BRITAIN’S REFORM BILLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 353, 14 May 1928, Page 13

BRITAIN’S REFORM BILLS

LATEST AND BIGGEST ELECTORAL CHANGE EQUAL VOTES FOR ALL History books tell us what terrific excitement there was in the days of our grandfathers when Bills had to be passed giving the vote to a new section of the nation. Bitter quarrels, riots, and even bloodshed resulted. People believed that if the Bills were passed England’s greatness would pass too, and ruin and desolation would cover the land. Yet Britain is to-day passing a new Reform Bill and there is no excitement at all. The contrast between then and now becomes all the more marvellous when one compares the figures involved. Here are the new voters made by the five great Reform Acts:

The present Bill, when ft Is passed, will necessarily be the last great Reform Act of its kind, for it enfranchises practically everybody. Voting on Equal Terms The great interest of the last two Bills, of course, has been the enfranchisement of women. The first three concerned men only, the fourth concerned both men and women, and the present concerns women. Almost everybody speaks as if the Act of 1918 gave the vote to all women over 30, and as if the present Bill only deals with young girls (flappers, as they rudely call them). Neither assumption is true. The 1918 Act, while giving the vote to practically all men over 21. gave it only to those women over 30 who were themselves occupiers of premises or were the wives cf occupiers. That is to say, they or their husbands must have a house or part of a house of their own with their own furniture In it. The present Bill, besides lowering the age from 30 to 21, sweeps away this restriction also, so that women will have the vote on the same terms as men as regards age and residence. Men Outnumbered How far from the truth it Is to say that the present Bill merely enfranchises young girls is shown by these figures dividing the new voters into three classes according to age: Women from 21 to 25 .. 1,590,000 Women from 25 to 30 .. 1,700,00«» Women over 30 1,950,000 Add to these the women who already have the vote, and we have something like these totals for the new electorate: Men, 12,250,000; Women 14,500,000 Two members of Parliament were so horrified at the idea of the men voters being thus outnumbered by women that they put down an amendment to the second reading refusing to pass a Bill which, while pretending to place men and women on an equal footing, would endow women w'ith a permanent political supremacy!

The Act of 1832 made .. 217,000 The Act of 1867 made .. 938.000 The Act of 1884 made .. 1,762,000 The Act of 1918 made .. 13,000.000 The Bill of 1928 makes .. 5,250,000