The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 1910. WOMEN AND VOTES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXI, Issue 15210, 22 January 1910, Page 8

The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 1910. WOMEN AND VOTES.

Mr Asquith’s statement in regard to tho franchise is not likely to lessen the indignation of tho militant suffragettes against the Liberal Government.. We must hope that it will lead them to reconsider their methods. The Prime Minister told a meeting of electors that ho had always been opposed to the extension of the franchise to women and that he thought the change would be good neither for tho women nor for the State. He did not indicate what would be his official attitude in tho House of Commons towards tho proposal to extend political rights to the other sex, but it is known that the members of the Cabinet are not agreed upon the subject. The general impression, based on ministerial utterances, is that the new House xv ill be given an opportunity to express an opinion,on the question, and that the Primo Minister will allow his colleagues and tho members of his party to vote according to their own inclinations- He will oppose the proposal himself, however, and there can be little doubt that' hie opposition will ensure its defeat. The manner in which the leaders of the movement have conducted their campaign during the last few months cannot have secured them many new friends among the Liberal members of tho House, and tho Conservatives would take up the reform only as a means of embarrassing the Government. Mr Asquith has made his position . a good deal clearer than it appealed to be in the last Parliament, but he certainly has not advanced very sound reasons for his attitude. His statement that the extension of the franchise would not be good either for the women or for the State is scarcely supported by tho practical experience of the British countries on this side of the world that have adopted tho reform. The militant suffragettes in Britain have thrown a good deal of discredit on their own cause, but that fact does not justify tho conclusion that women generally are unfitted to share the responsibilities of citizenship. The suffragetto movomont was perfectly legitimate in its early stages, and without some strenuous effort to attract attention to their demands the women might havo spent a lifetime in fruitless attempts to obtain a hearing, hut since then their demonstrations have been carried to ridiculous lengths, and their opponents have been supplied with plenty of opportunities for scoffing at their methods and their cause. But the salient fact remains that women of British blood in other countries have votes and. have used them with marked advantage to themselves and to the community at large. The extension of the franchise to women in the United Kingdom would not mean that they would adopt hoodlum methods of political warfare or that they would turn the Government machine upside down in their own interests. New Zealand experience speaks plainly on that point. The women have voted in six triennial elections in this country, and they have produced no revolutions and no discord. Homes have not been neglected and family life has not been destroyed; the women have used their political powers without loss of dignity and without loss of womanliness. Above all they have learned to take an intelligent interest in political problems, particularly those affecting the social welfare of the people, and their influence is seen in tho long list of humanitarian measures appearing on the New Zealand Statute Book. Tho statement that tho women did not want the vote was made in this country, as it is being made at Homo to-day, but the records show that whether they wanted it or not they have exercised it with the greatest readiness and with the clearest appreciation of its value. Mr Asquith would find no evidence in New Zealand to justify the opinions he has expressed, and his words, in colonial ears at least, do not sound -like those of the leader of the progressive party in a country that boasts of being the home of democracy.