracted before the passing of the Act where there had been a previous marriage with a deceased wife's sister; and that a proviso protecting such lawful marriages and rights of property depending upon them (similar to the saving clause in the Queensland, Canadian, and other Colonial Acts) ought to be required in all legislation of this kind.
It may be contended that such protection will not be required if, by the law of Barbados, the marriage with a deceased wife's sister was voidable, and not void, but that view is not sufficiently clear to be left in doubt.
We have, &c. (Signed) HENRY JAMES.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Derby, K.G.,
&c.
&c.
&c.
FARRER HERSCHELL.
A 15927-91. 35.-19/83.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
P
C.O.
Reference :-
·885
13 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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