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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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[September 17, 1008. ----
thé question was set at rest in a well known case (that of Nichola v. Curlier, on appeal in › 1900); and if the same rule were adopted as to the marriages themselves that has now been accepted as to the incidents of property, &o. accruing from them, an end would be put to the inconsistencies, which have so often caused trouble and injustice in respect to marriages èbroad- and the law applying to the marriage contract, in its civil bearing, which is all the State has to do with, would be once more as it should be, the same as that applying to any other form of contract in any part of the world.
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THE BUDGET SPEECH.
look at the death-rate, which certainly | THE COLONIAL MARRIAGES ACT concluded. This was long doubtful, but. appears ✨ satisfactory, but reflection will perhaps induce us to recall the modern axiom that figures can be held to prove anything Not for a moment should it be suggested that the death-rate is other than it seems. The figures as quoted are genuine, but they do no more than indicate the number of people who have died during a certain period, and after all that is no criterion of the health of the place. For one thing, most people who come out here have to satisfy a certain standard of fitness under medical examination. Without con- sidering the military and naval elements, in which only those who are physically fit are found; the majority of young men now in the colony have also been tested in a similar manner before they stepped on board the steamer which was to introduce them to Far Eastern life. That being so, we have to remember that we have speaking of the men at least-really a picked population. We have here, to start with, a healthy type of individual, able to withstand the trying nature of the climate. We have few of the weaklings whose early decease helps to swell the death-rate of communities less deliberately formed. With a population thus selected, is it any wonder that the death-rate is comparatively low We are all fond of selling each other that we are "not here for the benefit of our health." We all recognise that by coming here we have exposed our constitutions to risks that would not be run in the ordinary course at home, and we all know that our women folks take less kindly to the climatic conditions, than the men. Yet the death rate is not high aud compares favourably with many places in Britain. That how ever is not the point. The standard of healthiness is not so high, and ailing seems more common than is desirable. Of course when we remember that Hongkong is in the tropics, that it was once little better than a bed of fever, and that most of us bave come from temperate climates, it is very satisfactory to find the death-rate so low as it is and the amount of ill-health to greater than it is. Trite though it be, there is need however to remind many that the individual who most readily responds to his change of environment is best equipped for the new life. That, indeed, is where so many are found wanting. They adhere too closely to their old style of life, cr wher they make changes it is usually in favour of greater indulgences than would be theirs at home. In other words, if people from a temperate climate intend to live in a tro- pical climate they should make their manner of life more appropriate to the changed * conditions. Europeans must frankly admit that the transposition from the climatic surroundings of their earlier years to life in the tropics is not conducive to longevity. To many it may not appear to be harmful, and some exceptions are found who declare that they never felt better before, but nevertheless the change is bound to have some effect on the average. The fact cannot be overlooked that the hot summers tell on European constitutions, and whether the occasional voyage to Japan ur the more extended trip home serves to build up sufficiently those who have been at run down" is a moot point. The terrible results in England of the recently reported heat waves in which the maximum tem- perature was below our normal, appear to support our argument.
military
Prior to the manœuvres, selected Chinese to take part in a staff ride They light, carry maps, and will prepare their own food.
