AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume 55, Issue 94, 21 April 1924, Page 10

AMONG OURSELVES.

A WEEKLY BUDGET. (By CONSTANCE CLYDE.) THE EQUAL SUFFRAGE BILL. If we New Zealand women had the suffrage merely on the same terms as the Englishwoman, how would we standNot only the girls, but many of the middleageil women going to their Civil Service offices would be automatically disfranchised, similarly many shop assistants, teachers, artists and so forth. Lady doctors in this country would fare hotter than in England, for here they usually have full residential qualifications, but many nurses would lie scratched oil' the roll, and the assistants in our numerous institutions would share the fate of unmarried women who had perhaps elected to stay at home to help an invalid rather than to form tie 3of love'and ambition of their own. Such would be the queer state of affairs in New Zealand if in some fit of reaction our Government decided that the "Home sufl'erage is good enough for us." The men would get out of the new order much better, for in England, as the feminist papers point out. a residential qualification of six months is often Riiflicient for the men. The reason of the anomaly in woman's suffrage is due to the fact that a woman voter must in some senee have a "'home of her own," unless she is married, when she shares the "occupier" rights of her husband. The masculine idea seems to he that if .. woman "on her own -, occupies a room furnished by her landlady she is mentally unfit for a vote, but if she takes an empty room and furnishes it herself that display of ability makes her man'u equal. Of course many of the most worthy women do not find it convenient to have a. domicile quite of their own, so they are outsiders at once. When a woman wishes to enroll, it seems, searching questions are put to her as regards the ownership of her table and chairs, and in one ease it is alleged a woman was refused enrolment because she let out that she did not have her meals in her room, but went out to a restaurant. Feminists point out that of the twenty-six countries that have given the women tlic suffrage only Britain and Hungary have awarded this right on unequal terms with men. THE EQUAL GUARDIANSHIP BILL. At time of writing Mrs. Wintringham is bringing the Equal Guardianship of Infants Bill before the House of Commons, and it may be useful to note the London '"Times" attitude on the matter. The "Times" editor wants things as they arc in this matter, because thus is "preserved the principle of the inalienable headship of the father in regard to legitimate children and the equally inalienable headship of the mother in regard to illegitimate children." That is the equality of guardianship that the "Times" advocates! As an authority points out "It is difficult to understand under what mystic law it is thought better for the one type of child to be under the mother and the more fortunate ones under the father." As the "Times" has previously declared very properly that the question was solely "the benefit of the cJiildrcn," the query of its opponents is pertinent. There ie no doubt that the Equal Guardianship Bill will pass sooner or later, and that, it will have very rightly no effect on the average home, where happily there is little contention on the matter. MARRIED WOMAN'S NATIONALITY. Strong appeals continue to be made regarding the question of married women and nationality, and the cases given by those interested in the matter are said to be typical of many unrcported. It stand's to reason that marriages between foreigners in these modern days must necessarily be more frequent than in old parochial times, and even the most "intuitive" woman cannot know by instii&t with what nation her country may later be at war. Such a case was that of an Wnglishwoman who accepted as a second husband a German of some standing, who, however, not long after tlic ceremony deserted her, and became a wanderer on the continent. Settled in England she was forced to register as an alien, while her money was taken from her by the Public Trustee, who permitted her for a long lime only part of the income. She is absolutely English, of course, in sympathy, and is tending her daughter by her tirst husband, also a British nephew who was wounded in the war.. Nevertheless her investments arc still not under her control. Even widowhood would not automatically free her. Presumably she would have to go through some ceremony of marriage with a Britisher to become English again. ' In another case a woman married to a Syrian found on his death that his family stepped in and took away the money on which she depended to educate her children and support herself. Some of it was her own, but she had to leave ell behind ■when she managed to get her children back to England. Where the woman resides in her husband's country of course, no measure woudl be of much avail, but there is pressure brought to bear regarding the wives domiciled in Britain, and also for the automatic resumption of British nationality in widowhood. JAPANESE WOMEN WORKERS. The latest feminist news from Japan is not very cheering, although the Japanese delegate to the International Women Workers' Congress lias some good points to report. For instance Tokyo has a Juvenile Law Court, which is doing good work, the junior probation officer iK'.ing a woman. There are also hospital clinics and beaureaus: of employment, but the wages of the numerous women workers are very low, and the deathrate from tuberculosis is very great. It ia said that eighty per cent of the girl telephone operators for instance are victims of tuberculosis i through under nourishment. A number ' of the women work in the mines, ami ] the conditions are much like those of I the mid-Nineteenth century in England | when girls toiled half clad beneath the i surface of the earth. It has been com- j puted also that nearly as many women ! work in the fields in Japan as do men. ' ; and a great proportion of these are ! ! under twenty years of age. The con- ! ditions of factory workers again are j very bad. A great deal must be done. : the delegate says, to arouse the great masses of the women and to combat both the submission which their sex engenders of the apathy of the East. j