THE Hauraki Plains Gazelle With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1943. WOMEN’S FRANCHISE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 32308, 3 September 1943, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazelle With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY. “Public Service.” FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1943. WOMEN’S FRANCHISE

Just six days before Paeroa women record their general election votes at district polling booths, the 50th. anniversary of the granting of a vote to New Zealand women on September 19, 1983, will occur. Since the passing of women’s franchise legislation, with which New Zealand. led the world, much has happened' to make it more important than ever before. It should be realised by women that their vote has powers limited only by the number who use it. Their vote may return a major- 1 ity which will give the country post-war prosperity, allowing New Zealand servicemen to settle down to successful peace-time progress: on the other hand, it may return a majority which will give bankruptcy. It can improve living conditions of the people, or lower them; it can lead to security, or uncertainty. There is, to-day, a tendency for many women to give little thought to the casting of their vote —a tendency which utterly, defeats the purpose of women’s franchise. In the plain terms of a writer for a northern journal, “Unfortunately a number of women vote for a certain candidate because their husbands tell them to. These are women with no initiative, content to remain in the background and leave all such things to wise husbands who consider that the women’s franchise was introduced to enable men to have two votes instead of one. We also have the woman who rushes into the booth, picks up a pen and after scratching wildly at the voting paper, emerges with the triumphant air of a painful duty completed. Then there is the gentle woman who enters timidly, gazes thoughtfully at the paper and votes for a candidate because his initials are the same as a relative of hers. And the vindictive woman who firmly strikes out the name of a man who Mrs Blank said threw jam tins over a fence. And the sweet young thing of 21 who votes for the candidate who is ‘ divinely good looking and so much like Clark Gable.’ ” These are the women who must start to bear the share in the country’s welfare given them by the franchise. It is time for them to start considering politics instead of having that “half-hourly daily telephone chat with Mrs Who and Mrs What.” Politics are not boring. They are the right of every adult citizen, made or female. It is well to complain that the cost of living has increased, or that many foodstuffs are unobtainable and it is hard to have substantial menus, but can every eligible woman resident in Paeroa or any other district honestly say that at the last election her vote was cast only after. considerable thought; that the vote was given to the candidate she considered would be of the greatest benefit to herself and the country as a whole; that she has proved the advent of women’s franchise in 1893 was worth while? The election this month will be a notable one—the first of this war. The number of candidates offering will probably be a record one, and the final decision of the people will determine the type of welcome our returning servicemen are to receive. It is to be hoped that every woman, as well as every man, will give careful thought to the matter of voting before September 25, thus to show in the golden jubilee year of women’s franchise that the legislation has been an outstanding success.