DEBATING SOCIETY.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 280, 9 July 1908, Page 5

DEBATING SOCIETY.

A meeting of the Literary and Debating Society was held in. St. Andrew’s Hall last evening. Mr Chambers occupied the chair. The secretary reported that he had secured St. Andrew’s Hall for their meetings at a very moderate rental. A proposal that a “ Mock Parliament ” be held at the next meeting was rejected. Three papers bearing on important subjects were set down for reading at the next meeting, and at the following meeting the debate,“ls the Rising of the Yellow Races fraught with menace to Western Civilisation ?”will •be taken, Mr R. McLean offering to take the affirmative. About a dozen new members were elected. The debate “ Should Women sit in Parliament ?” was then commenced. Mr Dillon taking the chair, as Mr Chambers was one of the leaders in the debate.

Mr Carroll, speaking for the affirmative, said he had not come prepared, as he had not any notes, and he would have to speak extemporaneously. He did not know who propounded the question but it embraced a very wide interpretation. He believed that women should sit in Parliament, and it was only long-standing prejudice that prevented them from doing so. There was a belief thousands of years ago that women were inferior to men, but the march of modern and Christianity had done away with this. But still prejudice remained. In illustrating his remarks Mr Carroll made mention of the brilliant attainments of Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, and Queen Victoria, also referring to Mrs Yates, who occupied the mayoral chair at Onehunga. Women were equal to men in ability, and if they could rise from the ranks they should be allowed to guide the ship of State. Women were conversant with some much needed reforms which men had no knowledge of. Mr Chambers, for the negative, said women were too good to put into Parliament. They did not need to go to Parliament to make their influence felt. Woman’s influence swayed the world. She made her influence felt on the boy and moulded the character of his manhood. No one would like to see the influence of a mother or a sister taken away from the home. Lie did not think woman shoqld be away from home arguing on political matters while the husband was left at home to struggle with domestic duties, such as washing the baby, etc. He made reference to the baneful influence exercised by woman on French politics at the time of the revolution. Cleopatra was not a model woman she was brilliantly intellectual, but desperately wicked. The homo life of which Britain was so proud should be maintained, and if' woman went into Parliament wo should lose much of that.

Mr Poynter thought that, as a natural outcome of the franchise, women should be allowed to frame the laws of the country. If women were elected to Parliament it would do away with many of the disgraceful scenes enacted there. Women were making their influence felt by many of the great reforms which were being carried out. and if placed in the House their influence would be felt more. There were many reforms which were still needed, and of many of these men did not know sufficient. Mr Cooke was in favour of women entering Parliament, providing they had the ability. Women in the last few decades had taken high degrees in education, and were entering the professions, and were therefore not so intellectually inferior as they were supposed to be. We should be glad of the services of women of brilliant attainments in Parliament. All women were not pasted in Parliament, as they would do more good there than elsewhere. Mr Chambers in his reply said the opposition had been fighting a shadow. He had never argued for a moment that women were not fit to enter Parliament. 4 Women in Parliament were taken from their natural sphere. Say a single girl was elected. Probably after she had been in a while she would get married and retire from political life, and the country would be put to continual expense in holding

I special elections. He was sure those present did not want to see their sisters, mothers or wives in Parliament. Mr Carroll, replying, said some women had a bent for certain work, such as literature, science, art, etc., and it would be madness t > i ry to turn them aside. ... He re-i<-rred to the political position of Qacen Victoria, and yet her home life was] admired by the world. Prejudice must drop, and the time had come when women must take their active part in life. Women needed special laws for their own protection, and men did not have the same grasp of the reforms needed as did .women, and therefore they, should be represented. This concluded the debate, and on a vote being taken it was found that 13 voted for the negative and 5 for the affirmative.