ADOPTION OF CHILDREN.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 4945, 1 March 1926, Page 2

ADOPTION OF CHILDREN.

NEW RRITUSH MEASURE.

PRAISE FOR NEW ZEALAND.

LONDON, February 26.

The systems of adoption prevailing in the Dominions and in India were freely referred to in the House of Commons during the discussion o® a private member's bill dealing with t,he adoption of children, which was read .a second time. The bill was introduced by a Conservative, Mr J. F. W. Galbraith, member for Surrey (Eastern), to- legalise. the adoption of children ifi Britain, provided each adoption is, sanctioned by the High Court or the Police Court.

The bill ajso provides that a child cannot be adopted by any person less than 21 years older ‘than the infant, or by one or two spbqsees without the other, or by any person not domiciled in Britain. , Mr Galbraith, in moving the second reading, declared: “We ai’e behind the Continental countries, America, and the Dominions, in this matter.” The bill, would, he s,aid,. abolish’the secrecy now practiced. by adoption societies in regard to the whereabouts of a child in view of the possibility of parents desiring to reclaim children.

Sir William Joynson-Hicks,. the Home Secretary, in whole-heartedly supporting the bill, isaid the legal systems of adoption were working admirably in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, particularly in New Zealand, concerning which he quoted a statement by the senior ..magistrate of the city of Wellington (Mr W, G. Riddell), that .the New Zealand system of adoption was in every way successful.