SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1876.] FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1894. THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4626, 19 January 1894, Page 2

SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1876.] FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1894. THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN.

In granting a female franchise New Zealand appears to have given a lead •to the civilised world, but if we consider the claims made by the leaders of the woman's movement in America ! and England, we find that the con • sessions made here are but a small step towards the position .of perlW freedom and equality which is d) manded. The history of women'is declared to be the history continued and universal opprr?riou of one sex by the other. The emancipation of women is her restoration to equal rights and privilege) with man. A hundred thousand/ears of slavery have debated, accojaing to these now light], the potion of woman, and many-will noi be sorry if it takes anotber/hundwd thousand years to developer up to the point to which tbe /cmale emancipators desire her brJught. They aim at nothing Irs {flan brushing way tbe entire soeia/ fabric, and subverting every sociw contract, including th t of marriige. Pe.:ect liberty, it s argued, yfil expand her faculties and multipl/ her powers. "No longer will sjfe bo a vapid butterfly or a soullew drudge, but athletio of mind/and body worthy to mate witb/ungs and to bring forth heroes." The/ideal woman of the distant future -fir many generations must pass before, fltep by step,she can be placed on such a pinnacle—is not an impossible development, It iB fee feminine and not the masonline conoeptioii of what the iiex might to be >me and for (his 1 reason] it may ultimately be realized. Ihe proposed enfranchisement of from all the ties • which now (jind and regulate her life would bo //preposterous and dangerous ii:m>on excepting, on the hypothejJ that she is by trainiug and gradually fitting herself, to tab,- an independent part in the battle jbf life, A higher type of woma/might with impunity disregard ordiim'y social conditions and be fitteijto run alone, but till we get Ibis higli/r'typa it is much safer for women to/0 guided by (ihe best traditions of tlj' past rather than the uncertain i(■ als of the future. It is satisfactory y find the leaders of the woman's Movement emphasising the improved lioral and physical conditions which 'are attainable, but the universal growth of such conditions will be very slow, and it }s expodieut that the changes which they entail should be equally gradual,