Every Deputy Registrar of Births and Deaths to be appointed under the authority of the Ordinance for Registering Births, Deaths, and Marriages in the Colony of New Zealand, shall in right of such his office be also Deputy Registrar of Marriages within the district for which he shall have been appointed Deputy Registrar of Births and Deaths.

In every case of marriage intended to be solemnized in the Colony of New Zealand after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, unless by license first lawfully obtained or after the publication of banns, one of the parties shall, under his or her hand, give notice, in the form in Schedule A to this Ordinance annexed, to the Deputy Registrar of the district within which the parties shall have dwelt for not less than seven days, and shall therein state the name and surname and the profession or condition of each of the parties intending marriage, the dwelling-place of each of them and the time (not being less than seven days) that each of them has dwelt therein, and the church building or place in which the marriage is to be solemnized: Provided that in all cases where marriage is solemnized after the publication of banns, such publication shall take place on three distinct Sundays previously to the marriage of the parties, either immediately before the commencement or during the time of divine service, and when the congregation shall have assembled and shall be present: Provided always that if the parties dwell in the districts of different officers appointed under this Ordinance, they shall give the like notice to the Deputy Registrar of each district as the case may be.

The Deputy Registrar shall file all such notices and keep them with the records of his office, and shall also forthwith enter a true copy of all such notices fairly into a parchment book to be furnished to him by the Government and to be called the “Marriage Notice Book:” Provided always that before the copy of any such notice shall be so entered in the Notice Book, some creditable person known to the Deputy Registrar shall satisfy him, if he think fit to require it, of the truth of the several particulars set forth in such notice.

In every case in which it is intended that the marriage shall take place in the presence of a Deputy Registrar as is hereafter provided, a true and exact copy of such notice of marriage under the hand of some Deputy Registrar shall be suspended in some conspicuous place in the Registry Office where such notice was given, during fourteen days before any marriage shall be solemnized in pursuance of such notice.

There shall be paid to the Deputy Registrar for every such true and exact copy of such notice of marriage by the party who leaves such notice at the office of such Deputy Register a fee of two shillings and sixpence.

Every such “Marriage Notice Book” shall be open at all reasonable times to all persons desiring to inspect the same, and for every such entry or search there shall be paid to the Deputy Registrar a fee of two shillings and sixpence.

After the expiration of twenty-one days after the entry of such notice the Deputy Registrar, upon being requested so to do by and on behalf of the party by whom the notice was given, shall issue under his hand a certificate in the form in Schedule B to this Ordinance annexed: Provided that no lawful impediment be shown, to the satisfaction of the Deputy Registrar, why such certificate should not issue, and provided that the issue of such certificate shall not have been sooner forbidden in manner hereinafter mentioned by any person or persons authorized in that behalf as hereinafter is provided; and every such certificate shall state the particulars set forth in the notice,—the day on which the notice was entered, and that the full period of twenty- one days has elapsed since the entry of such notice, and that the issue of such certificate has not been forbidden by any person or persons authorized in that behalf.

For every such certificate the Deputy Registrar shall be entitled to have a fee of one shilling.

Licenses to marry without publication of banns may be issued according to the Ecclesiastical Laws of the United Church of England and Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church, by the proper authorities, according to such laws for marriages to be celebrated agreeably to the forms and usages of the said churches: Provided always that no such license for marriage shall be issued in any case in which any person whose consent to any marriage by license would have been required by law shall not have previously given his or her consent.

After the said first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, every Deputy Registrar shall have power to grant licenses for marriage under this Ordinance as herein provided within any district under his superintendence, in the form in Schedule C hereunto annexed: Provided always that nothing herein contained shall authorize any Deputy Registrar to grant any license for marriage in any church or chapel in which marriages may be solemnized according to the form and usages of the said Church of England, or in any church or chapel belonging to the Church of England, or any license for a marriage which is not intended to be celebrated within his district.

Before any license for marriage shall be granted by any such Deputy Registrar, one of the parties intending marriage shall appear personally before such Deputy Registrar and shall make oath, or his or her solemn affirmation or declaration instead of taking oath, that he or she believeth that there is not any impediment of kindred or alliance or other lawful hindrance to the said marriage, and that one of the said parties hath for the space of fifteen days immediately before the day of the granting of such license had his or her usual place of abode within the district wherein such marriage is to be solemnized, and where either of the parties not being a widow or a widower shall be under the age of twenty-one years, that the consent of the person or persons whose consent to such marriage is by law required hath been obtained thereto, or that there is no person having authority to give such consent as the case may be.

