THE BURDENS OF WOMEN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 108, 3 June 1909, Page 2

THE BURDENS OF WOMEN.

IMMORALITY' IN DUNEDIX. .MAN'S IiUUTALITY. Jiy Telegraph.—l'ross Association. Dunt'din, Last Night. The Women's Christian Temperance I'nii.n (I'uril-y Branch) has recorded its indignation at tiie siiocking iiniiioralily in this city, testified to by leading medical men, the coroner and officials. The Women's I'rotcction Society expressed its honor at the facts revealed during the recent inuuest ua n, ,>"img woman, that persons in this city are carrying on a shameful trade, and endorses the opinion of Dr. Ethel Siedeberg re enacting stringent laws with respect to illegitimacy, and to stop the deplorable trade in infant life, and the death of girls. Jt recommends that women detectives be employed to track down persons engaged in this terrible business, and that laws should be enforced mulcting the severest penalties.

At a meeting of the Society for tli Protection of Women and Children a Duiiediii recently, ])r. Siodcborg cxprcs, cd herself lis being i" entire agrocim-n with the opinions uttered on tne uece» aity of domestic knowledge on the par of wives; but at the same time she ill' not think « chair at the L'niversit; would help very much. In the firs place mi amount of theory would tunc elean housekeeping, nor would Cm versity training reach the right cms of giri. The class who would go to sliei lectures would be luinposcd ol tnos whose brains were already sull'ieientl, developed to make housekeeping «ls\ H was the girls from the homes of th poor and the ignorant that they mils U "The most pitiable eases which win before us,'' continued the doctor, "ar those where a husband has died and lef his wife and children to bo support.;, bv the State: or has spent his money n ,I'riuk and gambling instead of providinj food and clothing and education for h' children: or has deserted his wife; o (whether married or single) has brough a fumilv into the world through on. sini'le «irl after another, the cliildrei being thrown on the State or folluwnij in their parents' footsteps." •• 1 believe,'' she continued, " that i •wnt deal can be done by a widcspreai system of "iving enlightennient to girl in their early and most iuipressionabl vcars The State has done a great del bv makiii" general education compiil sorv for both sexes, and by opening u] avenues of work for women. A furtho improvement could be effected by "' trodueing into the curriculum a coin's, on the cll'cets of alcohol, an, by men I of simple stories in the school book teaching girls to rclleet on the lives o others wlio have been ruined tlirougi drunken or immoral husbands and lath ers This would teach the young Intel lects to instinctively smm those boy and men who showed coarseness in thei language, and whose faces lion- th slump of riotous living. There is m use in "iris being allowed to imagm that tliev can ever reform a drunkard They imi'st be taught to shun linn, am to look for better qualities in husband* By means of such teaching in shiftless drunkard would soon findl hini self left without a mate, more espcci ally if vverv woman was trained t summit herself independent of marriagi It s the dependence of woman wine o L^Munp,Os\erto,naiTyaman S h would not otherwise choose How oHe when women come before the » no" lent Trustees they must exclaim: \U are women so helpless? \\ hy Were Uiej not taii'dit some occupation before nia iin . s,r that they could earn a living.' Certainly, such a thins mift ■■fj^ 111 ; birth-rate, but is it not better that a race should have good quality wtnu tl-n -ood quantity? Of what use, extfofill'theKaols, are the en o tu'el-e starved children of a diuuken at or and an ignorant mother? How m n tetter fo. the State and for ho ,o„,an would it be if she had teen cdu M te.l, and had chosen a res pec tab lc n-1 , •yen if, by marrying later, the family mis smaller." ... On the question of illegitimate children the doctor expressed the opinion '|,„t fatherhood and motherhood without Carriage should be a legal offence iu»ishable by line or imprisonment-in mo iase of the mother only, of course if onsent could be proved. She did not ■iitirclv agree with Br. Chappie's view, hinking it rather drastic, but she was uite sure that if marriage was a legal iistom its evasion should be illegal and

punishable. "If it were made so." she concluded. '• not many years would pasv before women would hesitate to yield, and men would learn self-control."