WOMEN IN THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Marlborough Express, Volume LIII, Issue LIII, 25 October 1919, Page 4

WOMEN IN THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

By rejecting Sir Francis Bell's Bill making women eligible for nomination to the Legislative Council the "Lords" have created a curiously illogical situation. For, under recent legislation, women are eligible to be elected to and sit in the House of Representatives. Consequently the rejection of the Bill affecting the Council means that whereas women may be' elected to one branch of the Legislature they cannot be nominated to the other. As, however,/ the Council itself, is to become —so the Attorney-General told his fellow-members of that ..body—an elective body within a year or so from now, it is difficult to see what great harm could be done by giving the Government the same right to nominate- women members as they have now to' nominate new members who are of the allegedly sterner sex. It was said by one member of the ! Council who opposed the Bill that \ the Government was not sincere in bringing it forward, but merely did so to catch the women's votes for its candidates at .the coming elections. This may or may not be the case, but now that women have been granted the right to sit in the •Lower House most people will fail to understand why there should be any objection to their being nominated to the Upper House. If the Council desired to lay down the principle that no nominations should be made to the Second Chamber until the measure which amends its constitution by making it elective comes into force, it should do so. But apparently there is no objection to more nominations provided only that the nominees are not women. For our own part we do not believe that many, if indeed any, women will be elected to: the House of Representatives in December next S| and still less that even if any women candidates are successful their presence in the new Parliament will contribute in any marked degree to the greater efficiency of the legislative machine. But *the right of women to occupy seats in Parliament is the' logical and natural sequence to jthe granting of the female franchise, and ingeniously as certain members of the Upper House may quibble on so-called constitutional rights'. and privileges we hold that the majority acted not only unwisely but most unjustly in rejecting the Bill. .