THE FRANCHISE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 70, 20 September 1943, Page 8

THE FRANCHISE

THANKSGIVING SERVICE

HUMOUR IN SPEECHES

Throughout the Dominion yesterday thanksgiving services were held to marjfc the fiftieth anniversary .of the granting of the franchise to the women of New Zealand. The idea of holding these services came from a suggestion made by someone at a W.C.T.U. meeting in Christchurch, and an organising committee was formed from representatives of women's associations which have national affiliations. The Wei-* lington service' was held in the afternoon at the Plaza Theatre, and the official party included Mrs. Peter Fraser (wife of the Prime Minister), Lady Myers (wife of the Chief Justice), Mrs. T. C. A. Hislop (Mayoress), Miss Amy Kane (chairman), Mrs. C. Stewart (Wellington's only woman member of Parliament), Lady Pomare (representing the Maori race), and .the three speakers, Miss Cybele Kirk, Mrs. Knox Gilmer, arid Miss* Catherine Forde.

The programme included the National Anthem, a prayer, items by the Petone Women's Choir, and two hymns.

AMUSING COMMENTS

Both Miss Kirk and Mrs. Gilmer introduced a fair amount of humour into their speeches. Miss Kirk spoke of the winning of the franchise and the women by whose efforts the women of New Zealand were made voters. These women, she said, had fought for the ■ franchise because they realised that many of the laws of the country were one-sided and were not laws that made for good citizenship. At that time there were three kinds of persons who were not allowed to vote—criminals, lunatics, and women—and the'women decided that this state of affairs could not be tolerated longer. The men had all sorts of notions, many of which seemed very funny these days, as to why women should not be given the vote. One was that women were not logical and relied upon their intuition. "Well, I can tell you this," said Miss Kirk,- "my intuition has often got me where a man's logic will never help him to arrive." The first petition to Parliament had. been signed by 10,000 women, but this was not enough. Men said that Parliament was no place for women. The following year 30,000 women put their signatures to another petition, and the men had to think up more excuses for turning it down. One gay young man who prided himself on his brains went to see what he could find in magazines and books to support the refusal of the granting of the franchise to women. "And what do you think he found?" said Miss Kirk. "He found in a medical journal the statement that the brain of the average woman was lighter than .the brain of the average man!" It took two men to carry this second petition in to Parliament, stated Miss Kirk. The women of New Zealand had wanted to have the petition to show at the Centennial Exhibition, but it had apparently become so much of an historical document that it could not be found. "CHOOSE YOUR MAN." Many of the acts on the Statutes now | would not ibe there but for the work I of the women, Miss Kirk said, and she concluded with an appeal to women to make use of their vote. "When choosing your candidate for Parliament, choose your man," she said. "If a man is square: in his private life and square in his business life he will be square in his political life." "It cannot be said that we are labouring under any restrictions in the matter of candidates for Parliament," added Miss Kirk by way. of a parting shot. -■-..■ NOW SEEM IDIOTIC. Mrs. Gilmer, who spoke of the Parliamentary side of the granting of the franchise, said that the petition which had finally won the day had been 70 yards long. Members had walked up and down looking for names that might have been duplicated, "and some of the remarks they made," said Mrs. Gilmer, "I believe, were very rude."

The objections to the granting of the franchise which were raised in Parliament and which are reported in Hansard, although made in all seriousness, now seemed simply idiotic, said Mrs. Gilmer. Some of the members even quoted Adam and Samson and the

trouble they brought upon themselves by yielding to the wishes of women. One man said that if ladies were allowed in the v House it would distract the attention of some honourable members. "Even though I am getting up in years I might be affected by this weakness," he said. Another stated that if ladies were allowed into the House he was sure his own wife would never consent to his returning.

Even after the Bill had been passed by both Houses those opposing it:had petitioned the Governor, Lord Glasfow, not to sign it, but Mrs. Sheppard ad presented yet another petition to the Governor, and on September 19, 1893, he liad affixed his signature to the Bill.

Mrs. Gilmer said that her father, the Rt. Hon. R. J. Seddon, who was Prime Minister, had not known what to think about it all, and said that by granting the Bill Parliament had plunged into an abyss of unknown depths. Mr. Pember Reeves, in his report of the elections which came shortly afterwards, made some unwittingly amusing comments, among them the following: "By twelve o'clock 90,000 women had 'peacefully' voted." Mrs. Gilmer referred to the grant-, ing of the franchise as that long ago triumph, and she also . appealed to women to make full use of it. OFFENSIVE OF MIND AND SPIRIT.

Miss Forde, who spoke of the part the women of New Zealand will be called upon to play in the futurej gave a forceful address. She pleaded for an offensive of mind and spirit parallel to the offensive of ammunition in order to prevent a repetition of what she described as the "1919 fiasco." One of the greatest tasks of today was to keep alive the ideal of social justice. There must be freedom, but with economic security; the freedom to think, speak, and write, together with the freedom to have a good meal. "You can't fill the baby's bottle with liberty," she said. After this war was the profit motive or the ideal of social justice to be the guide? It was up to everyone to make democracy a reality, and it was up to the women to help create the new world.