“CAME OUT ALIVE"

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 487, 17 October 1928, Page 9

“CAME OUT ALIVE"

WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT MRS. MAGUIRE’S APPEAL “The House of Commons had only one woman member for one session. She came out alive, and there was no scandal." In a humorous vein last evening, Mrs. C. E. Maguire, official Reform candidate for the Auckland East electorate, speaking at the Parnell Library, appealed to all women to support her, and get their sex directly represented in Parliament. Mrs. Maguire explained her policy in connection with roading, land settlement, immigration, and relief. She said that in America there was a Lazy Husbands Act, under which all men who won’t maintain their families are sent on to farms and made to work. “I think that it would be a good idea to have a similar Act in New Zealand, although I would not confine it to men. for there are some lazy women also." (Laughter.) The Government could not be blamed for unemployment, she said. 'When Mr. Ramsay MacDonald was in power in England men said they would not work, and they did not. There was more unemployment then than there ever has been before or since. "The working man gets more chance under Reform than he woud under Labour,'* she added. The candidate concluded her address by making an appeal to the women. "With the women’s vote, I will simply sail in.” She had been talking to several thinking men, who believed that a woman would cause trouble in Parliament. She had been live years on the City Council, she said, and as the chairman could testify, she had never had a cross word with anybody. (Laughter.) An interjector: One woman to every five men would be a good proportion in. Parliament. Mrs. Maguire: Yes, very good, but I am afraid there will only be two in 80. A vote of thanks and confidence was carried, with only a few dissentient voices.