Ihe Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1898.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 322, 2 August 1898, Page 2

Ihe Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1898.

The "Removal of "Women's Disabilities Bill" was read a second time on Friday night, the motion was carried on the voices. The preamble of the Bill reads as follows :—" Whereas women are now possessed of equal voting powers with men, and it is desirable that equal opportunity should be given to them to serve the country in offices which they are competent to fill." There is only one enacting clause, " From and after the passing of this Act a woman may be nominated, appointed, or elected to any public office or position to which a man may be appointed or elected, any law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding," . There was not a single dissenlient voice to the motion for the second reading, although several members expressed doubt as to the advisability of admitting women to Parliament. When the Bill granting them the franchise was under discussion ft was urged by the supporters of the measure that women would be satisfied with the right to vote for the election of members and would not use the power granted to them to extend their privileges beyond that point. We believe that up to the present time the predictions of those who held this opinion have been fulfilled. It is not the women of New Zealand who are asking for the privilege of being elected to Parliament. There may bo a few of tho members of Women's Leagues and similar organisations who may

aspire to the position, but they ' have; not conducted their business as a rule in a manner to convince their more domesticated sisters that the appearance of women on the floor of the Mouse would add to its dignity, or gain for their sex one tittle of a privilege which they will not be able to command by the simple exercise of the franchise. It must be remembered that quite half the electors are women. For our part we should be sorry to see women members of the House of Representatives, not because we believe that they would be found less capable of conducting the affairs of the country than is the average male member at the present time ; but because we believe that for physical reasons they would prove more or less failures. Another reason is that we believe the best wemen would not come forward, and if one did happen to be elected, she would be of the type which has been so often painfully in evidence at League and other meetings peculiar to the sex. As Mr Ssobic McKenzie said during the debate on the Bill :—"Temparamcntally women are not qualified for the sphere of politics, though .they are fit for spheres of much greater importance to humanity." For our parr, if we thought they were fitted for the political sphere in this colony, we should hold a very much lower opinion of women than we do at the present moment.