In this Part of this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

Without restricting the powers conferred by the principal Act or any other enactment, it is hereby declared that every person, whether male or female, shall be a privileged person for the purposes of this Part of this Act at any material date, if at that date,—

• (a) New Zealand is engaged in any war and the person is outside New Zealand as a member of the New Zealand armed forces or of any Commonwealth or Allied armed forces which was raised or partly raised in New Zealand; or

• (b) The person is—

  • (i) A member of any emergency force; or

  • (ii) A member of any part of the New Zealand armed forces, or of any Commonwealth or Allied armed force, who is serving in operations against an enemy; or

  • (iii) A member of any armed force who is in actual military service or who is so circumstanced that if he were a soldier he would be in actual military service; or

  • (iv) A mariner or seaman who is at sea; or

  • (v) A prisoner of war who was a privileged person immediately before his capture or internment.

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, any privileged person may make an informal will.

(2) Without limiting the general power conferred by subsection (1) of this section, it is hereby declared that, subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, any privileged person may, by an informal will,—

• (a) Dispose of the whole or any part of his real and personal estate which devolves in accordance with the law of New Zealand:

• (b) Exercise any power of appointment that may in accordance with the law of New Zealand be lawfully exercised by a formal will:

• (c) Revoke wholly or in part any previous formal or informal will:

• (d) Appoint any person as guardian of his infant children:

• (e) Make any other provision whatsoever which may lawfully be made by a formal will.

(3) It is hereby declared that any privileged person may revoke any previous formal or informal will by any words whether written or spoken declaring an intention to revoke the same.

(4) Subject to the provisions of this Part of this Act, all the provisions of the principal Act which have effect as part of the law of New Zealand (except section 9), and all the provisions of any other enactment relating to wills which has effect as part of the law of New Zealand, shall apply to informal wills.

(5) Section 111 of the Maori Affairs Act 1953 shall not apply to any formal or informal will made under this Part of this Act by a privileged person who is a Maori, but nothing in this Part of this Act shall restrict the operation of section 114 of that Act.

(6) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any other enactment, an informal will may be proved upon such evidence as the Court may consider sufficient.

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in section 2 of the Wills Amendment Act 1969,—

• (a) An informal will made by a privileged person who is under the age of 18 years shall be as valid as it would have been if the testator had been over that age:

• (b) A formal will made by a testator who is under the age of 18 years shall be as valid as it would have been if the testator had been over that age, if at the date of the making of the will the testator—

  • (i) Is a privileged person; or

  • (ii) Has received orders to train for or join any emergency force; or

  • (iii) Has received orders to train for or join any part of the New Zealand armed forces, or of any Commonwealth or Allied armed force which was raised or partly raised in New Zealand, for service outside New Zealand in connection with any war in which New Zealand is engaged; or

  • (iv) Has received orders to train for or join any part of the New Zealand armed forces, or of any Commonwealth or Allied armed force, for service in operations against an enemy; or

  • (v) Has received orders to join any ship as a mariner or seaman; or

  • (vi) Is a member of the New Zealand Army or the Royal New Zealand Air Force and is deemed, under the Defence Act 1990 to be on active service; or

  • (vii) Is a member of the Regular Field Force of the New Zealand Army:

• (c) A formal revocation of a will which depends for its validity on this Part of this Act, or a burning, tearing, or other destruction of any such will by or by direction and in the presence of the testator with the intention of revoking the same, shall, notwithstanding that the formal revocation, burning, tearing, or other destruction is made or occurs, or the direction is given, while the testator is under the age of 18 years, be as effective as a revocation of the will as it would have been if the testator had been over that age.

(1) A certificate in connection with any fact which has to be proved to establish that at any material date any person was a privileged person, or was entitled under paragraph (b) of section 6 of this Act to make a formal will while under the age of 18 years shall, in the absence of proof to the contrary, be sufficient evidence of the matters stated in the certificate regarding that fact, if the certificate is given,—

• (a) In the case of any person who at the material date was a member of the New Zealand Naval Forces, by an officer of those forces:

• (b) In the case of any person who at the material date was a member of the New Zealand Army, by an officer of that Army:

• (c) In the case of any person who at the material date was a member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, by an officer of that Air Force:

• (d) In the case of any person who at the material date was a mariner or seaman on any ship or had received orders to join any ship as a mariner or seaman, by an officer on that ship.

