LEGITIMATION BILL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20001, 28 July 1939, Page 11

LEGITIMATION BILL

INHERITANCE RIGHTS BIRTHS BEFORE MARRIAGE (Pur Press Association.) WELLINGTON, last night. The Legitimation Bill was also introduced in the House of Representatives to-day by the Attorney-General, the Hon. IT. G. R. Mason. This is a consolidation of the existing law with a minor amendment. The necessity for the amendment arises from the existing application of the system of registration of births, deaths and marriages to persons affected 1 by this -law. Under the existing provisions, a child born before wedlock whose parents subsequently marry, has been counted as legitimate for -the purposes 'of inheritance. This has ilways l been the lav/ in most Christian countries, but in New Zealand legitimation depended upon the parents registering the child as legitimate after marriage. This formality has sometimes been overlooked, with consequent injustice ito the child. The amendment makes legitimation follow immediately upon marriage, and registration may be effected at any time, even though the parents, or one of them, may have in the meantime died. Thus the inheritance of the child will not be lost through the parents’ ignorance of the law as to he registration in such cases.