Legal rights for women

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32407, 21 September 1970, Page 6

Legal rights for women

It was largely by their own efforts that New Zealand women had achieved the vote in 1893, Mr N. H. Buchanan, a Christchurch solicitor, told a week-end seminar yester-; day. in a talk on legal rights' i for women.

; The women had organised public meetings and petitions and by persuasion, determination, and hard work won the support of enough members of Parliament to obtain a majority. Hence, the New Zealand Parliament granted full voting rights .to women 35 years before the British Parliament did the same for British women.

Until 1882, when the Married Women’s •Property Act became effective in Britain, the common law of England gave a wife hardly any more rights than an African slave had before slavery was abolished, Mr Buchanan said. The New Zealand Married Women’s Property Act. 1884, gave wives the right to own and dispose of property independently of their husbands, he said.

“Later acts extended these property rights, but it was not until 1963 that basic changes were made,” he said. "The Matrimonial Property Act of that year greatly extended the discretion of the courts in order that justice could be done in the circumstances of each case, and made it possible for factors other than money contributions—such as provident management of the home —to be taken into account.”

Thanking Mr Buchanan for his talk, Mrs Margaret Connelly said that he had emphasised the importance of women themselves bringing their needs to the attention of the Government.

Any Government would only act when pressure was applied from tiutside bodies, she said. The seminar on training and re-training of women for work in the community was organised by the Women’s Advisory Council of the New Zealand Labour Party, headed by Mrs Connelly and Mrs Mary Batchelor.

“We are extremely pleased with the response from women to the two-day seminar,” Mrs Connelly said. “More than 60 attended and they represented a very wide range of occupations, interests and age groups.”