WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 140, 10 December 1918, Page 9

WOMEN'S RIGHTS

TO THI EDITOR. Sir, —Your correspondent Miss N. E. Coad does not seem to realise that the vote on Mr. M'Combs's amendment, making women eligible as members of Parliament, is no indication of the attitude of members on that question. I have always vigorously supported the right of women to membership of both Houses. I refiiised to vote for Mr. M'Combs's amendment because I would hot risk killing a Bill merely to affirm a principle. When next session there is a chance of carrying a vote that will prove operative, it will receive my support. It is a pity that again and again members are placed in a position of either doing the unwise thing, or exposing themselves to misunderstanding. What on earth was the good 1 of voting for the amendment; with the certain knowledge that if it were carried the Upper House would kill the whole BiH? —I am, etc., • LEONARD M. ISITT. 9th December. TO THI EDtIOK. Sir, —The levity with whioh certain of our legislators discussed the subject of ''women in Parliament" proves conclusively that they have no idea of the seriousness with which thinking women regard their responsibilities, nor of the steps they are taking to achieve their purpose. Quite early in the year, at a New Zealand conference of a large number of organised societies, it was resolved to make that a fundamental principle, because it was recognised that only by such means would it be possible for them to effect the reforms for which they stand. Unfortunately, the epidemic engrossed their attention when they should have been taking action to make their viewe known, and they were giving their services—incidentally, in some cases, their lives—in fighting conditions from which, probably, the majority of theirl critics would have shrunk in terror—a work which proved their nobility in the highest sense of the term.

Delays are soAetknes dangerous, but nothing can stand in the way of enlightened progress, particularly -where the interests of the children' are at stake, and i* is for these that the women are primarily fighting.' The leaders of the House and other members of Cabinet have expressed " themselves as favourable to the cause. They can prove their sincerity by appointing women members to-the Royal Commission; to be set up to inquire into the influenza epidemic. This would be a precedent for New Zealand, but is a usual course in England and many other countries.—l am, etc., PHOEBE MYERS. 10th December.