INTERESTING ADDRESS ON WOMEN'S FIGHT TO OBTAIN THE FRANCHISE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 51, 23 November 1937, Page 12

INTERESTING ADDRESS ON WOMEN'S FIGHT TO OBTAIN THE FRANCHISE

At the quarterly meeting of the Hawke's Bay provincial executive of the Womeii's Division of tfce N.Z. Farmers' Union, Mrs H. LovellSmitih gave a very interesting address on women's franchise in New Zealand. In opening her address, the speaker said she thought it was a good thing for New Zealand that women had the power to vote and in her opinion women should have representatives on hospital, school and other boards, for who had a better knowledge or insight into the requirements of women and children than women themselves? People, especially overseas visitors, had been heard to remark that New Zealand women did not appreciate the vote because they obtained the franchise so easily, just as though a Government had given the women the vote as a present. The speaker said that nothing could be further from the truth than this, for women worked hard and hopefully amid seemingly hopeless conditions, and they worked with tremendous enthusiasin for- a cause they had really at heart. "Consider the conditions of this young country in the seventies and eighties and last century when the pioneer women often worked harder than their husbands," said Mrs LovellSmith. "They reared large families and had few conveniences — no tram'cars Or electricity — yet they found time to put their babies in their pram and trudge wearily from door to door presenting their petition. Doors were slammed in their faces; they were sneered at, and told they had lost all sense of womanly shame and still they kept on until they were able to preseiit three monster petitions, one in 1891, of 10,000 signatures; a second in 1892, of 26,000, and a third in 1893, which contained 30,000 signatures, and was the biggest petition ever presented to Parliament, eifiher in Australia or New Zealand. "Dr. James Wallis, M.P. for Auckland West, was the eourageous gentleman who, in 1878, fired the first shot in the long campaign for women's franchise. It met with a great deal of opposition, and was eventually defeated. Dr. Wallis persisted, and in 1879 and again in 1881, he reintroduced the Bill. Another measure, introdueed by Sir Julius Yogel in 1887, passed its second reading and then was quietly dropped. The W.C.T.U. were now co-operating with the'franchise leagues, and in 1892 John Ballance "made women's franchise a feature of his Electoral Bill, but while ihe lay stricken with an illness which caused his death, the Bill was lcilled. However, it was revived in the following year, and on September 19, 1893, the Earl of Glasgow, the Governor, affixed his signature to it and so women reeeived the vote." In elosing her informative address, Mrs Lovell Smith mentioned that Mrs D. J. Riggir would be standing for a seat on the H.B. Hospital Board, and it was the bounden duty of every woman to see that she was elected, for it was essential that there should be a woman representative on all hospital boards, for who should know the requirements and needs of women better than a woman herself? Mrs Honeybun proposed a very hearty vote of thanks to Mrs Lovell Smith for her entertaining talk, which everyone had enjoyed so much. The rnotion was passed unanimously.