Emancipation of Woman and Righteous Freedom to Wives.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 268, 9 November 1895, Page 4 (Supplement)

Emancipation of Woman and Righteous Freedom to Wives.

ADDBBS3 by Pastor BrRCH. D.D.,

Christchubch,

The moab important movement of the nineteenth century ia the evolution of thoughb which demands the emancipation of woman, and is leading man to ba aa willing to grant, aa quickly aa she ia prepared to receive ib, the same freedom or equal standing in national, legal and social matters aa that hitherto enjoyed by her busband, brother or son. In the past, woman's chief business in life haa been either legal wifehood or tbe nob-to-be-mentioned connection to a man abl6 to pay bhe price for hejj ministry to bia passion—a God-given passion, which __ in right conditions of society would not shrink into the darkness and be defiled with degraded shame. Domeetic service and factory work were taken up as only temporary meana of earfeing a living until fche covated be all and end-all of woman's life could be attained at the marriage altar. Unless man can be transformed inbo an angel, we can no more muzzle hia strongest pagßion than prevent the ebb and flow of the oceanic wave; and, by reaaon of insufficient means, while a greab number of men are unable bo marry, we shall have in our midst,hidden but demanded and tolerated, tbe social evil which pains the thoughtful <sfnd ahamea the pure. God forbid thab I ehould excuse bhe vice which causes a woman in its sad business to be shunned by legal wives and in public treated aa a leper by the men who in aecreb become her partner bherein. My aim is to show that the conditions which produce and foster this wrong-doing are to be greatly ameliorate, and in due time to disappear. lit order to be regarded as a success, ib is not now a neceesity for woman to marry. At the came wage as fchat of man, many tradee are open to her, and the tendency is to relinquish to her all indoor work which does not require greab or continual physical; labour. In banks, offices, watch-making/ hair-cutting, tailoring, as well aa poßt and telegraph rooms, editorial work and spinning and weaving, woman is preparing to take the place of man. Fewer men will be in the cities ; and, since there will infinitely more email farms, there will be more marriages, and at an earlier age than at present obtain?. Small farms cultivated on modern methods and co-operative farms using electricity can be made profitable. It ia now known tbat the application of electri - city drawn from tha atmosphere by meana of copper wires running through tho ground, increaaea bhe growth of potatoes fifty per cent., and ia specially beneficial to wheat, rye, barley, oata, beet, celery, raapberries and straw berries, and, if vigorously applied, will ao invigorate fruit trees aa to insure our orchards and vineyards against tbe devastation of insect pests. Farming will, therefore, become sufficiently reliable, at any rate, to comfortably support those who want to live on the land. Besides, does a man who grows scarcely any more corn than is required for his family care very much about its price in the next town? The increase in the number of such small holdings implies a corresponding increase in marriages. The professions—healing, music, art, law, and school and college teaching—will gradually come into woman's control. She will have more opportunities of maintaining heraelf, and, since the average man will be better off, I believe fewer women will remain eingle or be poor, therefore they will not be so easily led as now into the evil we deplore. I should here state that tbe working women of New Zealand, i.e., those engaged in factories and other industrial pursuits, are as a class as honest and as virtuous aa any class of our citizens. The poor pay of many of them, their heroic struggle to continue virtuous, and bheir efforb bo conceal bhe appearance of poverty, entitles them to the admiration of thoughtful men. God bless them ! A large proportion of bhe fallen cla.s is made up of domestic servants and girls who to some extenb are nob happy in bheir homes.

The result will be that woman will see that it is nob necessary to accept the first. man who wants her, lest there may not be a second. She can afford to wait for the proved respected man to fall in love with her, and ahe will be educated to remain at work earning her own living rather than leave it to wed a man not known to be pure and true. Character and disposition will be to her more than title or wealth. Since woman haa a purer inatinct and a clearer perception than man, and that she will evolve to dwell more upon motherhood than wifehood, there should be fewer unhappy marriagea. The eons would be trained to regard the necessity of virtue equally with the daughters, and there would be no distinction made between a fallen woman and a fallen man.

