The Telephone. WITH WHICH INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, DECEMBER 15.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 310, 15 December 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. WITH WHICH INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, DECEMBER 15.

Agreeable to a promise made a short time since that we would as opportunity allowed, occasionally' supply our readers with the cutl nes of the principal statutes passed by our Colonial Legislature during the late session, we propose to give in this issue a synopsis of “ The Married Women’s Proparty Act, 1884.” The relationshipbetween husband and wife as between themselves except as to matters domestic and as between each of them, and the public generally has been so .completelychanged by this statute as to create a decided revolution in the law on the subject. In order that the reader may the more readily appreciate the improvements effected by this Act, in the present state of the law relating to married persons, let us quote from a well-known .legal authority a few lines from the chapter headed “ Rights arising from the marriage.” He says, “:We now proceed' to examine the rights and liabilities of husband and wife, in so far as the same are enforced at law or in equity. Now, to comprehend the nature and extent of those rights and liabilities wc must keep in view a principle found in Blackstone and all the older writers, namely, that by marriage the husband and wife become one person in laiv, a principle it must be owned, not easily reconcileable with another principle which has universal application, that of coverture.; whereby the wife is regarded as distinct from her husband, but so entirely under his power and control that she can do nothing of herself, but everything by his license and authority. Coverture, which most of the cases better than unity, involves two ideas; on the one hand the husband’s supremacy; on the other the wife’s subjugation—both creating what are called her " disabilities.” By our New Zealand Act the husband’s “ supremacy” appears to have been so far curtailed as to make him only lord and master in his domestic relationship to his spouse, whilst after the first day of January next (the day on which the Act comes into operation) a married woman’s independence is secured to her in lieu of the "subjugation” before referred to. With the commencement of the New Year a married woman may acquire, hold, and dispose of any real or personal property as if see were a femme sole (single woman) without the intervention of a trustee. She may enter into any contract to the extent of her separate property and sue and be sued alone, and any' damages or costs recovered by her shall be her separate property, and any damages of costs recovered against her shall be payable out of her separate property rznrf not otherwise. Contracts entered into by a married woman shall be deemed to be entered into by her so as to bind her separate property, and such contract shall also bind after-acquired property. A married woman carrying on business separately from her husband shall in respect of separate property be subject to the bankruptcy laws. A woman mur ed after this Act shall be entitled to hold and dispose of as a feme sole of all property belonging to her at the time of her marriage, including wages, earnings, money’ and property gained or acquired by her in any employment, trade, or occupation in which she is engaged separately from her husband. A husband and wife may lend money on property to each other, but in case of the bankruptcy of cither such loan shall be subservient to the claims of other creditors. All property’ acquired after this present year by’ a woman married before the Act shall be held by’ her as a feme sole. All deposits in any post-office or savings or other bank, and all stocks or funds transferable in the books of any bank, and all shares, debentures, and other interests in any company or public body, or friendly, benefit, building, or

loan society standing in the name of a married woman shall be deemed to be the separate property of such married woman, and in the investment transfer and management of such property the married woman may act alone irrespective of her husband. Any investment fraudulently made by a married woman with moneys of her husband may by order of the Court be transferred into the name of the husband. A wife iTitiy insure her own or her husband's life to her separate use. Every woman married before or after the Act shall have in her own name against all persons hi chiding her husband, the same civil and criminal remedies for the protection of her sepaiate property a* if such property belonged to her as a feme sole, provided, however, that no criminal proceedings shall, he taken by a wife against her husband whilst they live together, nor whilst they are living apart, unless tue pioperty claimed by the wife shall have been wrongfully taken by the husband when leaving or deserting his wife. A wife doing any act to her husband’s property, which if done by him to her property would make him liable to criminal proceedings, shall in like manner be liable to criminal proceedings at the instance of her husband, and the husband and wife may be competent witnesses other. Sections 17, xB, and 19, relate 10 ;hj wife's ante-nuptial debts

and liabilities, and to suits in respect of the same. Ail disputes between a husband and wife as to the title to 01 possession of property may be decided by a J edge of the supreme Court in a summary way. A married woman may act as executrix and administratrix, and sue and be sued in such capacity as if she were ttfeme sole. A married woman having separate property shall be liable for the maintenance of hei destitute husband, and she snail also U liable for the maintenance of hei children. The legal representative o> any married women shall in respect 01 her separate property, have the same rights and liabilities as she would have if she were living. A wife may noi enter into partnership with anothei without her husband’s previous written consent, and lastly a married woman may by deed appoint an attorney fo. the purpose of executing any deed 01 instrument, or doing any matter 01 thing in the same manner as if she were tsfeme sole.