SPECIAL INTERVIEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9488, 18 April 1894, Page 3

SPECIAL INTERVIEWS.

fflE LADY MAYOR,

WHAT SHE THINKS OF CIVIC DUTIES.

Whkn Mrs. Elizabeth Yatea was elected Mayor of Onehunga few, if any, dreamed of the widespread interest that would be awakened. She took up the Mayoral duties because, aa she said, she believed there was no man available at the time fitted to perform them. But the fact that a woman had been selected, after a keen electoral contest, as a chief magistrate, circulated throughout the civilised world, and, to to speak, the eyes of that world, or the part of it which looked for the emancipation of woman, were turned in the direction of the Manukau. For months past every visitor to Auckland, except those who think woman's only work is to stay at home and darn stockings, has made a pilgrimage to Mrs. Yates' pretty little home, overlooking the Manakau Harbour, while legion is the number of letters of congratulation she has received from every portion of the globe, not to speak of the cuttings from newspapers, from the periodical run by G.A.S. to the German print, the journalist on which, unconscious of Irishism.*, headed his effusion with the title "The Lady *Buvgvmastev." Seeing the interest attaching to the holding of the highest civic office by a lady, on*, of our representatives paid Mrs. Yates a visit a day or two ago. And he found the general idea of the lady an altogether erroneous one. Anyone who might imagine that Mrs. Yates is a woman of whom a sensible man might be afraid, or even that fche belongs to what has been called the "shrieking sisterhood," would be greatly mistaken. Phrenologists and physiognomists would say at a glance that she is not only a brainy woman, but a wellbalanced one at that Firmly moulded in the lower part of the face she at once strikes the mind as a beinsr of resolute will; a quick sparkling brown eye bespeaks remarkable rapidity in thought and intuition, while just a sprinkling of grey in her dark hair, evidences that experience is allied to the measure of judgment with which she his been endowed. No woman could be unwomanly when the first thing that is noticeable on entering her drawingroom is a number of children'* photographs, as was the case on our reporter's visit. And when, as was likewise the case, in the subsequent conversation which took place, her husband, Captain late?—himself the late mayor of the borough—and herself took equal part, it was clear that she usurped no position of superiority for woman There was complete equality. Each was the other's "helpmeet," to use a grand old word now much out of date. It was Captain Yates who proudly showed the huge pile of letters, in all languages, congratulating his wife on her appointment. It was he who said no other woman in ten thousand could do as Mrs. Yates had done. And it was Mrs Yates who frankly confessed th.it she did nothing until she had consulted her husband, and that to his assistance and advice she owed all. "is there persecution?" That Mrs. Yates has the interests of Onehunga at heart was manifest the very first moment after the introduction had taken place, for she plunged into what she thought was a public grievance. Someone, she said, who had disagreed with her election, had circulated reports as to the extent in whit-h typhoid fever was supposed to prevail in Onehunga. In disproof of this she produced a mass cf statistics, compiled from official reports, tosho that the Borough of which she was the chief magistrate, had been grossly maligned. These things, and others of a more offensive nature, of which the Borough Council had never had dragged under its nose before, but which were now continually being brought forward, were, she averred, but the outward effects of a petty, personal persecution indulged in, towards her, by a certain small section. Other people, she said, believed the same thing. " Do I understand," asked our representative, " that you say certain matters are brought np for discussion in the Council which are objectionable to you as * woman, and which have not been so brought up before ?" "Yes, I do," was the reply. "One matter in particular was most vulgarly worded, because, as I believe, one or two thought I should not be in the Mayoral chair." " How wag it you came to seek the office, Mrs Yates," asked our representative. " I stood," was the response, " to carry out the views we considered right. There is a very great question hanging to it, and it was that which made me fight so hard to return Sir Maurice O'Rorke. It was what we call here the cemetery question. I never had the slightest idea of any notoriety at all. I simply stood in the .n----terosts of the town and ratepayers. I knew Captain Yates could not through ill ness enter upon the contest or the duties, and I knew if I succeeded 1 should have his assistance and be something like his mouthpiece." "But," added Captain Yates, who was present, " instead of being an assistance I have, through illness, been a drawback. I have been suffering agonies. Whatever success she has achieved has been all her own. There is no other woman in Onehunga or Auckland could have done it. She had never had her foot in the Council Chamber before, though when 1 was taken ill two years and a-half ago her nomination paper was filled up then, but I would not consent." WHY MRS. YATES BECAME MAYOR. "Then your agreeing to contest the Mayoralty, Mrs. Yates, was not from any idea of asserting a woman's position, or in connection with woman's sußrage !" " Not at all. It was simply in the interests of the ratepayers, and not for aggrandisement as has been said. As I have stated I have met with much opposition, but I am a firm believer in the saying— "The milln "f God grind slowly But they grind exceeding small." " Had you ever taken part in public affairs before?" queried our representa tive. " No," was the reply. " Except that I helped my husband, when ho was Mayor, in his public duties, and last, session I was a member of the Union Parliament. I think with pleasure of the fact that I was th» first lady member of that Parliament, as I was the first lady elector to record my vote in my district at the last election." " Have you found any difficulty in the work you have undertaken ?" " Not a bit ,- and some of my townsfolk say I am the best Mayor Onehunga has had. I determined bo know my duties, and I studied them ; and when I found that certain members of the Council simply wished to talk against time, and because I was in the chair, 1 carried the closure." " Have you found anything in the work at all incompatible with your position as a woman ?" asked our representative. " No," was the emphatic response. " Buc this is what I find I could not do. I could not, for instance, go down to the Council offices day after day, when the auditors were here, as my husband did. I do not understand the financial position of the town like Captain Yates, but as far as conducting the business of the Council is concerned, I teel myself thoroughly competent. Mrs. Yates hiving been asked to take a seat on the school committee, our representative asked why she had not acceptod. She had refused, she Raid, because her titrtd was too fully occupied already. " I think, however," she went on, "there should be ladies on the Boards of Education, which have to deal with lady teachers ami girls. Woman, I think, should take her place alongside of man even in Parliament. I think our Parliament would bo very much better if we had some women in it. People run away with the idea that if they ■rive women the full benefit of the franchise That there will be a rush of women to be members of Parliament, while as a matter of fact not one woman in ton thousand thinks herself fit for the position But I am in hope- that what I am doing will show the way, and from what I have heard I think there will be several lady mayors next, year." AS A J. P. Passing on, the conversation turned to the position Mrs. Yates occupied as. a Justice of the Peace, than whom the only other woman holding a like office is the Queen. "No," said the lady Mayor in answer to the question, " I have found nothing objectionable or difficult there ; but I have only sat on one or two occasions. One was when I was asked by the police sergoant to go to the Court when a little gill was charged with stealing. The other was when I went |

