The Press. THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1893. WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8575, 31 August 1893, Page 4

The Press. THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1893.

WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE.

Unless something unforeseen happens during the progress of the Electoral Bill through Committee in the Council, which is very improbable, the measure will become law this session, with the clause granting female franchise included. The division in the Council last evening on the section in the interpretation clause, "'Person' includes woman, ,, points to the conclusion that the majority of the Councillors have decided to concede tlie right to vote to women. An attempt will be made to make the oonoeasion conditional on allowing women in the qouatry to vote in tiie same ni&aner as commercial travellers can do; that Iβ to say, with-

out going to the polling booth on the day of the poll. It is understood, however, that the majority of the Counoil are averse to making conditions, and that they will, now that the principle has been affirmed, decide to give it immediate effect. As we have indicated in previous articles we regard the step now taken as a complete " leap in the dark.*' No one can possibly foresee what will be the result of this revolutionary change in our system of representation. By inserting the words " 'Person' includes woman " in the Act, Parliament will simply double the number of people in the colony who will be entitled to exercise the franchise. How many will take advantage of their right to vote and how many will abstain is a matter of pure conjecture. The enthusiastic advocates of woman's rights will, of couree, rush to have their names placed on the rolls. But there are thousands of women in New Zealand who look upon the proposal with extreme aversion, and who will only be induced to take part in elections from a strong conviction that it is their duty to do so when some great question is at stake. The time for diecussing the arguments for and against female franchise has now gone by, aud before long those who have been instrumental in bringing it about will have time to sit down quietly and consider the aosition. Against those who have supported it from a eincere conviction that it was just and fair to make the change we have not a word to say. But we canuot help feeling that a very large number of the members of the House of Representatives have been actuated by very mixed motives. The female franchise has been carried not so much from a desire to do justice to women, as because its supporters hope by women's votes, to promote their special fads. There are others who supported it in the House because the proposal has been described as "liberal," and have been in a state of feverish anxiety ever since lest the Council should agree to their proposal. If we believed that the country really wanted the change, that the majority of the women of New Zealand were themselves in favour of it, and that our representatives as a body were really sincere in their advocacy of the movement, the position would have been different. But women have been used for political purposes throughout the whole agitation. There has been an absence of political sincerity both during the last seseion and the present one which ie painful to all who look for high motives on the part of their representatives. If. the members of the Lower House could have recorded thehf votes free from all compulsion, if they could have expressed their inmost convictions on the question, we feel certain that it would have been postponed, till after the election by a considerable majority. Yet beoause, for a variety of reasons members shrink from voting as they really think, we are likely to have a great revolution-in pur system of representation brought about without any clear evidence before us that the country demands it. The members of the House who have the greatest reason to feel auxious, should the BUI become law, are ths members of thaMtnistry. They notoriously took pains last) session to kill their own Bill ', and they are suspected even this session o£ playing a deep game to bring about its destruction before it finally passes the Council. The public may be doing them an injustice in coming to thie conclusion. But they have only themselves to blame for the impression which so widely prevails.