DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER MARRIAGE BILL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5146, 20 September 1877, Page 2

DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER MARRIAGE BILL.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir, —I objected to the Deceased Wife’s Sister Marriage Bill when it was last introduced, and shall be obliged if you will permit me again to object. This Bill originated in England some forty years ago with those who had deliberately broken the English marriage law, and then sought to be relieved from the consequences of their illegality. They have since persistently agitated the matter. Confessedly there was no desire to change the old law, nor any grievance felt because of it, except amongst a very small number. I believe that there is yet no general desire for the change, and especially with those who would be the most affected by it. Certainly the opinion of ladies in England, in my own circle, was against the change. The question does, in the minds of very many, rest upon the authority of the Bible ; and many who now somewhat support the change would thoroughly oppose it if they were convinced that the Bible was against the permission sought for. No Hebrew scholar could say that the one text on which the changers rest can have but the one alleged meaning only which permits the change. The text when strictly translated forbids polygamy, and the marginal reading of our common version—“one wife to another”—is the exact rendering of the original. And further, if this text be removed, the whole tenor of the chapter in which it occurs forbids the principle of such marriages. Those who are of kin may not marry, and this kinship is not one of blood-relationship. All his wife’s bloodrelations become kin to the man on his marriage.—l am, &c., A- Stock. Wellington, September 19.

EIRE INSPECTORS. TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sir, —Can you inform me whether the Municipal. Council of Wellington has exercised the powers conferred by the Municipal Corporations Act, 1876, section 272, by appointin'* fire inspectors ? The 274th section gives to persons so appointed very necessary powers in cases where fires occur. The 276th section enacts that all damage to property caused by a fire inspector or by a person acting under his orders in the due execution of their duties under the Act, shall be deemed damage by fire within the meaning of a policy of insurance. —I am, &c.. Citizen. September 18.