MA WEEN DI Vs. MA KIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question in this appeal is one of fact; and it has been decided against the appellants by two Courts. The case, however, deserves attention, for there has been a strong appeal made to the general presumption of marriagearising from cohabitation with habit and repute.

(2.) It is necessary, before applying this presumption, to make sure that we have got the conditions necessary for its existence. It is not superfluous to suggest that, first of all, there must be some body of neighbours, many or few, or some sort of public, large or small, before repute can arise. Again, the habit and repute, which alone is effective, is habit and repute of the particular status which, in the country in question, is lawful marriage.

(3.) The differences between English and Oriental customs about the relations of the sexes make such caution especially necessary. Among most English people, open cohabitation without marriage is so uncommon that the fact of cohabitation in many classes of society of itself sets up, as matter of fact, a repute of marriage. But, in countries where customs are different, it is necessary to be more discriminating, more especially owing to the laxity with which the word "wife" is used by witnesses in regard to connexions not reprobated by opinion, but not constituting marriage.