This Act may be cited as the Marriage Amendment Act, 1920, and shall be read together with and deemed part of the Marriage Act, 1908 (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act).

A person shall not be disqualified, or be deemed to have been disqualified, by sex or marriage from being appointed as a Registrar of Marriages or as the Deputy of any such Registrar.

On the issue of a decree absolute under the Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act, 1908, for the dissolution of any marriage solemnized in New Zealand it shall be the duty of the Registrar of the Court from which such decree issued to forward to the Registrar-General a certificate in duplicate of such dissolution.

Every such certificate shall specify the names of the parties and the date and place of marriage as appearing in the petition for the dissolution of the marriage, the Court by which the decree was made, the date of the decree, and such other relevant particulars as may be required by the Registrar-General.

On receipt of any such certificate the Registrar-General shall cause to be entered on the certified copy of the marriage filed in his office a memorandum of the particulars disclosed in the certificate.

The Registrar-General shall forthwith forward a duplicate certificate to the Officiating Minister or Registrar having possession of the Marriage Register-book in which the marriage is registered, and the Officiating Minister or Registrar shall endorse on the relative entry in the Marriage Register-book the particulars disclosed in such certificate.

Every certified copy of the record of any marriage which has been dissolved, issued after the receipt by the Registrar-General of a certificate under this section, shall contain the particulars disclosed in such certificate.

Section seventeen of the principal Act is hereby amended—

Section twenty-eight of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection one thereof all the words after the words “to solemnize any marriage.”

Section thirty-two of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection two the words “four in the afternoon,” and substituting the words “eight in the evening.”

Section thirty-four of the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting from subsection one the words “and between the hours aforesaid,” and substituting the words “at any time while the office of the Registrar is open for the transaction of public business.”

The Fifth Schedule to the principal Act is hereby amended by omitting the words “four in the afternoon,” and substituting the words “eight in the evening.”

The Third Schedule to the principal Act is hereby amended by adding thereto the words “The Salvation Army.”

Every person commits an offence against this Act, and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of one hundred pounds, who—

“Alleges” in this section means making any verbal statement, or publishing or issuing any printed or written statement, or in any manner authorizing the making of any verbal statement, or in any manner authorizing or being party to the publication or issue of any printed or written statement.

A person shall not be deemed to make an allegation contrary to the provisions of this section by reason only of using in the solemnization of a marriage a form of marriage service which at the commencement of this Act was in use by the religious denomination to which such person belongs, or by reason only of the printing or issue of any book containing a copy of a form of marriage service in use at the commencement of this Act by any religious denomination.