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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 10TH APRIL, 1875.
the right to forbid.
Penalty for
false statement.
Marriage in
and if he be satisfied that the person is not so authorised, 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 enquiry, or of any enquiry under section XVII, the Registrar General may administer an oath to any person.
XX. If any person wilfully makes any false statement in any affidavit as 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 impri- soned for any term not exceeding two years with or without hard labour.
Celebration of marriage.
XXI. Marriages may hereafter be celebrated in any licensed licensed places place of worship by any competent minister of the church, deno- of worship.
mination, or body to which such place 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.
Marriage cer- tificates.
Marriage before the Registrar General.
Marriages by
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 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, imme- diately after the marriage, and shall transmit the other to the Registrar General within seven days thereafter, and the Re- gistrar 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 may, if they think fit, contract a marriage before the Registrar General, in the 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:
The Registrar General, shall first address the parties to the following effect:-"Know ye, A.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 life time, 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 special licence the celebration of a marriage at a place other than a registered at other places. place of worship, or the office of the Registrar General, the Registrar General upon taking the affidavit of one of the parties to the marriage, shall deliver to him a blank certificate of mar- riage in duplicate, and the minister celebrating the marriage, the parties and two witnesses shall sign the same, in manner herein- before prescribed, and 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 there- after, and the Registrar General shall file the same in his office.
XXV. The Registrar General shall register all certificates of marriage filed in his office in such order and manner as he thinks best suited for easy reference thereto.
Certificates how filed.
Certificates or
XXVI. Any certificate of marriage filed in the office of the certified copics Registrar General, or a copy thereof, provided it purport to be signed and certified as a true copy by the Registrar General, and to be sealed or stamped with his Official Seal, shall be admissi-
to be evidence.
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