REMOVAL OF THE DISABILITIES OF WOMEN.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 975, 22 August 1903, Page 3

REMOVAL OF THE DISABILITIES OF WOMEN.

The deputation, representing the National Council of Women, who interviewed the Premier on the Ist of this month, received scant courtesy from the press of tho colony. Ido not complain of the brevity, but of the poverty of the reports—of the inclination on the part of the writers either to deride or to wax amusing. An aggrieved member of Parliament the other day alleged that “ the press of tho colony was in tho hands of capitalists, who persistently refused to makeknown the truth, and as persistently lied when tho opportunity would servo their purpose.” And the Premier himself, when I reminded him that a postmistress in some out-lying district had been made a Justice of the Peace, asked, “ Did you read it in the newspapers ” ? with an expression which distinctly implied that all such publications should be eurnamed Ananias. I should

bo sorry to make such statements ; but that the press of this colony is, as is the press of other lands, with rare exceptions, a follower instead of a leader of public opinion, seems to go without saying. Each gentleman of the press present at that interview was aware of what would suit the exact color of his paper. By adroitly alternating exaggeration and suppression tho product became whimsical, to put it mildly. The deputation wanted, and had a right to expect, a report of what really took place, and this is just what it did not got. To show that New Zealand women are

not alone in their endeavor to work out their own political, economical, and moral salvation is the object cf this paper. Mesdames Sheppard, Atkinson, Williamson and Allan pleaded earnestly and logically for tho removal of certain dis-

abilities from women ; disabilities which have beon heaped on them from time to time down tho ages, till, if tho burden has not become intolerable, it ought to have become «o ; till if not removed it will end

in being the main factor in what President Roosevelt calls tho “suicide of tho race.” A little book which should be in tho hands of every women appeared last January in London. It is called “In Our Midst,” (prico Is, postage 2d) and treats of the wholo great subject in a clever and amusing way. Then came a remarkable boolc from America, of which as yet I have only seen reviews, “Republics Versus Woman,” (3s 6d) by Mrs Kate Trimble Woolsey. One review concludes in these words : “Just-minded women and men of both countries owe to Mrs Woolsey deepest thanks for her vigoi ous exposition of current, injustices to women, which press for rectification, whether in monarchies or republics. Nor must that writer be unduly despondent as to the worthy share which the men of her own country shall yet take in the needful reform. She may remember, and with pride, that it was the ’greatest of America’s poets—and the

truest of democrats—who claimed always for women every equality of right with man, who saw clearly her neglected potentiality in the common human problem and fate, and who never ceased to impress upon his fellow-men. that—

Unfolded out of the folds of the woman man comes unfolded, And is always to come unfolded ;

Unfolded only out of the superbest

woman of the earth is to Come the superheat man of the earth ; Unfolded only out of- the perfect

body, of a woman ean a man be Formed of perfect body ; .Unfolded, only out of the inimitable

poem of the woman can come ,The po«m» of man (oily, thence have my poems cqsae) ; .Unfolded out of the folds of the womans brain come all the folds Of the 1 man’s brain, duly obedient ;

Unfolded, out of . the justice of the woman all justice is unfolded •; Unfolded out of the sympathy of the Woman is all sympathy. A man is a great thing upon the earth, and through eternity—but Every jot of the l greatness of man is unfolded out of woman. First the man is shaped in the wo-

man, he can then be shaped in himself.. 'Another review af the same book contains the following : —“ Under

