THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1893. THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2548, 29 August 1893, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1893. THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN.

Throughout the world at the present time women are insisting on equal political rights with men. After all, it is only a very ancient right. There was a time when there was no such thing as marriage, and when it was to the mother the children looked. This gave a very important station to the mother. It was she gave the children a name, and it was only natural they should look to her with feelings of love and affection. In the old tribal days, women voted as well as men, and their vote carried the same weight, and they were robbed of their rights when government-went into the hands of a few autocrats who surrounded the person of the king. Women, however, are making desperate efforts to secure their rights at the present time. In France a fencing school has been started by a Madame Vakayrc, where women are trained in fencing, and where each member is pledged to light for their natural rights, even at the point of the sword. Tbia is business-like. If, instead of petitioning Parliament, 33,000 women of 21 years and upwards were to march into the Legislative Council at Wellington, and their leader said “ Female franchise, or this !” (holding up her sword), the old fogeys would say“ Well, ladies, if you put it that way, of course we cannot refuse.” Putting jokes aside, it shows that there is a very strong feeling in favor of female franchise in France, when women are talking about fig bring for their rights, and training themselves to do so. In an English magazine a Miss Stokes is advocating the formation of a women’s volunteer corps, on the same linos' as other volunteers. !She says that women are sneered at because they do not fight, and as this is the chief argument used by those who deny them the franchise, they had better show that they are willing to fight if needs be. We see no reason why able-bodied women should not fight well. In Dahomey there is a regiment of women, and in the recent war with the French they fought bravely. They are the regiment held in the greatest esteem of the king. Women have had a splendid innings at the World’s Fair, in Chicago. Twentyfour halls have been placed at their disposal, and there have been twenty speakers in each hall. The halls were thronged, crowded to excess by women, for the men Were forbidden to enter, except on one occasion when the police had to go in so as to settle some little trouble. The great lady orator of the day. Dr Anna cjhaw, arrived late, and as she was trying to squeeze her w y through the crowd to the platform she fainted, and the police had to come to her assistance. In these halls they delivered: lectures, and made speeches on every subject under Hie sun, and above, all insisted on their political lights. Women ate filling almost every position. At the conversazione of the Colonial Institute recently, the “ Ladies Pompadour Baud ” attracted great attention by the excellence of their music. There were twenty of them, and while one of them wielded the conductor’s baton, another played the cornet, and another thumped the drum. They played all the instruments of a full band, and played them in a manner that won universal applause. There is another tiling which should not bo overlooked in discussing this question of woman’s rights. More charitable institutions, and more works of benevolence and kindness have been set on foot and are being carried out at the present time by women than by men. They are engaged in works of charity every day all over the United Kingdom, and if the record of their benevolent enterprises had been written it would put men to shame. For this reason we believe that if they were once enfranchised they would insist on the removal of some of the wrongs from which humanity is at present suffering.