This legislation has been repealed.
[This Act commenced on 06 March 1990 and was repealed by the WILLS ACT 2000, NO. 59 which commenced on the 01 March 2001.]
NORTHERN TERRITORY OF AUSTRALIA
REPW002
WILLS ACT
As in force at 6 March 1990
TABLE OF PROVISIONS
Section
1. Short title
2. Repeal
3. Definitions
4. Re-execution, republication and revival of wills
5. Disposition of property by will
6. Person under 18 cannot make will
7. Extension of testamentary capacity to persons in naval and military forces
7A. Wills of soliders, &c.
8. Requirements as to writing and execution of will
9. When signature to a will to be deemed valid
10. Exercise of power of appointment by will
11. [Repealed]
12. Validity of will
13. Wills made out of the Territory
14. Wills made in the Territory
15. Will validly executed in foreign country
15A. Interpretation and application
15B. General rule as to formal validity
15C. Additional rules
16. Incompetency of witness not to invalidate will
17. Gifts to an attesting witness to be void
18. Creditor attesting to be admitted as witness
19. Executor to be admitted as witness
20. Will to be revoked by marriage of testator
21. No will to be revoked by presumption
22. In what case wills may be revoked
23. Change of domicile not to invalidate will
24. Alterations in a will to be executed as a will
25. Revival of revoked wills
26. When a devise not to be rendered inoperative, &c.
27. A will to speak from the death of the testator
28. What a residuary devise shall include
29. Estates included in a general devise
30. General devises and bequests of property subject to a power of appointment
31. Devises without words of limitation
32. Construction of the words "die without issue", &c.
33. Devises to trustees or executors, &c., not to pass a chattel interest
34. Trustees under an unlimited devise, &c., to take the fee
35. Devises of estates tail not to lapse
36. Gifts to children or other issue who leave issue
37. Validity of certain wills
THE SCHEDULE
Notes
Table
of Amendments
Wills
NORTHERN TERRITORY OF
AUSTRALIA
________________
WILLS
ACT
________________
NOTE - THIS REPRINT SHOWS THE ACT AS IN FORCE AT 6 MARCH 1990. ANY DOCUMENTS THAT MAY COME INTO OPERATION AFTER THAT DATE ARE NOT INCLUDED.
________________
An Act relating to wills
This Act may be cited as the Wills Act. (See back note 1)
(1) The Acts of South Australia specified in the Schedule shall cease to apply to the Northern Territory.
(2) Unless otherwise prescribed, the repeal of the Acts mentioned in subsection (1) shall not affect any will made or any proceeding pending or any right acquired or anything done or made valid under or by any of those Acts before the commencement of this Act.
(1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears -
"personal estate" means leasehold estates and other chattels real and money, shares of Government and other funds, securities for money (not being real estates), debts, choses in action, rights, credits, goods and all other property whatsoever which, prior to the coming into operation of "The Intestate Real Estates Distribution Act, 1867" of the State of South Australia, devolved by law upon the executor or administrator and any share or interest in any such personal estate;
"real estate" includes messuages, lands, rents and hereditaments, whether freehold or of any other tenure, and whether corporeal, incorporeal or personal, and any estate, right or interest (other than a chattel interest) therein;
"the Registrar" means the Registrar of Probates holding office under the Administration and Probate Act;
"will" includes testament, codicil, appointment by will or by writing in the nature of a will in exercise of a power and a disposition by will and testament or devise of the custody and tuition of any child by virtue of the Imperial Act passed in the twelfth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, Chapter 24, and any other testamentary disposition.
(2) In the application to the Territory of the Imperial Act passed in the twelfth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, Chapter 24, section 8 thereof shall be construed as if the words ", other than popish recusants" were omitted.
Every will re-executed or republished or revived by any codicil shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to have been made at the time at which the will or codicil was so re-executed, republished or revived.
(1) Every person may devise, bequeath or dispose of by his will executed in the prescribed manner all real estate and all personal estate to which he is entitled either at law or in equity at the time of his death, and which, if not so devised, bequeathed or disposed of, would devolve upon the heir-at-law of him or, if he became entitled by descent, of his ancestor or upon his executor or administrator.
