The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1908. WHERE WOMEN SIT IN PARLIAMENT,

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2085, 10 January 1908, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1908. WHERE WOMEN SIT IN PARLIAMENT,

The London Times of November 16 publishes from its Helsingfors correspondent an interesting review of the Session of the new Finnish Diet. It is tile only legislative body in the world in which both men and women are eligible, which is elected on the b i-sis of universal adult suffrage. and is not controlled by a Second Chamber. At the next election fifty-six per cent, of tile voters in the towns and fifty per cent in the rural districts were women. Nineteen women were elected to tho Diet. The results of the Session are very small, with the notable exception of a most drastic Act for the total prohibition of spirits, wine, and beer. Alcohol may be kept in Finland, according to the .Act, only for medical and technical purposes, and for the use of the Russian troops. Even the use of ecclcstiastical wine in tho Communion Service is forbidden. No one may keep alcoholic drinks in his house unless he can prove that they were in his possession before the Act was passed. The police .vro given full rights of search. Penalities vary from a fine of £4 to penal servitude for three years. There is no provision for the loss of capital in breweries, distilleries, or licensed houses. In vain the Opposition argued that smuggling would bo revived, “delation” would become common, and authority would bo brought, into contempt because the law would not be supported by the peoplo who alone could make it workable. The Times correspondent thinks, however, that there is no chance of the Czar giving his sanction to this extraordinary measure. It is very evident that the Finnish parliament is much more courageous than the Duma of Russia.