AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 169, 18 July 1924, Page 11

AMONG OURSELVES.

A WEEKLY BUDGET. (By CONSTANCE CLYDE.) GUARDIANSHIP BILL AND THE LORDS. ! Early in June the Government's GuarI dianship of Infants Bill passed its second ' reading in the English House of Lords. ; Tho only opponents -with regard to cer- | tain clauses were Lord Banbury and one j other noble peer. Says the Women's Leader: "Lord Banbury's comments fall with the inevitability of a music hall I chorus. His chief argument against the I Bill seems to be that the woman ! sations are in favour of it. 'I have never known them to be right in anything that they did. Most, of them seem to be com- . posed of spinsters, etc. . Clearly the remaining years of Lord Banbury's life hold little happiness. He can only sit day by day on those remote red benches, watching our aims come to fulfilment, and they are all, in his opinion, bad aims." It should cheer Ikyn, however, to realise that these same societies voice some disappointment over this measure. \ It does not quite endorse equal guardianship and responsibility as did Mrs. Wintringharn's, but it is, as one says, too important to be turned down. It lays down the principle that the welfare of the infant is the sole consideration, no patri potcstas must influence the magistrate a whit. It makes it simpler again for a comparatively poor woman to make her claim for custody, while, an important matter, it gives the mother the same right as the father to appoint a guardian after death. AN IRISH WOMAN SENATOR. The Free State Senate includes four women Senators, of whom Mrs. Wyse Power is one. In that country* where a certain mid- Victonanism about women certainly lingered long, she yet contrived to come early to the front. In 1902 she was a poor law guardian, becoming, after nine years, member of an Asylum Board. She was the first woman to be elected chairman. During her chairmanship a woman doctor, for the first time, was made superintendent over a large mixed mental hospital. In 1919 when the municipal elections were conducted for the first time on proportional representation, the number of women councillors was greatly increased, Mrs. Wyse Power being one of those returned in Dublin City. Women members were then admitted, also for the first time, to the more important committees, such as the Public Health, over which this lady vas chairman for two years. Control of tenement houses, city sanitation, including management of a large staff, also abattoirs, city laboratory, and control of the Shop Hours' Act all came under her jurisdiction. After the establishment of the Free State, she presided at a great meeting when the women's organisations were formed. She has summed up the feminist movement in Ireland briefly— "Government by placing four women in the Senate made a headline to all Ireland of the recognition of women as public representatives." Thus Ireland begins her work of reconstruction. THE HONOURS LIST. Women in England are said to have been disappointed in the honours list, especially in the non-recognition of Mrs. Lawcett, to whom, so it was whispered, an O.M. was to be awarded. Mrs. lawcett's work is too well known to need recapitulation. Her reminiscences of the suffrage struggle are now being published recalling to many the experiences that are near the present time, but for that reason perhaps, as is sometimes the way, the more easily forgotten. She mentions, for instance, how a male supporter of the militant women, having been thrown down at a meeting, so that his leg was broken, received one hundred pounds damages. It is curious to reflect that turning the hose on a suffragette in her cell was considered disgraceful, when that old-time anti-feminist writer, Walter Besant, in his work of fiction "The Revolt of Man," forecasts such an action as showing man's comparative gentleness to the rebellious sex. Evidently chivalry ■was not so great in those days as is" supposed. Although Sirs. Lawcett has not been honoured, there is satisfaction over two other women, Mrs. Barnett and Dr. Janet Campbell, who have been given the D.B.E. Mrs. Barnett was a great philanthropist and promoter of the Garden Suburb movement, ■while Dr. Campbell occupies many important positions, . INSURING THE CHILD. Nothing will impress jS'ew Zealanders with the difference between quite modern England and our own land than the grave proposal .(upon which I have already touched) to insure boys and girls against unemployment. Tke women, as already noted, dislike, this idea as interfering with the extension of the school age, which they wish to see accomplished. Strangely enough members in the House differ in their views as to the result of allowing such insurance. Mr. Maclean believes, with most of the women, that the suggested lowering of the insurance age to fourteen would deter parents from keeping their children longer at school, but an opponent considered that the prospect of having to pay insurance contributions out of the youngster's earnings would encourage parents to keep them at school. As a ■woman points out, however, even if the usual wages of a boy are less than fifteen shillings or a pound a week, as is claimed, the insurance payment of 4id per week will not be Erudged. Then again, local authorities will be less likely to raise the school age if it means depriving parents, not only of their children's earnings, but of unemployment benefits. The whole question is one little likely to arise in our country, and it is strange to think that it can take up a fair amount of time in the British Parliament. • . j THE TURKISH WOMAN. I Though we hear mucn of. Turkish feminist movements, the harem system has yet some grip on the people, especially among the higher classes. Over this harem the chief official has great power, so much so, that in. a caliph's household he could even forbid entrance, it. is alleged, to his master, and sometimes did so. When the caliph was deposed, it was he. rather than his master, who felt the loss of power, refusing to eat , for three days when he knew exile i awaited them. - With the harem servility there goes the iniquity of the get-quick divorce, as it has been called. That in many places monogamy and the rights of wives prevail is due largely to one woman Halid Hallum, who has never ceased to speak for the new order. Now, however, she states, the unpicturcsque work of educating the Turkish woman > must begin. Not until, in the mass, she ■is as well educated as the French and I English can she achieve real political rights.