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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5235, 25 August 1891, Page 2

By thirty-three to eight the second reading of the Female Suffrage Bill was carried last night in the House of Representatives. The future of this measure is now assured, for the Premier is goitig to take it up as a Government Bill. In experimental legislation female suffrage is the most interesting that New Zealand has entered upon. Nobody can say in what way it will result. It may prove almost a dead letter, or it may lead to something astonishing. Some people imagine that by its means the suppression of the liquor traffic may be brought about ; and the Bible-in-Sobools party put their trust in women. For our own part we think tbe extension of the franchise ia only a measure of justice. With our system of education, by which b'>ys "»d girls are put ou v level platform, we fail to see that when they grow up one sex ehould have electoral privileges, thut are denied to the other. No one can as»ert with any degree of truth that the average boy is more intelligent than the average girl, and under our Statn school system, receiving an equal education, there ie no reason to believe otherwise than that as men and women they will be equal in power of judgment. While there is nothing to fear from female suffrage, there is much to hope for.