Whenever a marriage shall not be had within three calendar months after the notice shall have been so entered by the Deputy Registrar, the notice and any license which may have been granted thereupon and all other proceedings thereupon shall be utterly void.

For every such license the Deputy Registrar shall be entitled to have of the party requiring the same the sum of three pounds.

Every Deputy Registrar shall four times in every year, on such days as shall be appointed by the Governor for the time being, make a return to the Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages of every license granted by such Deputy Registrar since his last return, and of the particulars stated concerning the parties.

The father if living of any party under twenty-one years of age, such party not being a widower or widow, or, if the father shall be dead or absent from the Colony, the guardian or guardians of the person of the party so under age lawfully appointed or one of them, and in case there shall be no guardian or guardians then the mother of such party if unmarried and resident in the Colony, and if there shall be, no mother unmarried resident within the Colony, then the guardian or guardians (if any) of the person appointed by the Supreme Court or one of them, shall have authority to give consent to the marriage of such party, and such consent is hereby required for the marriage of such party so under age unless there shall be no person authorized to give such consent.

In case the father or fathers of the parties to be married or of one of them so under age as aforesaid shall be non compos mentis, or the guardian or guardians mother or mothers or any of them whose consent is made necessary as aforesaid to the marriage of such party or parties shall be non compos mentis, or in parts beyond the seas, or shall unreasonably or from undue motives refuse or withhold his or her or their consent to a proper marriage, then it shall and may be lawful for any person desirous of marrying in any of the above-mentioned cases to apply by petition to a Judge of the Supreme Court, any one of whom is hereby empowered to proceed upon such petition in a summary way, and in case the marriage proposed shall upon examination appear to be proper, any such Judge shall judicially declare the same to be so, and such judicial declaration shall be deemed and taken to be as good and effectual to all intents and purposes as if the father guardian or guardians or mother of the person so petitioning had consented to such marriage.

Any person whose consent is required as aforesaid may forbid the issue of the Deputy Registrar’s certificate, by writing at any time in the presence of the Deputy Registrar before the issue of such certificate the word “Forbidden,” opposite to the entry of the notice of such intended marriage in the “Marriage Notice Book,” and by subscribing thereto his or her name and place of abode and his or her character in respect of either of the parties by reason of which he or she is so authorized; and in case the issue of any such certificate shall have been so forbidden, the notice and all proceedings thereupon shall be utterly void.

Any person on the payment of five shillings may enter a caveat with the Deputy Registrar against the grant of a certificate or a license for the marriage of any person named therein; and if any caveat be entered with the Deputy Registrar, such caveat being duly signed by or on behalf of the person who enters the same, together with his or her place of residence and the ground of objection on which his or her caveat is founded, no certificate or license shall be granted until the Deputy Registrar shall have examined into the matter of the caveat and be satisfied that it ought not to obstruct the grant of the certificate or license for the said marriage, or until the caveat be withdrawn by the party entering the same: Provided always in case of a Deputy Registrar refusing the grant of a certificate or license, the person applying for the same shall have a right to appeal to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, who shall thereupon either confirm the refusal or direct the grant of the certificate or license.

Every person who shall enter a caveat with the Deputy Registrar against the grant of any license or issue of any certificate on grounds which the said Registrar-General shall declare to be frivolous and vexatious, and that they ought not to obstruct the grant of the license, shall be liable for the cost of the proceedings and for damages to be recovered in a special action upon the case by the party against whose marriage such caveat shall have been entered.

After the said first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, no marriage after such notice as aforesaid, unless by virtue of a license to be granted by a Deputy Registrar, shall be solemnized or registered in the Colony of New Zealand until after the expiration of twenty-one days after the day of entry of such notice as aforesaid; and no marriage shall be solemnized by the license of any Deputy Registrar or registered until after the expiration of seven days after the day of such notice as aforesaid.

