639478-1896-Bills-read-Widows---Orphans-Pensions-Amendment-Supplementary-Appropriation-Sale-of-Food-and-Drugs-Supreme-Court-Admiralty-Procedure-Marriage-Amendment-Prison-Officers — Page 54

THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 11TH JULY, 1896.

BE

A BILL

ENTITLED

An Ordinance to amend The Marriage Ordinance, 1875,"

E it enacted by the Governor of Hongkong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:---

1. This Ordinance may be cited as The Marriage Law Amendment Ordinance, 1896, and shall be read with and construed as one Ordinance with Ordinance 14 of 1875.

2. Section 39 of Ordinance 14 of 1875 is hereby repealed and in lien thereof the following figures and words are substituted :--

39. This Ordinance shall apply to all marriages where neither of the parties has an undivorced hus- band or wife living, except marriages between persons neither of whom professes the Christian religion duly celebrated according to the per- sonal law and religion of the parties; and the words "husband" and "wife" as used in this section shall include persons married according to their personal law and religion.

3. In the event of two parties wishing to contraet a marriage before the Registrar General under the provisions of section 24 of Ordinance 14 of 1875, they shall each of them, before being permitted to do so, sign a written declaration in the presence of the Registrar General, which he shall witness, in the form set out in the Schedule to this Ordinance. Such declaration shall, if necessary, be interpreted to both or either of the parties in their own language in the presence of the Registrar General, and the person interpreting such declaration shall subscribe his name to it as interpreter.

Tili.

Short title,

and eeustrac

liun,

Repeal of 4, 19 of Ord. 14 of 1879, and substitution of new section.

Parties marry- ing before Registrar

to sigu declaration.

SCHEDULE.

I, A.B., of

do hereby declare that I fully understand that by publicly taking U.D. as my wife (or husband as the case may be) in the presence of the Registrar General. I shall become legally married and bound to the said C.D. although no other rite of a civil or religious nature shall take place, and I do also under- stand that the effect of my publicly taking the said C.D), as my wife (or husband as the case may be) as aforesaid is to create between us a marriage which cannot be dissolved during our joint lives except by a valid judgment of divorce, and that, if either of us, before the death of the other, shall contract another marriage while this one remains undissolved, he or she will be guilty of bigamy and will be liable to the punishment for that offence.

Witness. W.X..

Registrar General.

Interpreted to the said A.B., in the

presence of W.X., Registrar General,

(Signed),

A.B.

language, in the

Y.Z., Interpreter.

Objects and Reasons.

Section 39 of The Marriage Ordinance, 1875, (14 of 1875) enacts that :- This Ordinance shall apply to all marriages where one or both the parties profess the Christian religion."

The object of the present Bill is to substitute a new section for the above in order to enable parties, who desire to do so, to enter into a valid civil marriage before the Registrar General, even though neither of such parties professes the Christian religion,"

The power of contracting such a civil marriage can, however, only be exercised by parties neither of whom has a husband or wife living, and the words "husband” and "wife" are defined to include persons married according to their personal law and religion.

Such a civil marriage is absolutely valid and binding upon the parties (see section 30 of Ordinance 14 of 1875), and either of the parties marrying again during the life- time of the other would be guilty of bigamy.

597