WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1019, 16 March 1912, Page 4

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE.

The fierceness of the suffrage battle in England gives frequent occasion for the introduction of the name of New Zealand, and Lady Glasgow in January wrote a striking letter to the Times, in which she declares her unhesitating opinion that female suffrage in°New Zealand has had ill effects. Introducing herself as the wife of the Governor who signed the enfranchising measure, Lady Glasgow says : —“I saw two elections there under the women’s vote, and I hope I may never see a third under the same conditions. 1 have been in fairly frequent communication and correspondence with some of the ablest and most capable men and women in that Dominion —men who worked for many years and voted for the enfranchisement of women, and who now would gladly give the same work if they could repeal that act, knowing and seeing, as they do, that not only has it not helped to solve the social and other questions, but, on the contrary, the enfranchisement of women has been in many ways that I cannot go into in this letter, most harmful. Ido not say this on my own authority, but on the authority of many able men and women, who are bitterly disappointed at the results of this measure.” Lady Glasgow is candidly of opinion that female enfranchisement in Great Britain would be much more disastrous than in New Zealand, “where, as a matter of fact, it does not matter the least to England, or the British Empire what legislation a comparatively small country chooses to have forced upon it, and, in any case, legislation by the women’s vote can always be checked by the men, who much outnumber the women.” Lady Glasgow’s view is that the very virtues of women —their impulsiveness, their horror of oppression or cruelty, unfit them for a broad and statesmanlike view of great national questions ; and the women who are best qualified to take part in great political and philanthropic movements have already as much as they can do. She, therefore, appeals to all women, however repugnant it may be to the quiet, home-loving class to take part in an agitation, that they should rise in “ their thousands and protest against a measure being forced on them which is not only repugnant to their ideals of true womanhood, but which will be fraught with disaster to our nation and Empire.”