MARRIAGE LAW

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 308, 22 September 1920, Page 7

MARRIAGE LAW

NEW LEGISLATION APPROVED. By Telegraph—ltcsb Association. Christchurcli, September 21. The divorce law and tho Ne Temere Decree were discussed last night by the Council of Churches, and the following resolutions were carried:— "(1) Tho Council of Churches expresses pleasure' at the determination of the Legislative Council to introduce legisla-, tion that will prevent abuses occasioned. by tho operation of the Ne Temere Decree in reference to mixed marriages. "(2) The Council of Churches having regard to the fact of the promulgation of the Ne Temere Decree in the Dominion, which in its application in tho case of. mixed marriages traverses the law of the land and the non-Catholic churches, by declaring invalid a marriage duly solemnised according to these laws, and is so used as to disturb tho peace of families and broak up homes, and considering that the clause proposed in the Bill to amend the Marriage Act now before Parliament will prevent the declaration that marriages performed according to tho laws of tho laud are not marriages at all. and will not restrain any denomination from promulgating its own special doctrine regarding marriage, expri&ses approval of tho purpose of the clause, and hopes that, in whatever form may be deemed wisest, the House of Representatives will pass it into law, ana 60 conserve the rights nnd liberties of all aenorninations."'

P.P.A. RESOLUTION. Palmerston North, September 21. A meeting of the Protestant Political Association last evening recorded its high appreciation of tho services rendered to the non-Roman Catholic community by tho Rev. Howard Elliott in directing public attention to the teachings of. the Roman Catholic Church under the l\o Temere Decree; also expressing its conviction that the amendment to tho Marriage Act Amendment Bill by the Legislative Council was desirable in tho interests of religious _ freedom and tolerance. Tho meeting further expressed a hope that the Houso of Representatives. would endorse tho action of the Statutes Revision Committee of the Upper House. 5 Wanganui, September 21. The following resolution was carried at a meeting of the Wanganui executive of the Protestant Political Association:— "This meeting endorses the act of the Dominion executivo in bringing before Parliament the' iniquitous work of the No Temere Decree in this Dominion. It compliments the Rev. Howard Elliott on the able manner in which he presented our case to tho committee, and assures tho Prime Minister that, in upholding the validity of marriago : according to civil law, and protecting the issue of such, marriago from tho stigma of illegitimacy, as also in deaiitig with these recalcitrant, individuals who threatened to defy the proposed law, he will have behind him, not only the huge membership of the P.P.A., but the whole of the Protestants of the country."