DUNEDIN NOTES.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8594, 22 September 1893, Page 5

DUNEDIN NOTES.

September 21,

The Education Board gob through their business to-day in the shortest time ou record, doubtless due to. the absence of their talking man. Members objected strongly bo bhe parsimony of bhe Department in granting only £250 for loss sustained duriug the prevalence of the measles epidemic, seeing that this Board would lose nearly £2000. One member said the Department was endeavouring to economise through a visitation of Providence. Further proceedings against Salvationists at Milton are contemplated. A meeting of of the Wesleyan connexion carried a resolution protesting against the borough by-law, and calling on the Government to annul it.

The meeting under the auspices of the Franchise League >t the City Hall was a huge success, though there was an organised attempt to disturb the proceedings. The place was packed to the doors, the large crowd being to some extent produced by an offensive circular which the newspapers had refused to publish. The principal speaker was Sir R. Stout, who was at first subject to a good deal of interruption, but he soon made himself heard. He announced thathehad no intention of contesting the City seat, therefore he had no object in convening this meeting, bub if he had been instrumental iv calling ib together he should have been proud of it, because its representative and earnest character was a complete answer to those who declared thab women did not want the vote. He urged on the women that their work had only just begun, because they must organise themselves so effectively as to see not only that -women were enrolled, but that they came to the polls on election day. He .cas convinced thab the women would always range themselves on the side of those who were for the preservation of our education system, and that the women's vote would tend to purify and elevate our politics. When the true history of how the Electoral Bill was passed came to be written the public would learn some surprising things. The only resolution put,: which thanked all and sundry in and out of Parliament who had assisted in carrying the reform, was.carried amidst a scene of great excitement, the women rising to their feet and waving their handkerchiefs. For the next hour tbe work of enrolment was carried on very vigorously, and between 700 and 800 persons were enrolled to-day. Similar activity is being displayed in the suburbs.