Yes, you needed to be aged 21 years or more before you were legally able to give your own consent to enter into a marriage contract. You did not need consent from BOTH parents. You only needed consent from one of them, your father, and IF he was not available, that SHOULD be noted on the registration, and the next available person providing consent would likely be the bride's mother. I have seen where an adult brother gave consent (although mother present, father deceased, adult male took legal precedent over adult female), and also in instances in the 1860s when NO parents were in the colony, where the clergyman recorded "by consent of friends"....
To me, the clergyman was of the view that the bride's parents had given him (the clergyman) consent to the marriage, ie they were present at least at an interview with him prior to his agreeing to conduct the marriage ceremony. You need to remember that once civil registration commences, that the ceremony is in fact TWO ceremonies, running concurrently. One is the civil process and one is the religious process. The clergy were answerable to both Church law (of their respective denomination) and to civil statute law. Statute Law penalty was likely to be two years in gaol for perjury.
Cheers, JM
