FEMALE SUFFRAGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10235, 11 May 1911, Page 4

FEMALE SUFFRAGE.

A glowing account of the benefits that woman suffrage lias conferred upon New Zealand is given by Ella Whefeler Wilcox, the American poetess. She quotes as her authority a man she lias met, but whom she does not name—"an educated man. %orn and bred in New Zealand and knowing his- .subject thoroughly." She cites bis opinion that female isuffrag© has been a brilliant success in New Zealand. "It has been a death blow it© drunkenness. Men- iStiiM drink—some of them too muoli—but alcoholism And its at* tandanit evMs have decreased 90 per cent, in New Zealand since women .began to vote. We have proven that, while corrupt men may buy the votes of isoh'S and ibrothers and fathers of drunkards, the votes of mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters of a drunkard cannot be ibought. Women have, airways been the greater sufferers (from the drink evil, and they have (proven .powerful factors in this special reform movement. Our women are benefited intellectually by their privilege of voting. They are better comrades,, -wives, and mothers through, their larger outlook on life. Far from neglecting their homes and families, our women have developed - higher ideals regarding these subjects." To this panegyric, the poetess addis her little note of comment: "Surely our American women who are so earnestly working for equal franchise should feel encouraged at isuchi a report, coming directly fr®m headquarters, and from a anion. AM success to them and their cause."