THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN AND MISS BENJAMIN.

Evening Post, Volume LV, Issue 101, 30 April 1898, Page 2

THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN AND MISS BENJAMIN.

♦ . TO THE EDITOE. Sir — The following resolution was passed by the Committee of the National Council of the Women of New Zealand with reference to the paper contributed by me: — " That the paper entitled ' The Inequalities of the Law Regarding Men and Women ' be returned to Miss Benjamin accompanied by a letter from the Secretary informing her that the Committee is not prepared to accept the responsibility of her paper, as the tenor of portions of it is opposed to the spirit of the Council's work." I would add that an erroneous report of my paper has appeared in several of the newspapers circulating in the colony. It has been said that my paper makes fun of a great deal of what was done by the Council last year, severely criticises the Council, and concludes with the remark that those are my sentiments, and if they don't like them they can leave them. This remark was never made by me. 1 consider it arrogant aud discourteous in the extreme, and I should be very sorry to address any body of ladies in such terms. I do not approve of all the tactics employed by the National Council, and in my paper I drew attention to some of what I consider its mistakes, not with the desire of having them laughed at, but that they might be amended in the future. I too sincerely sympathise with the women's movement, and am too keenly interested in its success to treat lightly auy proceedings connected with it. I regret that the Committee of the Council have deemed it advisable to suppress my paper, and I think it would have been wiser to have permitted the paper to be read before the Couuoil, and to leave it to the Councillors and to the publio to judge whether or not it was opposed to the true interests of woman's cause. I am, &c, Ethel R. Benjamin.