WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 12 March 1912, Page 3

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE.

RESULTS IN NEW ZEALAND. LADY GLASGOW'S ATTACK. LONDON, January 24. The fierceness of the suffrage battle in thig country gives frequent occasion , f or the introduction of the name of New • Zealand, and Lady Glasgow this week writes a striking letter to the "Times, in which she declares her unhesitating opinion that female suffrage in New .Zealand has had ill effects. Introducing .herself as the wife of the Governor who signed the enfranchising n -jasure, Lady Glasgow says:— "I saw two elections there under the women's vote, and I hope I may ne\ ei see a third under the same conditions. I have been in fairly frequent communication and correspondence with some of the ablest and most capable men and women in that Dominion' —men who worked for many years and voted for the enfranchisement of women, and who now *would gladly give the same work if they could repeal that Act, knowing and sccino- ,as they do, that not only has it not befped to solve the social and other questions, but, on the contrary, the enfranchisement of women has been in many ways that I cannot go into in this letter, moat harmful. I do not say this on ray own authority, but on the authority of many able men and women, who are bitterly disappointed at the results of this measure." Lady Glasgow is candid»y of opinic.ii that female enfranchisement in Great .Britain would be much more disastrous than in New Zealand, "where, as a matter of fact, it does not matter the least to England, or the British Empire what legislation a comparatively small country chooses to have forced upon it, and, in any case, legislation by the women s vote can always be checked by the men, who much outnumber the women. Lady Glasgow's view is that the very virtues of women—their impulsiveness, their horror of oppression or cruelty, unfit them for a broad and statesmanlike view of great national questions ; and the women , who are best qualified to take part in <?reat political and philanthropic movements have already as much as tlioy can do. She, therefore, appeals to the women, however repugnant it may be to the quiet, hotne-loving class to take part in an agitation, that they should rise in "their thou»ands and protest against a measure being forced oil them which is not only repugnant to their ideals of

~ -'BBSSTtrue womanhood, but which will be fraught v.ith disaster to our nation and Empire'." In reply to this, Sir W. Chance writes from Gofdalming, asking whether it is good policy for anti-suffragists, "in their anxiety to discredit the cause of woman suffrage ,to oast odium upon the political methods of the British Dominions beyond the s-jas. Any stick is, of good enough to beat a dog with, but this particular stick is likely to resent very keenly being used for this purpose." He also suggests that, while Britain, under a male electorate, is rushing along the path of "Socialism, "it hardly lies with rs to lay the blame 'of Australia's and New Zealand's experiments in that direction, if blame there be, upon the women electors." H-s holds that "we are not justified in finding fault with the internal politics of any of our colonies. Thier peoples have a right to manage their own affairs 0 in their own way, and if they make mistakes in that department it is thov who will have to bear the burden of them."—"Herald" correspondents