territorial organisation- the women of Wyoming had exercised the franchise equally with men for twentyone years. When- application was made for Statehood, Congress demurred on the point of woman s equal political rights. The women, fearing lest Statehood might be refused, and entirely confident that the men of Wyoming would rainstate them latter, desired- to retire, their claim. But the men this message to Congress : We will sts/y out of the Unitrtv . a hundred yearswe will never come in without efaiual rights for women. Let me quote another sentence : ‘lt is chiefly because the American woman reali*e« that her home must he environed by the cleanest civic conditions and the noblest national life that she is impelled to participate in that wider sphere of publicity which the ever-broadening basis of democracy presents.” And just so it is with New Zealand women. The next book I shall notice come* to us from France, “Le Droit des Femmes' et la Morale Intersexuelle,” by A. de Morsier, the son of France’s Josephine Butler. This is particularly interesting as bearing directly on the subject of the C.D. Act, which we >asked Mr Seddon to remove from the Statute Book of New Zealand. He repeated several times that it was a ‘ dead letter.” We know it is a dead letter • Hut we also know that Mrs Butler has warned us, times without number, to beware lest, under a different and more plausible name, an ah most equally evil thing should befall us, and this is exactly what wo are afraid Mr Seddon threatens.' “If the present Act is dead, Mr Seddon,” I asked, why should it not be repealed ? We have suggested -are ready yet again to suggest real remedial measures for the immorality, which the Premier seemed somewhat anxious at anyrate not but he would only repeat. It is dead. What we are asking Mrs Butler personally appealed to Mr Seddon to effect, and I believe two abortive attempts have been made in the' House of Representatives England, thank God knows no such law; but immorality,- likethe pestilence tha walketh in darkness,” is m Knee there as in New Zealand and elsewhere— And why? C.D. Acts, as has been abundantly proved, but increase the evil—Let us hear what are the conclus \ o ™ to which M. do Morsier s investigations have led him. . ■ ~ . i.: m . These, says his reviewer, he has him | self summed up here translated: The civic, economic, political and sooiai dependence of woman must come to an eD Woman must l?e, in evory department oE life, ‘ capablo and autonomous, treea from the unjust and degrading >' profession sexuelle 1 The young girl must be educated to become a woman, and not merely a wife. She must know what life is and what I awaits her.

She has tho right to know ; the uncoriainty in which she is loft as to tho actual Eacts of life consorts with tho civil infancy in which one forces her to live. This

traditional refusal to recognise her rights is a real abuse of confidence towards women. Te leave woman on tho alleged ground of her sox, in the ignorance and in the subordinate position in which she is forced to live, is a real social crime. The essential condition of human progress is the complete emancipation of woman, and her absolute freedom in every department of life.”

I shall merely advert to the much misunderstood economic .independence of married women, which we,did not discuss with tho Premier, but concerning which Mrs Dora B. Montefiore has just published, I believe, a very able article,in ‘‘ L’humaniteNouvello” for May. “Ignota,” also in tho “ Westminster Koviow ” for last month,-with her usual burning eloquence, urges women “ to work, by every means in their power, to secure forthwith that just equality of man and woman in civic right, and before tho law, which is the first and absolutely essential condition of the growth of that higher humanity, those

worthier social conditions, and that happier, truer, nobler human life which poets and thinkers have foretold; for which many bravo souls have lived and worked; and for which womon must continue to live and work, till justice between the sexes shall have put an end to the present cruel strife, and given at last to earth ‘ Tho single pure and perfect animal, The two-eoll’d.heart, beating with one full stroke Life.’ ”

Lastly but not leastly ',l have just received from tbo secretary of a woman’s society in Franco four copies of a book, whioh claims more adequate notice than I can now bestow. It is not, indeed, the famous work of Bachofen, “ juris consult ” and historian of Bale ; but a French translation of Jits preface, which is a masterly resume of the book itself. It is the story of the ,l Matriachate,” that much-neglected epoch, which preceded in almost every civilisation what is known as the Patriarchate, or rule of the male. Up till the publication of this book (about 40 years ago) the ascendency of the male ever since man appeared upon this planet was considered incontcstible. Bachofen upset all this theory. The male mind was disturbed; the female interested and expectant. The work is well-known in the scientific world, and quoted by ull sociologists; but its large price, large size, difficult German, and wholesale interpolation of Latin, Greek and French quotations have denied it popularity. A young French woman has brought it within reach>of the humblest of her country women. We hope it may soon appear in English and all other tongues. M.H.S.