(2) The power given by this section shall extend to -
(a) any estate pur autre vie whether there is or is not any special occupant thereof and whether the estate is freehold or of any other tenure and whether it is a corporeal or incor-poreal hereditament;
(b) every contingent, executory or other future interest in any real or personal estate whether the testator is or is not ascertained as the person or one of the persons in whom that interest may become vested, and, whether he is entitled to that interest under the instrument by which it was created or under any disposition thereof by deed or will;
(c) every right of entry for condition broken and every other right of entry; and
(d) any such estate, interest, right or other real or personal estate as is mentioned in this section to which the testator is entitled at the time of his death, notwithstanding that he became so entitled subsequently to the execution of his will.
(1) Subject to subsection (2), a will is not valid unless it is made by a person who has attained the age of 18 years.
(2) Nothing in subsection (1) shall be taken to affect the operation of section 7A.
(1) A will made by any person who, at the time when it was made, was not under 18 years of age, and who -
(a) was or had been, during the war which commenced on 4 August, 1914, a member of the Australian Imperial Forces or of any other naval or military force raised in Australia under the provisions of the Defence Act 1903-1918 of the Commonwealth for service in that war; or
(b) during that war, was or had been a member of any of the Naval or Military Forces of the Common-wealth and was, under the provisions of any Act, liable to be required to serve as such member beyond the limits of the Commonwealth and those of the Territories under the authority of the Commonwealth,
shall, notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, or of any other Act of South Australia in its application to the Territory or of any Act, and whether the will was made during that war or after its termination, be as valid as if that person were not under the age of 21 years.
(2) This section shall apply to every such will made on or after 4 August, 1914.
7A. WILLS OF SOLDIERS, &c.
(1) A testamentary disposition of real or personal property made by a person included in a class of persons specified in subsection (6), that is to say, a declar-ation, either oral or in writing, of such a person's intention with respect to the disposal of property upon or after his death, is as valid and effectual as it would have been if it had been made in a will executed in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
(2) An appointment made, either orally or in writing, by a person included in a class or persons specified in subsection (6) of another person to be the guardian of his infant children after his death is as valid and effectual as it would have been if it had been made in a will executed in accordance with the provisions of this Act.
(3) In any proceedings, evidence of a matter specified in subsection (4) that relates to a declaration referred to in subsection (1) or an appointment referred to in subsection (2) that has been made by a person is admissible for the purpose of proving that the person intended the declaration or appointment to have effect upon or after the person's death.
(4) The following matters are specified for the purpose of subsection (3) -
(a) any statement made by the person, either orally or in writing, at or about the time when he made the declaration or appointment;
(b) the circumstances in which the person made the declaration or appointment;
(c) if the person made the declaration or appoint-ment orally - the relationship between the person and the other person to whom the declar-ation or appointment was made; and
(d) if the person made the declaration or appoint-ment in writing - the relationship between the person and any other person -
(i) to whom the person gave that writing;
(ii) in whose presence the person wrote or signed that writing; or
(iii) who wrote that writing at the request or by the direction of the person.
(5) Subsection (3) is in addition to and not in substitution for any rules of law or procedure concerning evidence that is admissible in proceedings.
(6) Each of the following classes of persons is specified for the purposes of this section -
(a) members of the Military Forces of the Common-wealth who are in actual military service;
(b) members of the Naval Forces of the Commonwealth or of the Air Force of the Commonwealth who are so circumstanced that, if they were members of the Military Forces of the Commonwealth, they would be in actual military service;
(c) persons subject to the Defence Act 1903 of the Commonwealth, or that Act as amended, by virtue of section 117A of that Act or of that Act as amended who are so circumstanced that, if they were members of the Military Forces of the Commonwealth, they would be in actual military service;
(d) persons employed outside Australia as repre-sentatives of organizations rendering philanthropic, welfare or medical service to members of the Defence Force; and
(e) prisoners of war or persons interned in a country under the sovereignty, or in the occupation, of the enemy or in a neutral country who became prisoners of war or were so interned as a result of war or war-like operations and were, immediately before their capture or internment, persons included in a class of persons specified in a preceding paragraph of this subsection.
