MAMILTON LEGISLATIVE ASSOCIATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 1919, 23 October 1884, Page 2

MAMILTON LEGISLATIVE ASSOCIATION.

• The ordinary meeting of the assoeiatioi^ was held in the Public Hall on Tuesday. There were about forty members present, and the ladies' gallery was well filled. In the absencejof the Speaker, the Chairman of Committees (Mr John Knox) took the chair. In answer to the member for Frankton, the Minister for Public Works said the Government approved of the arrangement by which the telegraph offices of the coldny were opened after 7 p.m. for the convenience ot the public. The member for Prankton moved tor leave to introduce a bill to vest all reserves in local bodies. Leave was granted and the bill was introduced and read a first time. The member for Pukete, moved that motions for adjournment of the debate, or the House, or for the speaker to leave the chair, be put without debate. He explained tha^_ much valuable time was wasted in disjPV cussions arising out of such motions, to the prejudice of those questions which they avowedly met to discuss. The Minister for Public Works moved as an amendment that the mo\er of such motions be allowed to speak, but the question shall not be debated, save and except that it shall be competent for a member of the Government to intimate to the House the opinion of the Ministry upon such motion. On being put to the Plouse the amendment was lost, and the Premier intimated that the Governments would make the question a party one^ He said the Government was willing to meet the mover half way, but must decline to accept the motion as brought 4 down. The member for Pukete amended his motion so as to allow one member opposed to a motion for adjournment to speak. This was accepted by the Government and carried on the voices. On the motion of the member for Hukanui it was agreed that copie3 of all bills be attached to the order paper three days before the date of the second reading, and on the motion of the member for Tuhikaramea it was resolved that a copy of the order paper should be placed in Mr R. F. Sandes' shop, Hamilton East, for the benefit of members living on that side of the river. The Pieniier, who seconded both motions, promised that the Government would do its best to give effect to the wishes qfrj members. The debate on the second readingofthe Women's Franchise Bill was resumed by the member for Piiongia, who spoke against the measure. The member fo« Pukete strongly supported the biW contending that so long as women were denied the franchise representative government was only a sham. Women were compelled to pay taxes and to obey the laws, and they should be allowed to have a voice in the levying of such taxes and the making of such laws. The member for Horotiu opposed the bilH on the ground that women did not want the franchise, and that if it were granted to them it would create dissensions in the household. The member for Pnkekura supported the bdl, and ridiculed the idea that women were not fitted to vote. He ventured to say that an equal number of ladies .vould have acquitted themselves much more creditably than the liinetyfive male repiesentatives in Wellington had duiing the past few months. The member for Woodlands opposed the bill. His main contention was that women had never shown themselves worthy of the franchise in the past, and were not deserving of the piivilege now. He deprecated changes in the constitution, which might lead from bad to worse. Women differed from men in that thpy had no originality, and therefore the two sexes could not be put on an equal footing. The Premier spoke in support of the bill, which he regarded as a most righteous measure. He denied the inferiority of women, and claimed that their apparent subordinacy was traceable to the condition to which for centuries men had con* demned them. Their state had always been a more or less pronounced form of slavery, from which, thanks to thyjj enlightenment of the present century, then * ere being surely emancipated. In the colleges and schools which, are now provided for them women were fast proving that they were the possessors of intellectual powers equal to those of the lords of creation. He claimed that^ m Oman's physical inferiority was also due to the strictly domestic life which she had been compelled to lead. If the records of the past exhibited few examples of intellectual excellence in the opposite sex, the roll of the clever woman of the present century was a long and honourable one. The Premier concluded by saying that though he for one would not compel women to vote, the privilege should be extended to those who desired to exercise the franchise. On the motion of the member for Mangapiko the debate was adjourned. On the motion of the Premier the House adjourned till next Tuesday.