THE FRANCHISE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10112, 10 August 1893, Page 2

THE FRANCHISE.

‘ TO THE EDITOR." Sir, —Will you give me apA6o in. your valuable paper for a. few, words .on the above P Criminals, idiots and women are debarred the right to vote, and wow we must exclude shearers also. lam pleaccd to boo you are not in favour of the Bill as it now stands, and no man or woman who is a Liberal can countenance such injustice. Commercial travellers are to have tho right to vote because they may have .property. Shearers may also have property. ‘Many cf them are married men who have homes in the towns. Those who are not married are not vagrants, but good, genuine workers and true Unionists. I thought the principle was one man one vote, but it would eeem it ia one gentleman one vote. Commercial travellers can put up at a firstclass hotel, while a shearer is content with a trifle less; but the shearers pay their way. They put ihe money into circulation, net, perhaps, into property. What would New Zealand be without shearers and general farm labourers ? The commercial travellers wi.uld os little good to tho country if there were no labourers, " Bachelor ” said, a few days ago, ” women would not vote for a man with a squint.'’ I should not, for I like a man who can look mo straight in the face, and I am a woman. But I would much rather the shearers bad the right than the women. If one must be wronged, well let it be us women, who have become so used to it. I want the franchise, but I speak with confidence when I say the shearers should have the- vote in preference to women.—l am, &c., A WOMAN AND LOVER OF JUSTICE.