Married Women's Property Bill.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 247, 15 September 1884, Page 2

Married Women's Property Bill.

The following- is a summary of the most important ■ provisions of Mr Stout's. Bill now before tho House. The Bill provides (hat on and after the Ist January, 1885; a married wo. men shall be capable of Acquiring, holdiug, and disposing by will, |of otherwise, of any properly as. if she were a single woman, and she niuy eater into any contract;, irae, and lie sued, without the participation of her husband, either iv her losses or gains; but any contract entered into with a -aiumed woman shall bind not only the separate property ahe then possesses, hut also all that she may afterwards acquire. A woraau carrying on a trade separately from her hug-l»andr-\vill be subject to the bankruptcy laws, as if *he werennmamed. A woman married on and After the Ist January, 1885, will lie entitled to retain, as her separate property, everything of which she may be possessed at the time of marriage or may acquire afterwards, and a woman married before the Ist January, 1885, will lie entitled to retain all property coming to her after that date. Every married woman will m future have remedies at law for the protection and security of her separate property: She will have, even a»ain«t her husband, the. same civil remedies, and also the same lemudies l>y way of criminal proreedings for the protection and security of her own separate .property as if she were an uumarrjed woman ; but she cannot take criminal proofed* in^s against her husband while thy*y are living together, and neither a husband nor a wife can sne the other for a lort. In actions for the., re-, covery of property, a wife shall be competent to give evidence agauut-a husband, and a husband agunet his wife. As regards the .liability of a husband for the debts of his wife contracted before marriage, it is proposed tltat he shall be liable' to the full extent of all property whatsoever which he shall have acquired by his marriage with hei . Suits between husband and wife as to property are to be debilled l»y a judge m a summary swlay and may be heard m the judge's private room. A woman havingseparat* property is lesponsible for tire support; of her husband m case of destitution, also for her children and grandchildren ; , and a woman v may enter into a business partnership with any other man, provided she has the written consent of her husband .to do so.