AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 115, 16 May 1924, Page 10

AMONG OURSELVES.

A WEEKLY BUDGET. j< (By CONSTANCK CLYDE.) i "Jlany South Australian laws arc I \ anomalous, but none more so than the '■ z thirty years old State Children "Act, p which decrees that if a mother calls in ; J the State, through poverty, to help her s with her children, the penalty U the loss ' of those children." So states nn ' authority, who compares tiiis iron legis- ' lation with the more generous rules in j ' the rest of Australia. New South Walsa i ' gives fifteen shilling a week to deserted j 1 mothers and widows for each child under j'' twelve months. From that age and up ; up to fourteen years twelve and sixpence is paid. Queensland pays ten shillings " to twelve and sixpence to 200(1 mothers, and West Australia has a widows' pension scheme under way. A Royal Commission there that dealt with the mat- C ter declared that the amount jfiven j should be such that the widow would not be forced to work for her children's support. Says the critic: "Yet South Australia not only says the widow must work for her own brood, but that if she cannot keep them from her earnings they < are to be taken from her. and the State ' will pay someone else to do it. Thus. * if she cannot scrub or launder or char ' profitably enough to keep them, she < must resign them to those who do none 11 of these things, but gets 9/ for every I child given to her. -. The writer commends Kew Zealand legislature as rp- | gards widows' pensions. It is certainly j strange that there should be such a i difference between the law of South , Australia in this respect and the enact- ] ments in other parts of the island con- , tinent. ( TITLES FOR WOMEN. The Women's Freedom League of i London has protested vigorously to the Prime Minister regarding the absence of women's names in the honours list. A great array of titles lately given men were read out, comprising several baronies, five privy councillorships. ten baronetcies, and sixty-six knighthoods, while twentyeight men were given the Order of the Bath, etc. Of all these honours J the League mentions only two as awarded to women, each receiving the Kaisor-i-Hind medal for first-class pub- ' lice service in India. When the title ' dame was originated, or rather revived, j women had certainly hoped for something better than tiiia. MARRIED WOMEN IN PROFESSIONS. , Someone has inquired as to the cur- I tailment of married women's liberty to i work, both in New Zealand nnd Knir- I land. In Now Zealand, in professions, i anyway, custom rather than law rules. I A teacher informs mc, however, that < married women are less readily chosen t than the unmarried, while adverse votes i as to their rights to remain in the < Public Service as teachers arc fre- I qurntly passed. "A married woman c was lately appointed to a country i school,' , he informed mc, "but that was . because it was a r&ibT nminnulnr rlia. trict, and there were no other appli- 1 cants." A Home correspondent writes: "The one serious discouragement in last 1 year's brilliant record for women's work l ha 3 been the backward tendency seen in many directions to prevent the employment of married women" The action of j the London County Council in regard 5 to its married women has been paralleled in many other areas." Another writer adds: '"We learn with regret that the Norfolk Education Committee have "j decided to follow in the steps of the j London County Council, and to discon- t tinue their present practice of employ- * ing married women teachers. Excep- J tional cases are, however, to be con- l eidered. Women on marriage will be « ; required to resign, and their reappointment will be considered in view of all I the circumstances relating to that particular school. - ' The real reason of this embargo on the married women is really unemployment in some cases, so that, if that passes, there may be n return 3 to a law that most consider fairer, especially as in many cases the exclusion * of married women is often gained by only a few votes. REFORM IN MYSORE. Commenting on the continuance of sex disqualification in England, in spite of many efforts to overcome this, an Englishwoman points out that Mysore, on the best authority, is about to take a decided etep towards , such equality. Wide constitutional reforms arc being " effected, and this is one of them. Mysore has a population of six millions, and, as the first Indian State to adopt, female franchise, it bus taken an important pioneer step. "After Russia— Germany and Austria; after Germany and Austria—Turkey; after TurkeyMysore." England, she hopes, will also attain true democracy in this respect. QUESTIONS IN THE HOUSE; ] Questions especially interesting to < women have been frequent in the British ' House of Commons lately. The overcrowding of maternity wards and mothers' pensions were both considered. The latter subject refers to the weekly live shillings given to the father of a son killed in the war, a request being made that it be transferred to the mother should the father die. It was pointed out that if the mother were in need she could claim a better allowance.

but as a woman said, she did not remember that the first pension is automatic, while the mother has to prove her need. Mrs. Wintringham asked that a medical woman and one with special knowledge of asylums should be put on the Committee of Inquiry into the Lunacy Laws, but to this she received no" definite answer. Attention was directed also to the waste of time which both men and women suffer in lieing called to the jury when their services are not needed or long before they are needed. There was a case of a woman summoned three times in four years for a week each time, and though she had Lo he present four mornings on each of the last two occasions, she was not called into the box once; at least five times as many jurors were summoned as were needed, and it is safe to say that over half were in the same position as this particular lady, it is strange for us in New Zealand to realise that it is really four years since Englishwoman became liable to jury duty.