WOMEN'S ENFRANCHISEMENT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 261, 25 March 1911, Page 6

WOMEN'S ENFRANCHISEMENT

WHAT IT HAS GAINED. | W.C.T.U.'S VIGOROUS I'ROXOUXGEr MEXT. In the course of her annual address to the W.O.T.U. yesterday, the president said: It has been said more than once, by people who should know better, tluH the enfranchisement of women was obtained lin this country without any effort on | their part. And now, once again, a Mrs. Leo Myers, writing in an Auckland paper last year, reiterates this statement. How erroneous such an idea is the members of this organisation know well. The circulation of three petitions on three different occasions, containing respectively ■IO,OOO, 21,000 and 30.000 signatures, proves that "Enfranchisement did not fall into our laps like an unexpected letter of credit." Those women of the this organisation.and others who labored so assiduously for woman's suffrage, know how false such a statement is. Long continued agitation and education went to I the winning of this reform, and many rebuffs and much opposition had to be endured by the women of this land before success came to them.

The same lady, in the same article, also says: "What great good, what moral reform, has women's franchise wrought in New Zealand ? Is there a better class of man in the 'Seats of the Mighty'? Is the political status higher? Is the tone of our national life elevated to a nobler standard? I leave you to answer. But to the enquiring, open mind the result of women's franchise has made no appreciable difference, but has merely increaade the number of impressionable incompetent voters." We would refer the writer of such a statement (whose ignorance of matters political is inexcusable, ■ when she allows herself to deliver such a ! pronouncement as to the value of woman's vote in New Zealand) to the many humanitarian Acts passed by the Parliament of this country since women's enfranchisement, and also to the advance of social and moral reform in the Dominion, many of these Acts being directly traceable to women's wider influence politically, and many of the reforms to the social work iu which women 'have interested themselves, more especially since political power has given them a status they never before enjoyed. The ''incompetent impressionable voter," a term which the lady applies to women especially, is a term which may be applied to some men also, and certainly the majority of the gentler sex record their votes with as great a sense of responsibility as the sterner sex. That women !i:ivc labored for social reform has Jiii;i proved by the resume of the politic;il tvi ni.< of last year 1 have given in this address, and many of these are contained in the list Mrs. Myers gives ,as those in which women should be interested. Of course the views of any person may be better (Understood if we know the standpoint they take, and in this instance the writer's standpoint may be that of one who upholds the monopoly ,of wealth, and of social position. Certainly many women voters nje against the monopoly of the liquor traffic, and this may be placed to their discredit by! ,Mrs. Leo Myers. We challenge the lady ,'tb prove her contention also that "the seats of the mighty" are not better filled , than heretofore. Though here again standpoint is everything. If one believes that wealth and social position should be the adjuncts of the men who should represent us, rather than moral worth and love of humanity, then possibly all our law-makers are not equal to those of the. past in that respect. We declare without fear of contradiction that recent Parliaments compare more than favorably with those elected solely by men. 'Mrs. Myers' ideas of what questions should occupy women in public life are so much on the lines we have been following that I feel sure she only needs to thoroughly understand women's work iu this country to admit wo are working in the right direction. I have taken this opportunity of correcting the mistaken ideas of some people on the matter under discussion, and append here a list of en- . ]actments making for the social and moral ibetterment of the people of the State ,and passed since women were enfranchised:—

Police matrons in gaola and police stations, Infant Life Protection Act. Act to regulate the adoption of children. Industrial Schools Act Amendment. Juvenile Smoking Suppression Act. Servant's Registry Offices Act. The interests and health of shop girls safeguarded (Shop Assistants' Act). Equal standard of morality in new Divorce Act. Criminal code amendment in the direc-

tion of purer morals. An Act enabling women to receive compensation for slander without proving special damage. •Summary Legal Separation Act. Recognition of the principle of equal pay for equal work, in Factory Act. . 'Economic partnership of husband and wife: principle acknowledged.in at least two Acts (municipal franchise and old age pensions). Testators' Family Maintenance Act. Women admitted to the practice of law.

Technical schools, giving equality of, opportunity to both sexes. . Old Age Pensions. An Aet regulating the election of hospital and charitable aid boards, whereby women have the right as ratepayers, and in municipalities as the wives of ratepayers, to vote, and are also eligible as candidates for election. Scientific temperance instruction given in our public schools. Temperance wall sheets in public schools (Feb. 1010). Gradual abolition of barmaids (Feb., 1910). Repeal of Contagious Diseases Act (Feb., 1010). Abolition of bookmaker (Feb., 1010).