FIRST BY-ELECTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 206, 1 September 1936, Page 6

FIRST BY-ELECTION.

I remember so well hearing a Labour candidate for Parliament, at the last election, say: "We must replace Mrs. McCombs. Women are needed in the House, the country is crying out for a woman in Parliament." Again 1 , a sitting member said: "The Labour party received congratulations from all over the world when Mrs. McCombs was elected to the House. What we want are women to come forward to offer themselves—we must never be without a woman in Parliament." What has happened? For the first by-election since Labour was returned as Government, the Labour National Executive has definitely turned down a woman nominee. There are fifty-five Labour members, all men, one more will be neither here nor there, but a woman would have made history for New Zealand once again. Where is Labour's promise to the women? Without their votes it would not be where it is to-day. The promise was to enforce the franchise, and I know what scores of women are thinking to-day—that they have been let .down, and heaven help tlie Labour party if the women turn. A. M. CRAWFORD.