Manawatu Herald TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1919. “PERSON” DEFINED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2056, 18 November 1919, Page 2

Manawatu Herald TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1919. “PERSON” DEFINED.

THE English law, which defines “youth’’ so variously, is more consistent aboul the term “person." When recently the Royal Astronomical Society decided to admit women as Fellows the Council found that, under I heir charier, it was impossible to do so, remarks a London paper. Those eligible for election were described in the society’s bylaws as “persons,” and legal opinion was obtained to the effect that a “person’’ was strictly of the masculine sex. So the society had to get its charier altered to make it clear that, so far as astronomers were concerned, there were male and female “persons,” and not until this was dune was it possible to' grant the honour of fellowship to the .clover women astronomers who had worthily earned that distinction. You have* to turn to Acts of Parliament to find out Avhen a boy becomes a youth, and a youth passes -into manhood, 8 wrote a legal correspondent to a London paper. A “youth,” according to the “Cotton ■factory Act,” is a male from 16 to 18 years of age; a “child” under the “factory Act” is a person under 1-1 years, and a “boy,” according to the “Coal Alines Regulation Act,’’ is under 16 years. Then we have the “young; person,” which by the “Factory Acts” and the “Shop Hours Act,” means anyone under the. age of IS. Lastly, we have the “girl,” who ceases legally to be such at the age of 16, when she becomes a woman.