WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume xxv, Issue 10713, 29 August 1913, Page 4

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE.

The two Wanganxti newspapers are having a heated controversy on the question of who was responsible for the granting of the franchise to women in New Zealand. One claims that Sir John Hall deserves all the credit for the innovation. The other persists that it was John Ballance who emancipated woman. Possibly, when they have finished the argument, one or'both of our Wanganui friends will devote themselves to showing what 'benefit, if any, the Dominion has derived from the granting of the suffrage to women. Has any measure been placed upon the Statute Book that would not have been there- had women been without the vote? Has the dignity of Parliament shown any distinct improvement since the franchise was extended? Have the social customs of the people undergone any particular revolution? Is the quantity of liquor per head consumed to-day less than it was twenty years ago? Have tllxe gambling and other evils been minimised? When these questions answered, onr Wanganui contemporaries mi ay be able to tell aw why, if women are capable of exercising an intelligent and independent vote at the ballot box, they are not entitled to occupy seats in the Legislature.