Subject to section 12(2), a will shall not be valid unless it is in writing and executed in the following manner:
(a) it shall be signed at the foot or end thereof by the testator or by some other person in his presence and by his direction;
(b) the signature shall be made or acknowledged by the testator in the presence of 2 or more witnesses present at the same time; and
(c) the witnesses shall attest and subscribe the will in the presence of the testator, but a form of attestation shall not be necessary.
(1) Every will shall, so far only as regards the position of the signature of the testator or of the person signing for him as mentioned in section 8, be deemed to be valid within the meaning of this Act, if the signature is so placed at, after, following, under, beside or opposite to the end of the will, that it is apparent on the face of the will that the testator intended to give effect by his signature to the writing signed as his will.
(2) Any such will shall not be affected by the circumstance -
(a) that the signature does not follow, or is not immediately after the foot or end of the will; or
(b) that a blank space intervenes between the concluding word of the will and the signature;
(c) that the signature is placed among the words of the testimonium clause, or of the clause of attestation, or follows or is after or under the clause of attestation, either with or without a blank space intervening, or follows, or is after, or under, or beside the names, or one of the names of the subscribing witnesses;
(d) that the signature is on a side or page or other portion of the paper or papers containing the will whereon no clause or paragraph or disposing part of the will is written above the signature; or
(e) that there appears to be sufficient space on or at the bottom of the preceding side or page, or other portion of the same paper on which the will is written, to contain the signature.
(3) The provisions of subsection (2) shall not restrict the generality of subsection (1), but, subject to section 12(2), a signature under this Act shall not be operative to give effect to any disposition or direction -
(a) which is underneath or which follows it; or
(b) which is inserted after the signature was made.
Where a person holds a power of appointment that is exercisable by will -
(a) the provisions of this Act relating to the formalities with which the will shall be executed apply in relation to the will not-withstanding that the power has been conferred on condition that a will made in exercise of the power should be executed with some other or lesser formality; and
(b) the power may be exercised by a will executed in accordance with this Act notwithstanding that the power has been conferred on condition that a will made in exercise of the power should be executed with some other or additional formality.
(1) A will is valid where it is executed in accordance with this Act, notwithstanding that the will is not otherwise published.
(2) A document purporting to embody the testamentary intentions of a deceased person, notwith-standing that it has not been executed with the formalities required by this Act, is deemed to be a will of the deceased person where the Supreme Court, upon application for admission of the document to probate as the last will of the deceased person, is satisfied that there can be no reasonable doubt that the deceased person intended the document to con-stitute his will.
Every will made out of the Territory by a testator who died before the commencement of the Wills Amendment Act 1985 (whatever the domicile of the testator at the time of making the will or at the time of his death) shall, as regards his personal estate, be held to be well executed for the purpose of being admitted in the Terri-tory to probate, if it is made according to the forms required either -
(a) by the law of the place where it was made;
(b) by the law of the place where the testator was domiciled when it was made; or
(c) by the laws then in force in that part of Her Majesty's dominions where he had his domicile of origin.
Every will made within the Territory by a testator who died before the commencement of the Wills Amendment Act 1985 (whatever the domicile of the testator at the time of making it or at the time of his death) shall, as regards his personal estate be held to be well executed, and shall be admitted in the Territory to probate if it is executed according to the forms required by the laws for the time being in force in the Territory.
(1) A will executed in a foreign country and valid according to the law of that country for the purpose of passing either real estate or personal estate shall, where
the testator died before the commencement of the Wills Amendment Act 1985, be valid for all purposes in the Territory as if duly executed according to the law of the Territory.
(2) Nothing contained in section 13 or 14 restricts the operation of subsection (1).
15A. INTERPRETATION AND APPLICATION
(1) In this section and sections 15B and 15C -
"country" means a place or group of places having its own law of nationality or citizenship (including the Commonwealth and its Terri-tories);
"internal law", in relation to a country or place, means the law which would apply in a case where no question of the law in force in any other country or place arose;
"place" includes a State or Territory.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1), "Common-wealth", "State" and "Territory" mean "Commonwealth", "State" and "Territory" respectively within the meaning of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 of the Commonwealth.
(3) Where under this Act the internal law in force in a country or place is to be applied in the case of a will, but there are in force in that country or place 2 or more systems of internal law relating to the formal validity of wills, there shall be applied -
(a) where there is in force throughout the country or place a rule indicating which of those systems can properly be applied in the case in question - the system to be applied according to that rule; or
(b) where there is no such rule, the system with which the testator was most closely connected at the relevant time and for this purpose the relevant time is the time of the testator's death, where the matter is to be determined by reference to circumstances prevailing at his death, and the time of execution of the will in any other case.
(4) In determining for the purposes of this Act whether or not the execution of a will conformed to a particular law, regard shall be had to the formal requirements of that law at the time of execution, but this shall not prevent account being taken of an alteration of law affecting wills executed at that time where the alteration enables the will to be treated as properly executed.
(5) This section and sections 15B and 15C shall apply to a will of a testator who dies after the commence-ment of the Wills Amendment Act 1985 whether the will was executed before or after that commencement.
(6) Where (whether in pursuance of this Act or not) a law in force outside the Territory is to be applied in relation to a will, a requirement of that law whereby special formalities are to be observed by testators answering a particular description, or witnesses to the execution of a will are to possess certain qualifications, shall be treated, notwithstanding a rule of that law to the contrary, as a formal requirement only.
15B. GENERAL RULE AS TO FORMAL VALIDITY
Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, a will shall be treated as properly executed for all purposes where its execution conformed to the internal law in force -
(a) in the place where the will was executed;
(b) in the place where the testator was domiciled at the time -
(i) when he executed the will; or
(ii) of his death;
(c) in the place where the testator habitually resided at a time referred to in paragraph (b); or
(d) in the country of which the testator was a national or citizen at a time referred to in paragraph (b).
15C. ADDITIONAL RULES
Without limiting the generality of section 15B -
(a) a will executed on board a vessel or aircraft of any description, where the execution of the will at that time conformed to the internal law in force in the country or place with which, having regard to its registration (if any) and other relevant circumstances, the vessel or aircraft may be taken to have been most closely connected;
(b) a will, so far as it disposes of immovable property, where at the time its execution conformed to the internal law in force in the country or place where the property was situated;
(c) a will so far as it revokes a will which under this Act would be treated as properly executed or revokes a provision which under this Act would be treated as comprised in a properly executed will where the execution of the later will at that time conformed to a law by refer-ence to which the revoked will or provision would be so treated; and
(d) a will so far as it exercises a power of appointment where the execution of the will at that time conformed to the law governing the essential validity of the power,
shall be treated as properly executed.
Where any person who attests the execution of a will is at the time of the execution thereof or at any time thereafter incompetent to be admitted as a witness to prove the execution the will shall not on that account be invalid.
(1) Where any person, to whom or to whose wife or husband any beneficial devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift or appointment of or affecting any real or personal estate (other than a charge or direction for the payment of any debts) is given or made by a will, attests the execution of the will, the devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift or appointment shall, so far only as concerns the person so attesting the execution of the will or the wife or husband of that person or any person claiming under that person or wife or husband, be void.
(2) Notwithstanding any such devise, legacy, estate, interest, gift or appointment, the person so attesting shall be admitted as a witness to prove the execution of the will or the validity or invalidity thereof.
Where, by any will any real or personal estate is charged with any debt and any creditor whose debt is so charged or the wife or husband of that creditor attests the execution of the will, the creditor shall, notwith-standing the charge, be admitted as a witness to prove the execution of the will or the validity or invalidity thereof.
An executor of a will shall not be incompetent to be admitted as a witness to prove the execution of the will or the validity or invalidity thereof.
(1) Subject to subsection (2), where a person marries after having made a will, the will is revoked by the marriage unless the will was expressed to have been made in contemplation of that marriage.
(2) Where a testator marries after he has made a will by which he has exercised a power of appointing real property or personal property by will, the marriage does not revoke the will insofar as it constitutes an exercise of that power if the property so appointed would not, in default of the testator exercising that power, pass to an executor under any other will of the testator or to an adminis-trator of any estate of the testator.
A will shall not be revoked by any presumption of an intention on the ground of an alteration in circumstances.
A will or codicil or any part thereof shall not be revoked otherwise than -
(a) by marriage as provided by this Act;
(b) by another will or codicil executed in the prescribed manner;
(c) by some writing declaring an intention to revoke the will, codicil or part and executed in the manner in which a will is required by this Act to be executed; or
(d) by the testator or some person in his presence and by his direction, with the intention of revoking the will, codicil or part, burning, tearing or otherwise destroying the will, codicil or part.
A will shall not be deemed to be revoked or to have become invalid, and the construction thereof shall not be altered by reason of any subsequent change of domicile of the testator.
(1) Any obliteration, interlineation or other alteration made in any will after the execution thereof shall not, except so far as the words or effect of the will before any such alteration are not apparent, be valid
or have any effect, unless, subject to section 12(2), the alteration is executed in the manner in which a will is required by this Act to be executed.
(2) The will with the alteration as part thereof shall be deemed to be duly executed if the signature of the testator and the sub-scription of witnesses are made in the margin or on some other part of the will opposite or near to the alteration or at the foot or end of or opposite to a memorandum referring to the alteration and written at the end or some other part of the will.
(1) A will or codicil or any part therof which has been in any manner revoked shall not be revived otherwise than by the re-execution thereof or by a codicil executed in the prescribed manner and showing an intention to revive the will, codicil or part.
(2) When any will or codicil which has been partly revoked and afterwards wholly revoked is revived, the revival shall not, unless the contrary intention appears by the will, extend to so much of the will or codicil as was revoked before it was wholly revoked.
A conveyance or other act (other than an act by which the will is revoked in the prescribed manner) made or done subsequently to the execution of a will of or relating to any real or personal estate therein comprised shall not prevent the operation of the will with respect to such estate or interest in that real or personal estate as the testator had power to dispose of by will at the time of his death.
Every will shall, unless the contrary intention appears by the will, be construed, with reference to the real estate and personal estate comprised in it, to speak and take effect as if it had been executed immediately before the death of the testator.
Where any devise of real estate or interest in real estate fails or is void by reason of the death of the devisee in the lifetime of the testator or by reason of the devise being contrary to law or otherwise incapable of taking effect, the devise shall, unless the contrary intention appears by the will, be included in the residuary devise (if any) contained in the will.
A devise of the land of the testator or of the land of the testator in any place or in the occupation of any person mentioned in his will or otherwise described in a general manner, and any other general devise which would describe a leasehold estate if the testator had no free-hold estate which could be described by it, shall, unless the contrary intention appears by the will, be construed to include the leasehold estates of the testator or his leasehold estates or any of them to which such description extends, as the case may be, as well as freehold estates.
(1) A general devise of the real estate of the testator in any place or in the occupation of any person mentioned in his will or otherwise described in a general manner shall, unless the contrary intention appears by the will -
(a) be construed to include any real estate or any real estate to which the description extends, as the case may be, which he has power to appoint in any manner he thinks proper; and
(b) operate as an execution of that power.
(2) A bequest of the personal estate of the testator or of personal property described in a general manner shall, unless the contrary intention appears by the will -
(a) be construed to include any personal estate or any personal estate to which the description extends, as the case may be, which he has power to appoint in any manner he thinks proper; and
(b) operate as an execution of that power.
Where any real estate is devised to any person without any words of limitation, that devise shall, unless the contrary intention appears by the will, be construed to pass the whole estate or interest, whether the fee simple or any other estate or interest, which the testator had power to dispose of by will in that real estate.
(1) In any devise or bequest of real or personal estate the words "die without issue" or "die without leaving issue" or "have no issue" or any other words which may import either a want or failure of issue of any person
in his lifetime or at the time of his death, or an indefinite failure of his issue, shall be construed to mean a want of failure of issue in the lifetime or at the time of the death of that person and not an indefinite failure of his issue, unless a contrary intention appears by the will by reason of that person having a prior estate tail or of a preceding gift being, without any implication arising from such words, a limitation of an estate tail to that person or issue or otherwise.
(2) This section shall not extend to cases where the words mentioned in subsection (1) import if no issue described in a preceding gift is born or if there is no issue who lives to attain the age or otherwise answer the description required for obtaining a vested estate by a preceding gift to such issue.
