MARRIAGE LAW

Hokitika Guardian, 28 September 1920, Page 3

MARRIAGE LAW

AN OAMARU RESOLUTION

(Per Press Association.)

OAMARU, Sept. 28. Oaninru Presbytery as the Committee on Protestant principles for the Presbyterian General Assembly to-day passed the following resolution and ordered it to be sent to the Prime Minister;— “While recognising the right of every branch of the Christian Church to formulate its own terms of communion and to exercise ecclesiastical discipline upon its members in accordance therewith, yet inasmuch as the application of Ne T'emere decree in every case of mixed marriage affects a. party who is not under the jurisdiction of the

Church of Rome ,and traverses the laws of the land and law of all nonRoman Catholic Churches by declaring invalid a marriage duly solemnised according to those laws, and inasmuch as this decree has been so applied as to disturb the peace of families and to break up homes, and to seriously affect the social standing of members of homes, and inasmuch as there is generally conceded to the goverment the right to legislate prohibiting polygamy and free marriage, the Presbytery of Oainaru, acting in its capacity as the Protestant Principles Committee of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, calls upon the ' Government to devise means for the protection of the social interests and civil rights of all parties affected by this decree, either by some amendment

to the Marriage Act, or by the inclusion of new' classes in the Crimes Act, (if necessary) similar to Clause 174 of the new penal code of Italy,