Sir George Grey ia reported to have stated that women should sib in Parliament, bub only in the Upp.r House, a.a Woman's Legislative Council. This I take to be a joke; for when we were together in the same hotel at Sydney, Sir George told me thab, in his opinion, women should sib with men in the Housa of Representatives and be eligible for all .ffices, except that of soldier, etc. I might add, that, re-pre-senting a district of ha.if.a million inhabitants, I was privileged for three years to ait on the School Board with Misa Lydia Becker, whose presence materially added to the sweetness and light of thab assembly, and her womanly inatinct was of inestimable value in arriving at the decisions which practically moulded the plan of elementary teaching in England, afterwards adopted in the colonies.

Meanwhile, in addition to the evolving process and to our efforts nationally and locally to emancipate woman as a fsllow

citizen with man, cannot we m a ]j 0 j, ~ more endurable aa a wife? In poet et "to. aing thab ahe abould be the adore.; an *c bhe home. I advocate thab this oJhSi 1 true in prose. In every sense of tha •wife' ahe should be given the ah_ri_? control of her own self. Axe-men nren bo concede bhie ? Over and over tS$ martyrdom of wives has made my hl_ a boil with indignation and my f aC g ij ocJ with shame. Since our laws do notrecop • the righb of the wile to her body, worn 1118 '9 objection to sexual slavery counts for 8 thing. Men suppose that wives have not th. right to aay ' no,' and wives have h» trained to aubmib aa one of the inevitaM ° of bhe married state. The result in b many instances ia daily agony, prematn death, emaciated and lußtful children rf the deterioration which deforms and atonta such a large portion of the civilised rae* In this respect many husbands are mf" discreet with cattle and dogs than with their wives, and the despised uncivilised brutes are wiser than some C hrisbian mw. In bhe United States each year, about k™* thousand wives are driven by disease n* through desperation to submit to the awful operation which renders shem aexW Woman should, therefore, be protected against bhe brute force which compels U. to become a mother by a man W _ OM ill ■ bred nature has turned w _a. love she once thoughb she had into abhorrenb disgust—in .(nch a c_a e I advocate a divorce court in private, presided over when practicable by a woman judge. In many casea, if nob in all, t_ 4 wife's innatemoral aensibiliby wouldleadher to continue in physical and mental agon? and to an early death rather bhan have tha debaila of her humiliabion made bhe subj_<_. of club gossip and exposed in the gen... bionai press. Ono of ohe gracious and genble leaders of socieby in Sydney is Ma Wolatenholme, the head of a faehionabla ladies' boarding-school in that city. She haa now come into bhe open on behalf of thoae wives who are mercilessly treated by their huabanda, and in a heart-searching letter, exclaims, 4 Generation after generabion for many weary agea haa been reared and entered marriage practically ignoran. of its true functions, the esaentially bob obligations of parenthood, bhe cighti of wife and mother, bhe conaideration and loving care which should be beatowed upca the heroic woman who deacenda inbo th. valley of death to deliver to aociety another life, and lastly, the sacred right of tbe unborn to be well born. Ignorance, thought. leesness, and the weakness born of cenfcnrita of allegiance to false standards and low ideals, the all-pervading conspiracy of silence, and woman's inequality before th« law—these are the chief sourcea of compul. aory prostitution, snd ita resultant misery within fche marriage relation.'

My objecb in these addresses is bo urge all who would truly uplift bhe race bo venture as delicately as poasf&le to mention, this subject to young people aboub to be wedded, for I feel persuaded that much of th« misery referred to arises from wrong conceptions of marriage. Were they to know the truth —God's trath—given, by in. atinct to the animal creation, bat which is needtul to be taught to mankind —every chivalrous husband would recognise fche merciful justice of fche ease and gladly accord to his wife the courteam consideration which allows her to assume att responsibilities of maternity on behalf of her children, who should nob only have an eaual chance in citizenship, but who, ii order bhat they may avail of thab chance, require to be purely and unselfishly bora. A weary worn-oub mother once said, 'If I ever get to heaven, I'll not do a single thing, but just ait down and rest for tha grab hundred years.' Might nob men see bhab their wives have a libtle rest on earth?