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4. During the Japanese occupation, the Registrar of Marriages ceased to function, and no special licence could be granted by the Governor nor did the Japanese set up any alterna- tive machinery to fill the vacuum. Parties nevertheless continued to get married in licensed places of worship and also in internment camps. It is believed that in some cases, parties were married in hotels which, like internment camps, were not licensed places of worship. Altogether over 500 marriages to which the Ordinance would apply took place and in none of these cases was it possible to comply with all the requirements of the Ordinance, particularly, the vital necessity of obtaining either a certificate of notice or a special licence. There is, however, considerable authority for saying that where statutory requirements become impossible of fulfilment, the right to marry in accordance with the common law revives, so that a marriage celebrated in compliance therewith is valid. It is not altogether clear what the common law require- ments are in colonial territories, but again, there is authority for saying that the requirement applicable in England and Wales, that the officiating minister must be a priest of the Church of England, does not apply in the Colonies, and that in the Colonies, a valid marriage could, at common law, be contracted per verba de præsenti where compliance with local forms is impossible.
5. It is, in any event, clearly right that doubts as to the validity of such marriages should be removed, except in cases where the defect was a defect which went to the root of the marriage, i.e., which would have invalidated the marriage even if all the requirements of the Marriage Ordinance had been complied with. It may be, however, that in some cases parties have altered their position by remarrying or that their marriage has been dissolved by a court of competent jurisdiction. In such cases, the status quo should be preserved, i.e., the marriage should not be validated by legislation but either party should be free to argue that it was nevertheless valid at common law.
6. (a) The object of the present Bill is to give effect to the principles stated in paragraph 5 of these Objects and Reasons and also to make provision for relief from penalties applicable under the Ordinance and, so far as possible, for the furnishing of marriage certificates and their admissibility as evidence;
(b) Clauses 3, 4 and 5 of the Bill seek to carry out the first of these objects;
(c) by Clause 6, an officiating minister is relieved from penalties if he complies with Clause 7, under which he is under a duty to supply on request of either party a marriage certificate on the form prescribed by the Ordinance, or alternatively, after satisfying the Registrar that he cannot comply, to give a certificate in a modified form;
(d) Clause 8 makes both forms of certificate given under Clause 7 admissible in evidence.
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7. The Registrar of Marriages has already collected a con- siderable amount of information about occupation marriages, including a register of marriages celebrated at Stanley and particulars of marriages celebrated elsewhere in the Colony.
It
is appropriate that this information should be available to interested parties who may now, or at a later date, be seeking evidence of a marriage. This is provided for by clause 9 which also authorises the moderate fee of $5 for supplying the informa- tion.
8. In the normal course of events, an officiating minister should be able to comply with the provisions of clause 7, but it is conceivable that a case may arise in which a minister cannot comply, and ought nevertheless, to be relieved from penalties. Clause 10 accordingly enables the Governor in Council to provide for this by regulations. It is also desirable to be able to expand by regulation the procedure for an officiating minister to obtain the Registrar's consent to a substituted certificate and for applica- tions by the public to the Registrar. Provision has been made by clause 10.
J. B. GRIFFIN,
Attorney General.
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