The Deputy Registrar’s certificate shall be delivered to the officiating minister, and the said certificate or license shall be delivered to the registering officer of the people called Quakers for the place where the marriage is solemnized according to the usages of the said people, or to the officer of a synagogue by whom the marriage is registered if the same shall be solemnized according to the usages of the people professing the Jewish religion, and in all other cases shall be delivered to the minister officiating or to the Deputy Registrar present at such marriage, as is hereinafter provided.

After the expiration of the said period of twenty-one days, or of seven days if the marriage be by license of a Deputy Registrar, marriages may be solemnized in the place stated in the notice of such marriage between and by the parties described in the notice and certificate according to such form and ceremony as they may see fit to adopt: Provided nevertheless that every such marriage shall be solemnized with open doors between the hours of eight in the forenoon and four in the afternoon in the presence of an officiating minister and two or more witnesses: Provided also that in some part of the ceremony and in the presence of the officiating minister and witnesses as aforesaid each of the parties shall declare—

I do solemnly declare that I know not of any lawful impediment why I, A.B., may not be joined in matrimony to C.D. And each of the parties shall say to each other—

I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, A.B., do take thee, C.D., to be my lawful wedded wife [or husband].

Provided also that there be no lawful impediment to the marriage of such parties.

Any person who shall object to marry under the provisions of this Ordinance in the presence of any officiating minister may, after due notice and certificate issued as aforesaid, contract and solemnize marriage at the office of or elsewhere and in the presence of some Deputy Registrar in the presence of two witnesses, with open doors and between the hours aforesaid, making the declaration and using the form of words hereinbefore provided.

The Deputy Registrar shall be entitled, for every marriage which shall be solemnized under this Ordinance in his presence as aforesaid, to have from the parties married the sum of ten shillings.

After any marriage shall have been solemnized it shall not be necessary in support of such marriage to give any proof of the actual dwelling of either of the parties previous to the marriage within the district wherein such marriage was solemnized for the time required by this Ordinance, or of the consent of any person whose consent thereunto is required by law, nor shall any evidence be given to prove the contrary in any suit touching the validity of such marriage.

It shall be lawful for the officiating clergyman, minister, or Deputy Registrar before whom any marriage is solemnized, according to the provisions of this Ordinance, to ask of the parties to be married the several particulars required to be registered touching such marriage.

If any person shall knowingly and wilfully intermarry, after the said first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, under the provisions of this Ordinance, in any other place than the church chapel office or other place specified in the notice and certificate where such notice and certificate are necessary under this Ordinance, or without due notice to the Registrar where such notice is necessary under this Ordinance, or without certificate of such notice duly issued, or without license in case a license is necessary under this Ordinance, or in the absence of a Registrar or officiating minister when the presence of a Registrar or officiating minister as aforesaid is necessary under this Ordinance, the marriage of such persons shall be null and void.

If any valid marriage solemnized by license shall after the said first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, be procured by a party to such marriage to be solemnized between persons one or both of whom shall be under the age of twenty-one years, not being a widower or widow, contrary to the provisions of this Ordinance, by means of such party falsely swearing or declaring as to any matter or matters to which such party is hereinbefore required personally to swear or declare, such party wilfully and knowingly so swearing or declaring,—or if any valid marriage by banns shall after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, be procured by a party thereto to be solemnized by banns between persons one or both of whom shall be under the age of twenty-one years, not being a widower or widow, such party knowing that such party as aforesaid under the age of twenty-one years had a parent or guardian then living, and that such marriage was had without the consent of such parent or guardian, and knowing that banns had not been duly published according to the provisions of this Ordinance, and having knowingly caused or procured the undue publication of banns,—then and in every such case it shall be lawful for Her Majesty’s Attorney-General, by information in the nature of an English Bill in the Supreme Court, at the relation of a parent or guardian of the minor whose consent has not been given to such marriage and who shall be responsible for any costs incurred in such suit, such parent or guardian previously making oath as hereinafter required, to sue for a forfeiture of all estate right title or interest in any property which hath accrued or shall accrue to the party so offending by force of such marriage; and such Court shall have power in such suit to declare such forfeiture, and thereupon to order and direct that all such estate right title and interest in all property as shall then have accrued or shall thereafter accrue to such offending party by force of such marriage, shall be secured under the direction of such Court for the benefit of the innocent party or of the issue of the marriage or any of them in such manner as the said Court shall think fit, for the purpose of preventing the offending party from deriving any interest in real or personal estate or pecuniary benefits from such marriage; and if both the parties so contracting marriage shall in the judgment of the Court be guilty of any such offence as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the said Court to settle and secure such property, or any part thereof, immediately for the benefit of the issue of the marriage, subject to such provisions for the offending parties, by way of maintenance or otherwise, as the said Court under the particular circumstances of the case shall think reasonable, regard being had to the benefit of the issue of the marriage during the lives of their parents, and of the issue of the parties respectively by any future marriage, or of the parties themselves in case either of them shall survive the other.

