3

-D—-Mo, .4

addition to statistical knowledge which can be derived from ascertaining whether persons of full age are a few years older or younger when they marry, is deemed by many rather inquisitorial than useful; and, however this may be, the information is perhaps, purchased too dearly at the expense of the annoyance which the requirement often seems to produce. The matter assumes a more serious aspect, if, as I have been assured, it sometimes operates as a temptation to mis-statement on the subject. Indeed, I have in several instances observed discrepancies between the ages as entered in the Notice and in the Minister's Return. On the whole, I think it would be expedient to admit " Full Age" as sufficient in the Notice, when the person is 21 or upwards ; although in the case of a minor, it may be well still to require,.that the precise age should be specified. In the Form of Registration by the Officiating Minister there seems even no necessity for retaining even this latter requirement, "Full Age" or "•Minor" would appear to be quite enough. 6. Schedule C has been complained of also as requiring needless, and under the circumstances in which the entry is made, vexatious repetitions. There certainly appears no sufficient reason why the persons married should be required to write their names twice, and the Officiating Minister to write his three]]times. The form was in this part taken from that required under the Ordinance of 1847 ; I believe without any particular examination into its fitness. I think/ it would be well to abridge it by the omission of all that is not legally necessary. 7. The wording of clause 10, which provides that, in order to the issue of an immediate certificate, the consent of the parent or guardian must " appear upon the, Notice," —seems to require that the consent must be on the same paper with the Notice ; and, thus interpreted, it occasionally proves a source of considerable inconvenience to persons residing at a distance from the Registrar's Office. The real object might be equally secured by admitting a consent (signed before a Justice of the Peace, or a Solicitor of the Supreme Court as is now required) on a separate paper, and in any form of words that will clearly express the fact of consent being given. 8. Schedule D (containing the enumeration of Religious Bodies with reference to the formation of the List of Officiating Ministers), may admit of some improvement and enlargement. For instance, the addition of " The Protestant Reformed Church of Germany" would meet the strongly expressed wish of a number of Settlers in an outlying tract of country in the Province of New Plymouth, as well as be in accordance with the comprehensive and inclusive spirit in which the Schedule was framed. There may also be possibly one or two modifications of the designations of Bodies which would give satisfaction. But this is a matter which should be touched with great caution, inasmuch as the pacific and harmonising effect of the Act might here be seriously, though inadvertently interfered with, by changes which would appear of little or no importance to persons unacquainted with the ecclesiastical views and organizations of the different Bodies. I would recommend that in any outline of an amended Act which may be contemplated at present, no allusion be made to any such changes ; leaving them to come, if strongly desired, as suggestions from the parties concerned. To the addition 1 have mentioned, there would not, I apprehend, be any objection from any quarter. 9. Besides the amendments to which I have now specially alluded, various verbal alterations may probably be found desirable with the view of simplifying the language of the Act, and rendering its meaning as easily intelligible as possible ; an object of no small importance in a Law iv which every family in the country may be said to have a domestic interest, and the administration of which must practically devolve upon so many persons—Registrars and Officiating Mmisters—several of whom may be unpractised in the interpretation of technicalities and formal terms, and live in places where they can have no advice to guide them in any case of uncertainty. The attainment of this end, would, I submit, be worth the exercise of any amount of legal ability and Care which its accomplishment may require. The suggestions of the class referred to which 1 could myself offer, would swell this communication to an immoderate extent, and moreover could be best explained in conversation at the time when the amended Bill may be in actual preparation. It is obviously most desirable that the next amendments of the Act should be so well-considered as to be, as far as practicable, final; the very name of alterations in a Law which after years of anxious discussion was regarded as substantially settled, being calculated to excite uneasy apprehensions in the minds of persons imperfectly aware of the limited nature of the changes really proposed. 10. It may perhaps be proper that, before concluding, I should refer to one or two alterations in the Law, which have been repeatedly spoken of, although I should not feel justified in. taking upon myself the responsibility of recommending them :— (I.) It has been urged that the period of minority, in which the consent of parents or guardians is required, should terminate before the age of 21, —some think at 16, some at 18, —especially in the case of a Female. I feel bound respectfully but decidedly to state as my own opinion, fortified by the opinions of some whose judgments on the point I think entitled to attentive consideration, that it would not be advisable to adopt such a change. The existing law makes provision not only for the large class of Minors whose friends Consent, but also for the other large class who have no friends (authorized to give legal consent) residing in the Colony. There only remains the comparatively small, and—generally speaking—not very deserving class of young persons who have parents or guardians in the Colony, but who desire to marry against their wishes; or, to take the most favourable instances, without their concurrence. I am aware that individual cases of considerable hardship may occur ; but what is true of other Laws is perhaps eminently true of a Marriage Law ; to be efficient, it must impose restrictions for the general good, which, in the special circumstances of a few particular cases, press with a severity that cannot be avoided, however much it may be regretted.