A SHELVED BILL.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 929, 30 June 1903, Page 2

A SHELVED BILL.

DECEASED WIPE'S SISTER

By; Telegraph—Press AssociationCopyright. LONDON. June 28.

The Deceased Wife’s .Sister Bill lias been shelved for the session, owing to the obstruction of Lord Hugh Cecil and others.

“ Thero seems to bo u pretty geuoral opinion,” wrote a London correspondent, “ that the Deceased Wife’s Sister Marriage Bill has a very fair chanco of becoming law this year. That may explain tho more than usually heated languago indulged in by speakers at a recent meeting of tho Marriage Law Defenco Union. The passing of the Bill, says the resolution adopted at tho meeting, would bo ‘fraught with evil to the welfare of the people.’ If tho Bill is passed, said the Bishop of London, ‘wo lower our moral standard.’ It requires courage on the part of even a bishop to say that our moral standard would bo lowered by adopting an interpretation of passages in the Old Testament accepted by tho Jews themselves and concurred in by numbers of eminent Christian divines. Moroover, oven a Bishop of London ought to exercise a little tongue discretion. His remark concerning the “ moral standard ’ may be taken offensively in those colonies where, if a man feeD so disposed, ho may without fear, marry his late wife’s sister. The opponents of the bill, I may mention, aro not in tho least sorupulous in their opposition. Quite recently a laborer asking questions at a political meeting demanded to know whether the candidate proposed was in favor of tho 1 Deceased Wife’s Sistor Bill,’ and being answered in the affirmative, remarked, ' Then you don’t git my vote. I ain't agoing to be forced to marry anybody, let alone my wife’s sister Jane ; not ine.’ He had, of course, not tho vaguest notion of the provisions of the bill, and they had been interpreted for him by interested parties as being obligatory instead of entirely permissive.”