Page 4 Advertisements Column 3

Hokitika Guardian, 29 November 1928, Page 4

()nk of the select band of women who lend grace to the House of Commons has found, says a contemporary, that the call of the home is stronger than that of politics. Mrs Hilton Phiiipmmi, formerly well known on the stage as Miss Mabel Russell, has decided that she cannot do justice at one and the same. Lime to her duties as a member of Parliament and her obligations ns the mother of a growing family. Her choice between Parliament and her homo is being made in favour of her home. She will not he a candidate at the next general election. Most people will applaud Mrs Phi Upson’s ho'ice as doing credit to her judgment. The decision which she has had to make is one that must he faced, .-•nonor or later, by every woman who enters public life, and lias domestic responsibilities that exert claims upon her attention. Not all women may agree that Mrs Philipson is doing the right tiling. Recently, under tile auspices of the Association of Women

.forks and Secretaries, n debate was held in London between Mrs Cecil Chesterton and Mrs Dora Russell on the i|Uostion, “Should the home lie abolished ?’’ Among other tilings Mrs Russell said: “This cherished illusion that th(> home is the best institution for mairiage and for the bringing up of children is the most important illusion which we have to abolish, and one of the strongest illustrations which women are taken in by.” And it was iceorded that, while several men protested, the audience, consisting mostly >f women, voted with her, and in favour of the home being abolished. Mrs Philipson is not quite so advanced in her views, and is more concerned with lacing facts than with the discussion ■it theories. The circumstance that -lie has been obliged, as a conscientious woman, to make a decision to renounce public life in favour of her family may be regarded as lending •oiin 1 force to one of the objections that is sometimes offered to the presence ol women on public bodies the members' of which, if there is to he a faithful performance of their duties, must submit to the sacrifice of a good deal of I heir home life. While there may he some evidence of an increasing disposition on the part of women to seek to embark on a political career in New Zealand, it will have been observed that the electors have not shown, so far, any pronounced desire to see members of the intuitive sex representing them in Parliament.