i up to let a poor unfortunate oub on bail. But several ladies who have had documents bo witness by a magistrate which they would nob have liked to take to a gentleman. I have been in the Court when I heard a judgment with which I should have disagreed, and once when I was asked to attend upon a case I refused. lb was a certain case between" a young man and a young woman, and in these I think a woman, that is, a rignt-minded woman, is inclined to be harder upon her sex than men. So I did not think it would be beneficial for me to go. Bub of course there are cases where women can do a great deal of good. They certainly should be visitors to asylums, and I hold strongly that in our police stations there should be female warders. In one or two cases complaints have been made by women of the treatment given to them by constables ; and no matter how degraded these women may be they should be protected. And that would be done by having respectable middle-aged women." "Then, taking it all in all, Mrs. Yabes, you think a woman capable of filling the offices you hold,' and you have found nothing to jar upou your feelings ?" "Nothing at all," was the reply; "nob in the least. As I have said, 1 hope my election will be an object lesson, lb shall be as far as I can make it." Then before leaving a pleasant chab ensued on things in general, and what women could do in pari icular. Mrs. Yates, our representative found, was ready to drive any horse in the country, was a firstclass hand ab making butter, and had, when prices were high, made her own and her husband's clothes—a striking commentary upon what is often said as to the inability of women who may choose public careers to attend to household matters. Such is the woman who is the first lady mayor in Great Britain, the only lady J.P. for the Queen who sits on the magisterial bench, and whose autograph, &fac simile of which we reproduce, has been now sought after the wide world over.