(2) Notice shall be taken judicially without further proof of the appointment and signature of any such officer.

(1) Nothing in section 15 of the principal Act shall cause to be null and void any devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift, or appointment to any person who attests the execution of any will or to the wife, husband, civil union partner, or de facto partner of any such person, if at the date of the execution of the will the testator was a privileged person.

(2) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in section 20 of the principal Act, where any testator who is a privileged person, whether or not he has attained the age of 18 years, directs or authorises (either in writing or orally) any other person to burn or tear or otherwise destroy any will of the testator with the intention of revoking the same, any burning, tearing, or other destruction effected pursuant to the direction or authority shall (notwithstanding that it does not take place in the testator's presence) be as effective to revoke the will as it would have been if it had taken place in his presence.

(3) Nothing in section 21 of the principal Act shall require any obliteration, interlineation, or alteration made in any formal or informal will to be executed in accordance with section 9 of the principal Act if the obliteration, interlineation, or alteration was made—

• (a) By the testator or by some person in his presence and by his direction; and

• (b) While the testator was a privileged person, whether or not he had attained the age of 18 years.

The Minister of Defence may, by notice in the Gazette, declare that, from any date specified in the notice (whether the date is before or after the date of the commencement of this Act or before or after the date of the notice) any part of the New Zealand armed forces shall be, or shall cease to be, an emergency force for the purposes of this Part of this Act.

(1) Where any testator who dies after the commencement of this Act has (whether before or after the commencement of this Act) made a valid informal will which has not been validly revoked and which was not either expressed in writing and signed by the testator, or wholly written by the testator, at a time when he could make a valid informal will, the will shall not have any force or effect unless,—

• (a) In a case where the testator was a prisoner of war when he made the will or became a prisoner of war within 12 months after he had made the will, the testator dies while he is a prisoner of war or within 12 months after he ceased to be a prisoner of war:

• (b) In any other case, the testator dies within 12 months after he made the will.

(2) In this section the term will includes any words declaring an intention to revoke a will.

(1) Nothing in this Part of this Act shall affect the provisions of section 110 of the Shipping and Seamen Act 1952.

(2) The Minister of Defence, after considering a report from the Secretary of Defence, may issue a certificate in respect of any informal will made either before or after the commencement of this Act by any rating of the New Zealand Naval Forces (whether for the time being employed therein or transferred for employment with any Commonwealth or Allied armed force) declaring that, unless the High Court (on application in solemn form made within 3 months after the date of the issue of the certificate) grants probate of the will, the will shall be invalid in respect of all money and effects of the rating on board his ship or in his personal custody, and of all wages, allowances, and other money due to him from the Crown in respect of his service in the Naval Forces; and where the Minister of Defence issues such a certificate in respect of any will and probate of the will is not thereafter granted on an application in solemn form made within 3 months after the date of the issue of the certificate, the will shall not have any force or effect to pass any such money, effects, wages, or allowances:

Provided that no such certificate shall be issued in respect of any will unless the Minister of Defence is satisfied that the validity of the will in respect of the said assets is to be determined according to the law of New Zealand.

(1) 

(2) For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that the following enactments of the United Kingdom Parliament shall not have effect as part of the law of New Zealand:

• (a) The Navy and Marines (Wills) Acts 1865 to 1939:

• (b) Section 12 of the principal Act and the enactments therein mentioned.

(3) The War Legislation Amendment Act 1916 and section 23 of the War Legislation and Statute Law Amendment Act 1918 are hereby repealed.

(4) The Soldiers' Wills Emergency Regulations 1939 and the Soldiers' Wills Emergency Regulations 1939, Amendment No 2, are hereby revoked.