No such information as aforesaid shall be filed unless it shall be made out to the satisfaction of the Attorney-General before he files the same, by oath or oaths, that the valid marriage to be complained of in such information hath been solemnized in such manner and under such circumstances as in the judgment of the said Attorney- General are sufficient to authorize the filing the information under the provisions of this Ordinance, and that such marriage hath been solemnized without the consent of the party or parties at whose relation such information is proposed to be filed, or of any other parent or guardian of the minor married, to the knowledge or belief of the relator or relators so making oath, and that such relator or relators hath not known or discovered that such marriage hath been solemnized more than three months previous to his or their application to the Attorney-General.

All agreements settlements and deeds entered into or executed by the parties to any marriage, in consequence of or in relation to which marriage such information as aforesaid shall be filed, by either of the said parties, before and in contemplation of such marriage, or after such marriage, for the benefit of the parties or either of them or their issue, so far as the same shall be contrary to or inconsistent with the provisions of such security and settlement as shall be made by or under the direction of the Supreme Court as aforesaid under the authority of this Ordinance, shall be absolutely null and have no force or effect.

Any original information to be filed for the purpose of obtaining a declaration of any such forfeiture as aforesaid shall be filed within one year after the solemnization of the marriage by which such forfeiture shall have been incurred, and shall be prosecuted with due diligence; and in case any person or necessary party to any such information shall abscond or be or continue out of the Colony, it shall be lawful for the Court to order such person to appear to such information and answer the same within such time as to the Court shall seem fit, and to cause such order to be served on such person at any place out of the Colony, or to cause such order to be inserted in the New Zealand Government Gazette and such other newspapers as to the Court shall seem proper, and in default of such person appearing and answering such information within the time to be limited as aforesaid, to order such information to be taken or confessed by such person, and to proceed to make such decree or order upon such information as the Court might have made if the person had appeared to and answered such information: Provided always that in case the person at whose relation any such suit shall have been instituted shall die pending such suit, it shall be lawful for the Court, if the Court shall see fit, to appoint a proper person or proper persons at whose relation such suit may be continued.

If any valid marriage shall be had, under the provisions of this Ordinance, by means of any wilfully false notice certificate or declaration made by either party to such marriage, as to any matter to which a notice certificate or declaration is herein required, it shall also be lawful for the Attorney-General to sue for a forfeiture of all estate and interest in any property recurring to the offending party by such marriage, and the proceedings thereupon and the consequences thereof shall be the same as are hereinbefore provided.

Every person who shall knowingly and wilfully make any false declaration or sign any false notice or certificate for the purpose of procuring any marriage, and any person who shall forbid the issue of the Deputy Registrar’s certificate by falsely representing himself or herself to be a person whose consent to such marriage is required by law, knowing such representation to be false, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour.

If any person shall from and after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, falsely pretend to be an officiating minister, and shall solemnize matrimony, any such person knowingly and wilfully so offending, and being lawfully convicted thereof, shall be deemed and adjudged to be guilty of felony, and shall be transported for the space of fourteen years: Provided that all prosecutions for such felony shall be commenced within the space of three years after the offence committed.

Every person who, after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, shall knowingly and wilfully solemnize matrimony in any other place than the church office or place specified in the notice and certificate hereby required to be given, and every person who shall knowingly and wilfully solemnize matrimony after the said first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty- eight, within twenty-one days after the entry of the notice to the Deputy Registrar as aforesaid, or if the marriage is by license of such Deputy Registrar then within seven days after such entry or after three calendar months after such entry, shall be deemed and adjudged to be guilty of felony, and shall be transported for the space of fourteen years.

