SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1878.] FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1894. WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4778, 20 July 1894, Page 2

SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1878.] FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1894. WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT.

Tins is not quite, yet a serious question in New Zealand, and the Memborfor Masterton may bo excused if ho treated it in the House with marked levity. It mutters little from one point of view whether women have or have not the right to, sit as legislators, Had tlicy the privilege of becoming candidates, scarcely-ono 111 ton thousand would come forward and probably but one in a hundred thousand

would be elected, In a political candidature there would, to begin with, be no young and charming women. Their tendency runs to millinery rather than to legislation, and it is left to women of mature age as a rule to claim and representthe rights of the sex. One lady lias secured municipal honours in New Zealand, but, tvo regret to say, has been a distinct failure, and we; should uot be sorry to see one lady obtain Parliamentary honours, as experience is the best guide in such mnttcrs, and the colony can very well afford the experiment, j Still, we believe that the oxtension | | of the franchise to women lias already had a marked effect on the moral tone of Parliament, and if women come to sit in the House we may expect to seesome further improvement in the same direction. The Liberal Party leaders opposed tlio extension of the franchise to women, but when

10 concession became inevitable

they made a sudden change of front mid claimed the credit of conceding it, In the same way they aro opposed to women sitting iii Parliament, but if tho women persevere, and as a political power thoy are beconiingstroiigin thelaud,they will ultimately getadmissioh to Parliament. There is, however, a serious side to

le question! In New Zcalaud now

there are twenty thousand mon idle, ten thousand women in distress, and possibly thirty thousand children more or less hungry, Aro not" our present Parliamentary representatives callous in a measure to all this trouble and privation ? Are they not well-paid,' fat and happy themselves, and do-they )i.ot display manifest indifference to the misfor-

tunes of the poor? The mass of misery existing-in tho colony may yet appeal, and not in Vain, to tho women, politicians 'of Ifow ; ;Zea-i land, am}' ' may s force tljem to the font ip Parliament iii Jliot; iiitciests ,9.11(1 pig. Jheir Jjehaft' If the, present-members .of ike House prove strong,: capable c and' trust-' worthy, Avonicn will not bo wanted in tho Hoiiss, but if they prove weak, spltis|i and untrue, pj bp

i called upon to replace theni. Wo can I believe that Mr Hogg and other members _ rcganl-^vitl;-dismay and,, uneasiness, the somewhaf rombtq j prospect»of .women':-sitting in the j Hoiibb, for such a 'change would: He a severe condemnation-of rnalo representation. Thousands of poor people in the Colony now ask for bread, and the Liberal party gives them a stone, but the tinio may coqio when something moro than a stone may bo demanded .and enforced by the influence of the women of New Zealand,,': \; 1