The Southern Cross. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Sept. 23. NEW ZEALAND—WOMAN’S PARADISE.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 26, 23 September 1893, Page 8

The Southern Cross. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Sept. 23. NEW ZEALAND —WOMAN’S PARADISE.

New Zealand has taken a big step forward. On Tuesday last His Excellency the Governor assented to the Electoral Bill, under which all women in the Colony over twenty-one years of age are entitled to vote at the election of members of Parliament. The political emancipation of the fair sex did not evoke any great display of feeling, but the ladies are losing no time in proving that they appreciate their newly-won privilege. From the large centres of population comes the news that they are registering their names on the electoral rolls as rapidly as possible, in some cases rushing to the offices before the official hour of opening. “ Thus the old order changeth, giving place unto the new.” “ What will happen ?” is the question on every tongue. Some of our political representatives have drawn harrowing pictures of the state of things that will exist under the changed condition of things. “It will lead,” they say, “ to domestic unhappiness ; it will set husband against wife, and children against O ... 23 parents ; it will, in short, practically unsex woman, and rob her of that native refinement and delicacy which forms one of her chief charms.” “ Nonsense !” cry the advocates of the extension of the franchise. The mere fact of a woman having to record her vote once in three years cannot possibly bi'ing about the dire results predicted ; on the contrary, the interest she will perforce take in all social and public questions hereafter will make her a brighter and better helpmeet for man.” And so the strife of tongues goes on. The fact remains that, for weal or woe, the women of New Zealand, unlike their sisters in other parts of the world have now the right to vote for the election of members of Parliament. That they will exercise their right wisely we doubt not. They will not forget that they are, for the time being, on probation, and they will act with a full sense of the responsibility of their position. We are not of those who hold that the appearance of the new element in the political arena will prove disastrous to the best interests of society. On the contrary our hope is that through it the advent of “ pure manners, sweeter laws ” will be hastened—that good, and not evil, will come from the political revolution of which this colony has been the scene. We can do no more than hope that the “ new departure” will be beneficial—to dogmatise at this juncture would be folly.