NO SEX BAR

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 118, 15 November 1945, Page 5

NO SEX BAR

WATCHING PARLIAMENT

ATTITUDE OF MEMBERS

A recommendation by the PuWic Petitions M to Z Committee that a petition by J. P. McDavitt, Town Clerk, Eastbourne, praying that husbands and wives be permitted to use adjoining seats in the galleries of the House ot Representatives should be referred^ to the Government for most favourable consideration was adopted unanimously when the Committee's report was presented to the House yesterday afternoon. The Committee expressed the opinion that the parts now known as the ladies' gallery and the mens public gallery should be made available to provide seating accommodation for both sexes.

The chairman of the Committee, Mr. W. M. C. Denham (Government, Invercargill) said the petitioner, when he appeared before the. Committee, stated that' although his petition had referred to husbands and wives specifically his desire was to see provision made so that both sexes could sit together. At the present time men and women were separated, and that practice he had found, was based on a recommendation by the House Committee of 1864. * Mr C. M. Bowden (National, Wellington West): The Victorian days. Mr.- Denham said he did not know the reason for the recommendation, nor did anyone else appear to know. The members of the Committee which heard Mr. McDavitt's petition were unanimous that some variation of the existing practice should be made. The Committee suggested that Mr. Speaker's men's gallery, with accommodation for 48 persons, should be continued to be used by men only, arid that the gallery now reserved for women, where there was accommodation for 54 people, should be opened to men and women. ,_ •Mr. R. M. Algie (National, Remuera): Sir Galahad.

FLOOR OF THE HOUSE

Mr. Denham said it was not proposed, that there should be any alteration in the present arrangements governing admission to Mr. Speaker's ladies' gallery or the ladies' Press gallery adjoining it. Alongside was the men's public gallery now used exclusively by men. It was suggested that that gallery should be available for men" and women. The Committee's recommendations therefore applied to two galleries only. No proposal was made in connection with the seating accommodation on the floor of the House. Mr. Denham added "that men and women sat together in church and in other places and he knew of no reason why some'provisions for them to sit together should not be made in the House of Representatives. The Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Holland) said he thought that the Committee's recommendation was a step in the right direction. He expressed the hope that as a result of the experiment it would be possible to grant a further extension of the present proposals. He had never been able to understand why men and women, when they visited the House of Representatives, should be separated.

Miss M. B. Howard (Government. Christchurch East) expressed disappointment that the Committee had not gone further. There should be no privileges, she said, for any one sex, Mrs. G. :H. Ross ■ (National. Hamilton) said she agreed with Miss Howard's advocacy of women being allowed to sit in other parte of the galleries.

The Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser) assured the House that the Committee's recommendation and also the views expressed by the two women members would receive the fullest consideration.

Mr. W. H. Gillespie (National, Hurunui), a member of the Committee, said that the Committee had made its decision after consulting. Mr. Speaker. The recommendation was in the nature of an experiment.