STATUS OF NEW ZEALAND WOMEN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 74, 27 March 1912, Page 8

STATUS OF NEW ZEALAND WOMEN.

-■• - ♦ IMPERIAL NATURALISATION BILL. PROBLEM OF~CITIZENSHIP. [FROU OUR OWN CORBESI'ONDENT.] LONDON, 16th B'ebruary. The Australian and New Zealand Women Voters' Committee in London is paying great attention to the proposed new Imperial Naturalisation Bill, and the following letter, signed by Miss Newcomb (the hon. secretary), has oeen sent to Sir Joseph Ward :—": — " My committee understands that the draft of the proposed new Imperial Naturalisation Bill haß now been sent to you for consideration. They would beg to remind you of the assurance you were good enough to give to their deputation in June last, in London, that the advantages already possessed by the women of Australia and New Zealand under the naturalisation laws of their own countries, shall be secured to them under the new Imperial Act. R.\y committee feels sure that it ( can rely on you to keep the matter before the attention of your Government when the question comes up for consideration." • AN AUCKLAND CASE. The lots of nationality by marriage it ako pointed out by the committee. Alias Newcomb writes : — " As far as Australia, and New Zealand aTe concerned the matter is perfectly clear. In those countries since the franchise was granted to both sexes equally, the word man, in all legislation, is held to include woman. But the case is different in those parts of the .British Dominions where full citizen rights are not as yet granted to women. In these parts, including the British Isles, an Englishwoman who marries an_ alien loses by that Act her nationality and with it all protection as a British subject. An instance from New Zealand will be fresh iv the minds of many. An Englishwoman, married in London to an American, had, with her husband, settled in Aucklaud. Believing herself still a British" subject, she sought to take up her voter** rights. Her husband, on his side, wished to retain his own nationality. The local Judge declared that the wife had lost h«r nationality by marriage, and consequently her name could not stand on the voters' roll. Marriages between Australian and New Zealand girls, and foreigners are pretty common. How many of these 'happy young brides realise that if they leave their native land for residence, elsewhere, even under the British flag, that flag is no longer their own? They have no choice in the matter. They are Austrians, Russians, Italians— what you will, but never Englishwomen again. Now, the ordinary mind will naturally expect that, in the march of progress^, the new Imperial law will redress this wrong. Incredible as it may seem, the removal of the grievance is a matter of doubt. Englishwomen are left where they were. Nay, more, there are some legal authorities who hold that because the. Australian and New Zealand Naturalisation Acts do not definitely state that tho word man includes woman, the old Imperial Aot of 1870 overrides them. So we are faced with the danger that not only may the present evil be perpetuated, but that Australian and New Zealand women may in their own countries lose the rights which they now believe themselves to possess."