ENGLISH SUFFRAGETTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9033, 21 January 1908, Page 4

ENGLISH SUFFRAGETTES.

; Sooner or'nter the enfranchisement ! of the women of Great Britain will i be an accomplished fact, but it is doubtful if the womankind, of the Old Country will have much cause to thank the present unladylike Lady agitators for the boon., if boon iit be. The leaders of the movement are,, by their wild and i'l-advised conduct, doing much to discredit the eiaims for women's suffrage,, and are putting off rather than bringing wearer the day when the women of the nation will obtain the light to vote at Parliamentary elections, and thus have a direct voice in guiding the destinies of the Empire. The attitude of the suffragette agitators in disturbing meeting?, endeavouring to force themselves into Ministers' resiand behaving like so many female hoodlums, is not creditable to the sex, and does not encourage the' idea that it is fit to exercise the franchise. Shakespeare tells us rightly that "a woman moved ia like n fountain troubled, muddy, i'Jlseeni'ng, thick, bereft of beauty." It is not a pretty simile, but it fits the British suffragette leaders, and detracts from the sympathy that otherwise would be accorded them. How different the case with the women of New Zealand! They secured their enfranchisement by modest worth--

not by violent declamation in public thoroughfares and equally violent acts. The suffragettes of England might well take a lesson from their sisters in the "Britain of the South."

Although the Park Committee has not yet had an opportunity of discussing the question we raised in our issue of Saturday respecting the provision of life-saving apparatus at the lake, the Masterton Swimming C!ub has been prompt to act upon our suggestion. It has already entered into negotiations for the purchase of two life buoys, and is procuring from the Royal Humane Sou'ety in Wellington charts and copies of pamphlets relating to the rescue of the drowning and the 4 restoration of animation of persons apparently drowned. The Swimming Club is to be commended for its action, and we trust the Park Committee will see that not only are sufficient life-saving appliances provided for all emergencies, but that the more dangerous margins i of the lake are railed in.

The prospects of a further decrease in the price of bread throughout the dominion are not conisdered favourable, but rather is there, it would seem, a likelihood of an increase. The flour market is affected by outside influences as well as by internal combines, high rate of wages, due to some extent to the increased cost of living, and the advanced price of horsefeed. There are, according to "the trade," a multitude of circumstances combining at the present time to prevent any further immediate reduction in the price of the loaf. Last week it is authoritatively stated, the price of a line of wheat offered to a Southern miller prohibited a sale, as he would have required to sell his flour at £l4 per ton instead of'afc the present price—£ll 5s —in order to prevent a loss. Although wheatbuyers look for a good harvest this season they also, it is said, expect good prices. This is poor consolation for the house-wife.