The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 1888. THE DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1788, 13 March 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, MARCH 13, 1888. THE DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER.

That estimable lady the " deceased wife's sister " who has been the suhj-ct of perhaps more speeches, more leading articles, and more legislative Bills than any other representative of her charming sex, is about to make her sixty-eighth or sixty-ninth appearance at the bar of St Stephens with her petition for the

recognition of her rights. She has pleaded successfully with every colonial legislature, and is free to marry tho

widower if he be so disposed, and her children have all the rights and privileges of the children of other marriages, but while legitimate m the colonies they are illegitimate at Home, and she herself descends from the high status of wifehood the moment she set 3 foot upon English shores. A more anomalous, and unjust slate of things, it is impossible to imagine, and when the Queen's assent was given to Bill after Bill passed by colon} alter colony legalising marriage with a deceased i wife's sister, it ought lo have carried jj with it the implied understanding that all such marriages lawfully contracted m any colony should be regarded as valid and lawful throughout the Empire. Were it not for the Bench of Bishops f the anomaly of marriage laws totally at variance m this matter existing m

different parts of the Empire, would long ago have been removed by the passing of the Deceased Wife's Sister Marriage Bill at Home, but if that is to be still farther delayed, clearly no time should be lost m passing an Act to J recognise m Great Britain such marriages lawfully contracted m British dependencies. As our Napier daily contemporary well puts it, "the nonrecognition m England of colonial marriages of this kind involves under certain circumstauces peculiar injustice to the offspring. It is r>o novelty to colonial experience that settlers should inherit, unexpectedly, considerable property m the Old Country. When, m such case, ihe father of a family by a deceased wife's sister dies, his children cannot inherit the property m England which devolved upon him, for the law regards th^m as illegitimate. But, apart from W«e question of property m berilance, it is ridiculous that the several marriage laws of the various parts of the Empite should so differ that Her Majesty's subject may perchance find himself io be kgi'.imatdy born m one country, and illegitimately when he travels to another. In the one he is a reputable person, and m the other he is not. It is only claiming what is fair for the colonies to demand that there shall be no legnl disabilities attaching to persons m England whose parents have conformed to colonial laws which have received th* Royal assent."