WOMEN'S FRANCHISE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 733, 31 July 1953, Page 5

WOMEN'S FRANCHISE

Sir-I was surprised to hear the speaker on the New. Zealand Housewife, Sunday evening (July 5) quote the following lines from W. P.. Reeves’s book, State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand: "So one fine morning, of September, 1893, the women of New Zealand woke up and found themselves enfranchised. The privilege was theirs, given freely and spontaneously in the easiest and most unexpected manner in the world by male putiticians. . , No Franchise leagues had fought the fight year after year..." These statements ate utterly at variance with the facts-as revealed in the book Outlines of the Women’s. Franchise Movement in New Zealand, written by W. Sidney Smith (W. S&S. Lovell-Smith) and published in 1905, In 1878, Dr. James Wallis moved in Parliament "That in the opinion of this House the electoral’ disabilities of women should be entirely removed, and that the same political rights and _privileges should be granted to women as to men." This was seconded by Mr, Fox (afterwards Sir William Fox) but the motion was not carried. In 1879, John Ballance openly committed himself to the cause of woman suffrage and in 1881 Dr. Wallis introduced a4 Woman’s Suffrage Bill which passed its first reading, but got no further. In 1887 the question was again before Parliament by the Female Erfranchisement Bill introduced by Sir Julius Vogel. The second reading of the/ Bill was carried by 41 to 22, but was later dropped from the Order Paper As yet, no public opinion had teen created on this subject. Upon the formation of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in New Zealand in 1885, a Fianchise Department was established with Mrs. K W. Sheppard as its superintendent. The unions, which numbered 15 in. the first year, set to work to create a public opinion, and franchise committees, women’s political leagues and similar groups came into being throughout New Zealand. A _ petition was circulated, signed by 10,085 women and presented to the House of Representatives by Sir John Hall in 1888. Sir John Hall endeavoured to introduce a clause to include women in the Electoral Bill then before the House, but this was not accepted. In 1890 the. women again. became active and presented another peti-

tion in 1892, containing 20,274 signatures. The Hon. John Ballance, then Premier, included Woman Suffrage in the Government Electoral Bill, but he died before the Bif! was passed and was succeeded by the Hon. R. J. Seddon, who was not sympathetic. All hope of the enfranchisement of women in that year was lost. | The Franchise Superintendent lost no time in vain regrets. A fresh petition was drawn up and circulated. Upon the assembling of Parliament in 1893 it was found that the signatures to the third petition numbered 31,872 (nearly onethird of the women of the colony). Sir -John Hall prepared end introduced a separate Woman Suff-age Bill which, after a stormy pasage, was passed eventually by both Houres, and on September 19 Mr. Seddon forwarded the following telegram to Mrs Sheppard: "The Electoral Bill assented to by His Excellency the Governor at a quarter to twelve this day." , These dates and figures serve to show that the Women’s Franchise was the outcome of 50 years’ work by thousands of women and men, and was avt handed to them on a platter

HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR

IS DUE

(Christchurch).