(5) Except as provided in section 9 of this Act, all wills which were made before the commencement of this Act shall, so far as they are subsisting or in force immediately before the commencement of this Act, enure thereafter as fully and effectually as they would if this Part of this Act had not been passed:

Provided that this Part of this Act shall apply, and the enactments mentioned in subsections (1) to (4) of this section shall not apply, to any amendment or revocation of any such will if the amendment or revocation is made after the commencement of this Act.

(6) The Kayforce Wills Notice 1953 shall continue and have effect as if it had been given under section 8 of this Act.

(1) Notwithstanding anything in section 18 of the principal Act or any other enactment or rule of law, a will expressed to be made in contemplation of a marriage shall not be revoked by the solemnisation of the marriage contemplated.

(2) This section applies only to wills made on or after the 5th day of December 1944 (being the date of the passing of the Law Reform Act 1944).

(3) Section 39 of the Property Law Act 1952 is hereby consequentially repealed.

(1) Every will and other testamentary instrument made out of New Zealand by any person (whatever may be his domicile at the time of making the same or at the time of his death) shall, as regards movable property, be held to be well executed for the purpose of being admitted in New Zealand to probate if made as required by—

• (a) The law of the place where the person was domiciled at the time of his death; or

• (b) The law of the place where the same was made; or

• (c) The law of the place where the person was domiciled when the same was made; or

• (d) The law in force when the same was made in the place where the person had his domicile of origin.

(2) Every will and other testamentary instrument made within New Zealand by any person (whatever may be his domicile at the time of making the same or at the time of his death) shall, as regards movable property, be held to be well executed for the purpose of being admitted in New Zealand to probate if made as required by—

• (a) The law of the place where the person was domiciled at the time of his death; or

• (b) The law of New Zealand; or

• (c) The law of the place where the person was domiciled when the same was made.

(3) No will or other testamentary instrument of any person shall, so far as it relates to movable property in New Zealand, be held to be revoked or to have become invalid, nor shall the construction thereof be altered, by reason only of any subsequent change of domicile of the person making the same.

(4) In this section—

(5) This section shall apply to all wills made on or after the date of the commencement of this Act. The validity of all other wills shall be determined as if this section had not been passed.

(6) Section 40 of the Administration Act 1952 is hereby consequentially repealed.

It is hereby declared that sections 2, 4, 5, 8, 32, and 36 of the principal Act shall cease to have effect as part of the law of New Zealand.

(1) Unless a contrary intention appears by the will, where any person is a child or other issue of the testator to whom (whether as a named or designated person or as a member of a class) any property is devised or bequeathed or appointed in terms that would enable that person to take the property for any estate or interest not determinable at or before the death of that person if that person survived the testator, and that person dies in the lifetime of the testator (whether before or after the testator makes the will) leaving any child or children living at the time of the death of the testator, the devise or bequest or appointment shall take effect as if the will had contained a substitutional gift devising or bequeathing or appointing the property to such of the children of that person as are living at the time of the testator's death and if more than one in equal shares.

(2) Without restricting the manner in which a testator may show an intention to negative the operation of subsection (1) of this section, it is hereby declared that that subsection shall not apply—

• (a) To a devise or bequest or appointment to any person which is in any way expressed to be conditional on the person being alive at or after the time of the death of the testator or any time or event which in the events that happen is subsequent to the time of the death of the testator; or

• (b) Where any devise or bequest or appointment is in any way expressed to be conditional on the fulfilment of any other contingency and that contingency has not been fulfilled before the time of the testator's death.

(3) Subsection (1) of this section shall not apply to—

• (a) Any specific bequest or specific appointment of any personal chattels:

• (b) Any devise or bequest or appointment to any person as one of 2 or more joint tenants.

(4) In this section—

(5) [Repealed]

(6) This section shall not apply to any will made before the 1st day of January 1959.

(7) For the purposes of the law of New Zealand, section 33 of the principal Act shall not apply to any will made on or after the 1st day of January 1959.

(8) For the purposes of this section every will which is re-executed or confirmed or revived by any codicil shall be deemed to have been made at the time when it was first made, and not at the time when it was re-executed or confirmed or revived.