(Daily Press, 14th September.) Although the passage of the Colonial Marriages Act by the House of Commons, after that measure had been accepted by the Lorde, where the chief opposition to it has always existed, was a foregone conclu sion, the fact that this matter has at last been set at rest will be a subject of general congratulation in the Colonies. It seems indeed almost incomprehensible that the anomalous state of things which the recently passed Act removes, can ever have existed. That, after the royal assent had been given to Acts passed in various Colonies from time to time legalising marriages with a deceased wife's sister (against which, it may be observed, it seems difficult to find (Daily Press, 15th September.) any really valid reason) marriages so cont HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR having tracted in such Colonies should fail to be expressed himself as being "strongly averse recognised in the United Kingdom, seems to raising additional loans at the present contrary to every rule of common sense, time", an aversion which we believe would and to be among those things which as not be shared by some other publicists of Lord Dundreary declared, "no fellah can the Colony, we may confidently say that of understand." Certainly no ordinary layman the remaining alternatives he has chosen can conceive why the rule applicable to every the right one. In view of the present trade other form of contract, that if it is valid in depression, retrenchment seems, a much the place where it is me, it is so held in more seusible policy than an increase of all other places, should be departed from taxation would be. That would be, not- in regard to the most important form of withstanding HIS EXCELLENCY's half contract that can be enterel into. Such, threat that it may yet be necessary, to burn however, has been the view with respect the candle at both ends. We have also to marriages held in the English Courts, for some time past held the opinion that which have always claimed the right to retrenchment is possible and desirable in pronounce whether a given marriage out of various directions, and in common with England was or was not valid, and as a others who share that feeling, could have result there have been many anomalous wished to hear more of it as a policy dictated and some unjust decisions with respect more by conviction than casual necessity. to marriages contracted abroad. It is in To cut our coat according to our cloth is an consequence of this peculiarity of the adage which, while it happily pointed Hra Law or rather of the Courts that the EXCELLENCY's little sermon on resignation, question as to the validity in the United is in essence mischievous. It is not a good Kingdom of the marriages with a deceased rule to be consistently followed. It wife's sister in the Colonies arose. In regard advocates in effect living up to the full to jurisdiction the Colonies are looked upon extent of our income, which for a man of as foreign countries and thus, upon the no expectations is foolish. The GOVERNOR'S principles always adopted with respect to reference to the uncertain and fluctuating marriages out of the United Kingdom character of the Colonial revenue puta, us marriage with a deceased wife's sister in thein that position. This may appear incon- Colonies became open to question at home: and the curious anomaly above indicated of the Royal assent to a measure in a Colony not making it valid in the United Kingdom was arrived at. It has taken a long time for the commonsense of the nation to put an end to this very illogical and unsatia- factory state of affairs; and it may not be too much to hope that the day will come when a similar view will be adopted with respect to any question that may arise as to marriages contracted in foreign countries and that the principle will be accepted that if they are valid in the places where they are contracted they will be recognised else where. The question has been suggested more than once as a fit one for international conference; and it might form a more useful subject for consideration than imposssible suggestions for preserving the peace of the world by means of arbitration. All that is necessary in order to come to a satis- factory conclusion is to separate the purely civil from the religious or ceremonial aspect of marriage and come to an understanding that all marriages which have been concluded with the necessary civil elements of contract shall be gazetted by an Official Marriage Officer in the country where they have been celebrated, and that this announcement shall be taken everywhere as a final proof of their validity, The English Courts have already gone so far as to hold that the iccidents of a marriage contracted abroad as to property in the United Kingdom must be taken to be those created by the marriage in the country where it is
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sistent with our hint that further loans might not be unmixed evils, but we deprecate pushing the simile too far. There is more than one way of regarding such debt; in the case of such overdrafts a municipality, colony, or nation is not on a level with an individual. With regard to the revenue of the Colony, we suspect that the position as indicated by His EXCELLENCY will be regarded as a sufficient reply to the petition recently submitted by HIS LORDSHIP THE BISHOP and his reverend colleagues. We hope it will not be regarded as flippaney if we say, as we say with seriousness, that the noble ideal wrapped up in the historic, phrase "morally of indefensible" will probably lose some its glamour in the light of "impossibly inexpedient". Fortunately we may still feel honourable, if we reflect that here also was a case of state morality and personal morality being confounded. The profit that the Colonial Government counted on making on subsidiary coins would have been morally indefensible, from that point of view; and it happens by a coincidence that such a profit would also have been politically inexpedient this time. The "sterling men have also been calling attention to a matter they regard as morally indefensible, and it appears that the Secretary of STATE has more regard for expediency than morality. Throughout the Budget Speech, we are constantly reminded of how very inexpedient it would be to do the right and fair thing by these men. Yet there is another view which would regard
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