• Preamble

  WHEREAS Michael William Slack (hereinafter called the child) was born on the eighth day of August, nineteen hundred and sixty-five, and was the subject of an application for adoption made to the Magistrate's Court at Kaikohe by Terence Richard Slack late of Waiwatenui, farmer, deceased (hereinafter called the father) and Margaret Ann Slack, his wife (hereinafter called the mother) upon which an interim order was made in favour of the father and the mother on the fourth day of November, nineteen hundred and sixty-five: And whereas the father died on the nineteenth day of March, nineteen hundred and sixty-six, leaving the residue of his estate to be divided equally between his children living at his death and in circumstances that gave his dependants the right to compensation under The Workers' Compensation Act 1956: And whereas the father had no natural children but prior to his death he and the mother had duly adopted Philip George Slack born on the twenty-eighth day of August, nineteen hundred and sixty-three (hereinafter referred to as the brother): And whereas no application for a final order of adoption of the child had (or could have) been made prior to the death of the father but such application was made by the mother on the twenty-fourth day of May, nineteen hundred and sixty-six, and on the same day such final order was made and (after full disclosure of the facts) expressed by the Court to be in favour of the father and the mother: And whereas the mother, the brother, and the child were all totally dependent on the father at the time of his death: And whereas it is accepted by all interested parties that it would have been the wish of the father that the brother and the child should share equally in his estate and in any benefit arising upon his death: And whereas notwithstanding the terms in which the final order of adoption is expressed it did not create or cause to exist between the father and child the full legal consequence of such a relationship at the date of the father's death and as a result the child is not entitled to be treated as a dependant or a relative within the meaning of The Workers' Compensation Act 1956 (and therefore not entitled to any moneys payable under the claim arising under that Act) or to be treated as a child of the father (and therefore entitled to a share in his estate): And whereas it is the desire of all interested parties that the wishes of the father (hereinbefore referred to) be carried out by securing equality of treatment in all respects between the child and the brother: And whereas it appears that this can be effected only by enacting that the interim order of adoption in respect of the child shall be deemed for all purposes to be and always to have been a final order:

BE IT THEREFORE ENACTED by the General Assembly of New Zealand in Parliament assembled, and by the authority of same, as follows: