138Confirmation of provisional orders made in Commonwealth or designated countries

1. This section shall apply—

2. to a maintenance order; and
3. to an order varying a maintenance order where that maintenance order has been either registered or confirmed in New Zealand—
in any case where the maintenance order or the order varying the maintenance order, as the case may be, has been made provisionally only by a court in a Commonwealth or designated country and has no effect unless and until confirmed elsewhere.

4. Where a certified copy of an order to which this section applies, together with the depositions of witnesses and a statement of the grounds on which the order might have been opposed, has been transmitted to the Secretary, he shall cause those documents to be sent to the District Court for the hearing of proceedings for confirmation of the order.

5. On receipt of those documents by the court—

6. any District Court Judge or Justice or Community Magistrate or any Registrar (not being a constable) may issue a summons to the respondent:
7. any District Court Judge or Registrar may issue a warrant to arrest the respondent and bring the respondent before the court in any case where the respondent's address is unknown or where a summons has been issued but cannot be served because the respondent cannot be found.

8. At the hearing it shall be open for the respondent to raise any defence which the respondent might have raised in the original proceedings had the respondent been present, but no other defence, and the statement from the court that made the provisional order stating the grounds on which the making of the order might have been opposed shall be conclusive evidence that those grounds are grounds on which objection may be taken.

9. Notwithstanding subsection (4), where the provisional order is made in or is consequent on an affiliation order, the respondent may raise the defence—

10. that he is not the father of the child; and
11. that the proceedings in which the affiliation order was made were not brought to his notice (either by the service of a summons on him or by any other method permitted by the law of the country in which the affiliation order was made).

12. Where the respondent appears at the hearing and it appears to the court to be necessary for the purpose of any defence to remit the case to the court that made the provisional order for the taking of any further evidence, the court of hearing may so remit the case, and may adjourn the proceedings for the purpose.

13. Where at the hearing (whether following an adjournment or otherwise) the respondent does not appear, or on appearing fails to satisfy the court that the order ought not to be confirmed, the court may confirm the order either without modification or with such modifications as it thinks just.

14. An order that has been confirmed with modifications shall for all the purposes of this Act have effect in the form in which it is confirmed.

15. The court confirming a maintenance order to which subsection (1)(a) applies may also, if it is satisfied that the respondent is of sufficient ability, at the same time order the respondent to pay, at such time or times and in such manner as the court thinks fit, any sum on account of the maintenance of the person or persons in whose favour the provisional order was made between the date of the making of that order and its confirmation.

16. An order made under subsection (9) shall be a maintenance order for the purposes of this Act.