Every Deputy Registrar who shall knowingly and wilfully issue any certificate for marriage after the expiration of three calendar months after the notice shall have been entered by him as aforesaid, or any certificate for marriage by license before the expiration of seven days after the entry of such notice, or any certificate for marriage without license upon or before the expiration of twenty-one days after the entry of the notice, or any certificate the issue of which shall have been forbidden as aforesaid by any person authorized to forbid the issue of the Deputy Registrar’s certificate, or who shall knowingly and wilfully register any marriage herein declared to be null and void, and every Deputy Registrar who shall knowingly and wilfully issue any license for marriage after the expiration of three calendar months after the notice shall have been entered by the Deputy Registrar as aforesaid, or who shall knowingly and wilfully solemnize in his office any marriage herein declared to be null and void, shall be deemed and adjudged to be guilty of felony, and shall be transported for the space of fourteen years.

Any person duly authorized or required under this Ordinance to celebrate or be present at the celebration of marriage, who shall knowingly or wilfully without the consent of parents or guardians solemnize or be present at any marriage wherein one or both of the parties has or have not attained the full age of twenty-one years, the person so offending shall for every such offence forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding one hundred pounds, to be recovered in a summary way.

Every prosecution under this Ordinance shall be commenced within the space of three years after the offence committed.

For the purposes of this Ordinance the several bodies named in the Schedule hereunto annexed marked E shall be deemed and taken to be religious bodies.

In the construction of this Ordinance the words “Officiating Minister” shall be taken to mean any minister of religion whose name shall have been sent to the Registrar-General by the head or heads or reputed head or heads within the Colony of any or either of the said religious bodies, certified under his or their hand or respective hands, and whose name shall be entered in manner hereinafter provided as an officiating minister within the meaning of this Ordinance.

The several heads of the said religious bodies shall, upon the suspension or deprivation of any minister whose name shall have been sent in to the Registrar-General in manner hereinbefore mentioned by him or them or by his or their predecessor, forthwith certify such suspension or deprivation to the Registrar-General, who shall forthwith make a minute of such suspension or deprivation in the list hereinafter mentioned, and no such person shall be deemed an officiating minister until his name shall have been again sent in to the said Registrar- General in manner hereinbefore required.

The Registrar-General shall file all such certificates and keep them with the records of his office, and shall also forthwith enter all names sent to him as hereinbefore mentioned in a parchment book to be furnished him by the Government, and to be called the “List of Officiating Ministers,” and shall from time to time so alter and correct the said list as occasion shall require, and shall once at least in every year cause a copy of such list to be published in the Government Gazette.

Every marriage heretofore bond fide celebrated in New Zealand by any clergyman, minister, or other person, whether the same was so celebrated in any church chapel or building set apart for worship or other building or place, shall be deemed as valid as if such marriage had been performed under the provisions of this Ordinance; and all marriages solemnized under this Ordinance shall be valid and cognizable in like manner as marriages solemnized before the passing hereof, or when celebrated according to the rites of the United Church of England and Ireland: Provided always that nothing in this Ordinance contained shall extend or be construed to extend to render valid any marriage in respect to which a lawful impediment may have existed at the time of such marriage, or any marriage after the celebration whereof either of the parties to the same shall have married again before the passing hereof.

Nothing herein contained shall apply to any marriage which may be contracted otherwise than according to the provisions of this Ordinance between two persons both of the Native race: Provided that this Ordinance shall come into operation in respect of marriages between persons of the said race in such districts and at such times as the Governor shall by Proclamation from time to time appoint.

The Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, and also persons professing the Jewish religion, may continue to contract and solemnize marriage according to the usages of the said Society and the said persons aforesaid, and every such marriage is hereby declared and confirmed good in law: Provided that the parties to such marriage be both of the said Society, or both persons professing the Jewish religion respectively: Provided also that notice to the Deputy Registrar shall have been given and the Deputy Registrar’s certificate shall have issued in the manner herein provided.

This Ordinance shall be taken as part of the Ordinance for Registering Births Deaths and Marriages as fully and effectually as if incorporated therewith, and all the provisions and penalties of the said Ordinance so far as the same are applicable thereunto shall be taken to extend to all offences committed under this Ordinance.

For the purposes of this Ordinance the word “Governor” shall be taken to include the Lieutenant-Governor or the Officer Administering the Government for the time being.