Where any real estate is devised to any trustee or executor, the devise shall be construed to pass the whole estate or interest, whether the fee simple or any other estate or interest, which the testator had power to dispose of by will in that real estate unless a definite term of years absolute or determinable or an estate of freehold is thereby given to the trustee or executor expressly or by implication.
Where any real estate is devised to a trustee without any express limitation of the estate to be taken by the trustee and the beneficial interest in the real estate or in the surplus rents and profits thereof is not given to any person for life or that beneficial interest is given to any person for life but the purposes of the trust may continue beyond the life of that person, the devise shall be construed to vest in the trustee the whole legal estate, whether the fee simple or any other estate, which the testator had power to dispose of by will in that real estate and not an estate determinable when the purposes of the trust are satisfied.
Where any person to whom any real estate is devised for an estate tail or an estate in quasi entail, dies in the lifetime of the testator leaving issue who would be heritable under such entail and any such issue is living at the time of the death of the testator, the devise shall not, unless the contrary intention appears by the will, lapse but shall take effect as if the death of that person has happened immediately after the death of the testator.
Where any person being a child or other issue of the testator to whom any real or personal estate is devised or bequeathed for any estate or interest not determinable at or before the death of that person dies in the lifetime of the testator leaving issue and any such issue of that person is living at the time of the death of the testator, the devise or bequest shall not, unless the contrary intention appears by the will, lapse but shall take effect as if the death of that person had happened immediately after the death of the testator.
Nothing contained in sections 13, 14 and 23 shall, with respect to any personal estate mentioned therein, invalidate any will or other testamentary instrument which would have been valid if those sections had not been enacted, except in so far as the will or other testamen-tary instrument may be revoked or altered by any subsequent will or testamentary instrument made valid by those sections.
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THE SCHEDULE
Section 2
An Act for adopting a certain Act of Parliament intituled "An Act for the Amendment of the Laws with respect to Wills" in the adminis-tration of justice in South Australia in like manner as other laws of England are applied therein (Act No. 16 of 1842)
"Wills Amendment Act, 1862" (No. 15 of 1862)
An Act to amend the Law with respect to Wills (No. 620 of 1895)
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Notes
1. The Wills Act comprises the Wills Ordinance 1938 as amended by the other Ordinances and Acts specified in the following table:
_________________________________________________________________
Ordinance Number and Date notified Date of
year in commencement Commonwealth
Gazette
_________________________________________________________________
Wills Ordinance No. 4, 1938 21 April 1938 21
April 1938
1938
_______________
Date
of
assent by
Administrator
_______________
Wills Ordinance No. 16, 1969 26 June 1969 8 Feb 1971
Ordinances Revision No. 87, 1973 11
Dec 1973 11 Dec 1973,
Ordinance
1973 but see
as amended
(b) s. 12(2)
No. 34, 1974 26 Aug 1974 11 Dec 1973, but
see
s. 3(2)
No. 69, 1974 24 Oct 1974 11 Dec 1973, but see s. 3
No. 27, 1976 28 June 1976 Ss 1, 2 and 6:
28 June 1976, but see s. 6(2)
Ss 3 and 4:
11 Dec 1973
S. 5: 24 Oct
1974
Statute Law No. 54, 1982 8 Oct 1982 8 Oct
1982
Revision
Act
(No. 2)
1982
Wills Amendment No. 43, 1984 25 Sept 1984 24
Oct 1984
Act 1984
Wills Amendment No. 16, 1985 23 May 1985 19
June 1985
Act
1985
Statute Law No. 64, 1986 19 Dec 1986 19 Dec
1986
Revision Act
1986
Wills Amendment No. 13, 1987 25 June 1987 25
June 1987
Act 1987
(c)
_________________________________________________________________
(a) - Section 2 of the Wills Ordinance 1969 provides as follows:
"(2) This Ordinance shall come into operation on the date on which the Administration and Probate Ordinance 1969 comes into operation.".
Section 10 of the Wills Ordinance 1969 provides as follows:
"10. The amendments effected by sections 3 to 9 inclusive of this Ordinance apply to and in relation to a will or testamentary dis-position of a person who dies after the commencement of this Ordinance, whether the will or testamentary disposition was made before or after the commencement of this Ordinance.".
