The Evening Post. THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1871.

Evening Post, Volume VII, Issue 133, 13 July 1871, Page 2

The Evening Post. THURSDAY, JULY 13, 1871.

Our Auckland friends, apparently through the periodical visits of Webb's Californian line of steamers to their port, have becoriie indoctrinated with some Yankee notions t»n social subjects. They are, in truth, rather a queer lot, these same Auckland people. They drink the largest possible amount of " bad spirits," and they try to chase away the " devils" thus created by spasmodic teetotal revivals, and inoperative Permissive Bills. Some time ago, they took to photographing the drunkards; and now the last phase of their eccentricity is an agitation about woman's rights. This "latest novelty," in the way of sensational movements, has been introduced to the Auckland people by a Mrs. Colclough, who, under the norn deplume of "Polly Plum," has, for a year or two past, penned an infinite amount of nonsense concerning the fair sex, through the columns of the Southern Cross. Finding that her lucubrations in the Press did not seem to be productive of much effect', " Polly" has at length abandoned the pen, and taken boldly to the " ptump" —-in short, she has come forward as the platform' denunciator of the wrongs of her sisterhood. To judge by the brief summary of the lecture given in the Auckland papers, it does not appear that the lady who delivered it adduced anything further than a rechauffe of those old stock arguments on this subject, the utter fallacy of which - has been shown again and again. The main object of the lecture was to prove that woman should not be subject to man at all; that she is quite equal to man in every respect; and quite as competent to cope with all the stern business of life, its cares, burdens, trials, and difficulties, and "that she should, therefore, hold an absolutely independent position. Now, this sort of nonsense is,fortunately, never heard from the lips of those true w.omen whom men admire and love, to whom they render instinctive homage, and to cherish and protect whom they lool£ upon as a privilege and duty. No! it is not amongst women of chat kind .that we find the champions of women's

orators and philosophers in petticoats spring is a special and peculiar one. Disappointed and ill-tempered old maids, who, never having had the chance of entering upon the connubial state, vow deadly-vengeance upon the whole race of mankind, or married women who cant hit matters off with their'yoke fellows in the bonds of Hv-

men, sometimes find a sort of vent for their spleen in stirring up discontent in the bosoms of the fairer and more amiable portion of the sex, whom men adore as sweethearts, cherish! as * wives, and revere as mothers. " Polly Plum,'' who, by the way, we remember to have seen, is a capital specimen of the intensely disagreeable type of female first mentioned. Her story is to a certain extent public property, and it is one of disappointed hopes. It is a trite saying that "old maids make-the best mothers," and we suppose, on this principle, "Polly Plum" is of all others the most competent person to say how young girls should be brought up, and to tell women all about their rights- and wrong:-1. ' This may be sound doctrine, but it is one of which we entertain very grave doubts. At all events, we never found a woman possessing amiability, sweetness of temper, average intelligence, and a fair share of personal ehai'ins, who bothered her pretty head ab^ut anything of the kind. Women of that sort got all their lights freely conceded by men without needing either to rush into print or spout in a public hall.

The arguments of "Polly Plum" are almost too absurd to excite anything but laughter. "Woman is a fit helpmate to man, but by a wise provision she is not his.' equal in either physical or mental poweiv Were this not the case, happy unions between the sexes would become almost impossible, because an indispensable condition of such, is that the woman should look to the man for comfort and protection, while on her side offering that loving sympathy, and aid which goes so far to lighten the cares, and soften the trials which have to be endured in this weary work -a- day world. " Polly Plum" desires to upset all this natural arrangement, and grimly assert that her sex are quite fit to be entirely independent, and to hold their own unaided in the struggle of life. All experience proves the fallacy of such a view. A woman's natural sphere in life is that of a wife and mother, and that cannot be one of independence, because, while left supreme in her home, her partner faces the daity cares and difficulties of outside life, and finds the means of supporting those who depend upon him by nature and right. Nor is " Polly Plum's" assertion about equality of intellect capable of being sustained. There are, and have been, cases of women possessing great and powerful intellects, but such are exceptional, and even these have never reached the high standard attained by the master minds amongst men. Besides this, women are not natiu*ally fitted to stand alone. Their constitution alike of body and mind unfits them for the harder, rougher, and sterner duties of life, and by a wise provision such do not usually fall to their share. It is only in|the rudest and most savage kinds of life that these heavy and unnatural burdens are habitually cast upon the shoulders of women. . We do not dread that "Polly Plum" will achieve much success in disseminating her pestilent and foolish doctrines, or in inoculating the women of New Zealand with the advanced opinions held by a noisy and insignificant portion of the sex in* America. The whole tendency of the age is to concede to women every possible protection and just right which the law can confer. Women are fully entitled to the protection of-their own earnings, to the control of their own property, and to the privilege of certain safeguai;ds which would shield them from ill-usage or wrong in the married state. But, apart from this, it is only foolish and impertinent persons who ■yr.oiild. clatter glibly about* perfect equality and independence, or try to subvert an order of things destined to . exist by the laws of Nature and Providence. To our mind this exhibition of a woman on a public platform is both painful and disgusting, and we trust the example thus shown by " Polly Plum" is one not likely to be followed. Women have their proper sphere of influence and work, but no true member of her sex who is fitted to be the light of a happy home, will seek to find it in the perpetration of such vagai*ies as those of Mrs. Oolclough.