SOCIAL WELFARE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 77, 27 September 1924, Page 8

SOCIAL WELFARE

PLEA OF PROTECTION SOCIETY

NEED FOR WOMEN JUSTICES.

A number of matters affecting, the social welfare of the community, are referred to in the annual report of the' committee of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children. '•!

"The committee," proceeds the report^ "wished to draw attention to the fact that a number of the moving pictures shown in this district are extremely undesirable. Scenes that are very suggestive are frequently placed before Children and young people. The committee feels that it is high time a more careful censorship be exercised and that a woman be appointed to confer with the censor before these films are released.'

"Among others things warmly advocatedby the society are:—Equal guardianship of children; suppression of names of young people who are before the Court for the first timej especially girls whose living may be prejudiced by such publicity; farm colonies for women prisoners'; the right of married women to retain their* nationality; women patrols; raising the age of consent; energetic pursuance of the Government housing scheme; and better conditions for_ the illegitimate child. Vln view of the fact that women have already. taken their place in almost all avenues of professional, commercial, and industrial life, and that they fill these positions with credit to themselves and to their, country, your -committee fails to see on what possible ground the New Zealand. Legislative Council can reasonably have thrown out the Bill for the appointment of women/Justices of the Peace. Women have again and again proved themselves competent to form a cprrect opinion on life s problems, particularly on those concerning the welfare of- women and children. Where is the justice or decency in forcing a woman to lay bare to a number of men, however chivalrous they may be, the painful details of injury to herself, or what is worse, injury to her child? Surely the fact that in the May examinations for the Degree in Medicine conferred by the London University, Zi of the 79 who passed • were women, and that three of the tea in the honours list were women, and that the gold medal was won by a woman, should forever silence those benighted persons who still make the plea that 'women are lacking in logic, reasoning power, and intelligence.' From a long list of English women who are Justices of the Peace, we take the following:—Lady Selborne, Mrs. Fawcett, Helen Wilson, M.8., Mrs. Ogilvie Gordon, D.Sc., Ph.D., F.L.S.; Lady Arnott, Mrs. Hannav! O.B.B.; Lady Astor, M.P., Tha Lady Emmitt and Miss Faithful, Cheltenham College.' In Western Australia there are a large number of women Justices, andit will not be long before they are appointed in Eastern Australia also.

"Your committee warmly thanks the subscribers and general public for.financial support during the past year, and in doing so wish to draw attention to the very urgent need for the extension of the work, especially in so far as it concerns the most valuable, and at the same time the most helpless, portion of the community, and children who are ever the greatest sufferers in any domestic trouble."