(b) General amendments of a formal nature (which are not referred to in the table of amendments to this reprint) are made by the Ordinances Revision Ordi-nance 1973 (as amended) to the following provisions: ss. 2, 3, 6, 7, 7A, 8, 9, 13, 15, 20, 32, 37, 38, 39, 40 and 41.
(c) Section 2 of the Wills Amendment Act 1987 repealed sections 38, 39, 40 and 41. Section 3 of that Act provides as follows:
"3. REGISTRAR OF PROBATES TO DEPOSIT WILLS AND INDEX WITH PUBLIC TRUSTEE
"(1) As soon as practicable after the commencement of this Act, the Registrar of Probates holding office under the Administration and Probate Act shall deposit with the Public Trustee all wills deposited in the office of the Registrar of Probates under section 38, or which shall be deemed to have been so deposited under section 41, of the Wills Act as in force immediately before that commencement and then in his possession.
"(2) On the wills referred to in subsection (1) being deposited with him, the Public Trustee shall give to the Registrar of Probates a receipt for the wills and treat them as if they were wills deposited with the Public Trustee under section 88A(1) of the Public Trustee Act.
"(3) A receipt under subsection (2) is a full and sufficient discharge of the duties and responsibilities of the Registrar of Probates under the sections repealed by section 3 in respect of the wills to which the receipt relates.".
2. The Administration and Probate Ordinance commenced on 8 Feb 1971 (see Northern Territory Government Gazette No. 51 - 23 Decem-ber 1970; p. 371).
3. Section 7 of the Wills Amendment Act 1984 provided as follows:
"7. TRANSITIONAL
"The Principal Act as amended by this Act applies to all wills, whenever made, where the testator dies after the commencement of this Act.".
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Table of Amendments
Section
Long title Amended by No. 54, 1982, s. 2
1. Amended by No. 58, 1978, s. 4; No. 54, 1982, s.
2
2.(2) Amended by No. 54, 1982, s.
2
3.(1) Amended by No. 16, 1969, s. 3; No. 54, 1982,
s. 2
4. Amended by No. 54, 1982, s.
2
6. Substituted by No. 16, 1969, s. 4
7.(1) Amended by No. 87, 1973, s. 12; No. 54, 1982, s. 2
7A. Inserted by No. 16, 1969, s. 5
7A.(1) Amended by No. 54, 1982, s. 2
7A.(2) Amended by No. 54, 1982, s. 2
7A.(6) Amended by No. 54, 1982, s. 2
8. Amended by No. 43, 1984, s. 6
9.(1) Amended by No. 54, 1982, s. 2
9.(3) Amended by No. 54, 1982, s. 2; No. 43, 1984,
s. 6
10. Substituted by No. 43, 1984,
s. 4
11. Repealed by No. 16, 1969, s. 6
12. Substituted by No. 43, 1984, s. 4
13. Amended by No. 87, 1973, s. 12; No. 16, 1985, s. 4
14. Amended by No. 16, 1985, s. 5
15. Substituted by No. 16, 1969, s. 7
15.(1) Amended by No. 54, 1982, s. 2; No. 16, 1985, s. 6
15.(2) Amended by No. 87, 1973, s. 12
15A. Inserted by No. 16, 1985, s. 7
15B. Inserted by No. 16, 1985, s. 7; amended by No. 64, 1986, s. 4
15C. Inserted by No. 16, 1985, s. 7
20. Substituted by No. 16, 1969, s. 9
22. Amended by No. 54, 1982, s. 2
24.(1) Amended by No. 54, 1982, s. 2; No. 43, 1984, s. 6
38. Added by No. 16, 1969, s. 9; repealed by No. 13, 1987, s. 2
39. Added by No. 16, 1969, s. 9; repealed by No. 13, 1987, s. 2
Table of Amendments - continued
39.(2) Amended by No. 54, 1982, s. 2
40. Added by No. 16, 1969, s. 9; repealed by No. 13, 1987, s. 2
41. Added by No. 16, 1969, s. 9; amended by No. 54, 1982, s. 2; repealed by No. 13, 1987, s. 2
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