WOMEN'S NATIONAL COUNCIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10406, 2 April 1897, Page 5

WOMEN'S NATIONAL COUNCIL.

PRISON REFORM DISCUSSED,

SUGGESTED INTERNATIONAL DISARMAMENT.

[by telegraph.—press asssodiation.] Chbistouoiiou, Thursday. At the Women's Council this afternoon Mr?. Kirkby read a paper on prison reform. She eaid tho prison system had improved of lato, but its tendency was still bad. She advocated teaching tradee in prisons, and did not think repeated punishments did good to drunkards. Greater facilities for visiting the prisons would be productive of good results. She moved, "That in the opinion of the Council all sentences for β-itious offences should be decided as to duration by tho reform of the criminal, and limited by a maximum penalty attached to the crime." The motion was carried by 8 to 3. Mis. Cunnington moved, " That in the opinion of the Council magistrates should have power to commit vagrant girls under 21 to reformatory homes for longthened periods, and power to commit habitual inebriates of both sexes to reformatory homes, such homos to be under Government inspection ; also that women bo made eligible to be Justices of the Peace." The motion was carried unanimously. On the motion of Mrs, Taslcer, seconded by Mrs. Isitt, it was resolved unanimously "That tho establishment of co-operative State settlements, formed with a farm for a basis, and gradually embracing all kinds of industries, would do more to solve the unemployed difficulty than any remedy yet applied," Miss Sheriff Bain read a paper strongly advocating arbitration for the settlement of international differences. She proposed a motion condemning war as a savage, costly, and futile method of settling disputes, hostile to that realisation of brotherhood essential to tho progress of humanity, and inviting the women of Australasia to co-oper-nte in promoting permanent and universal peace, with the simultaneous, proportional, and gradunl disarmament of civilised peoples; tho motion to be communicated to tho women's societies throughout the colonies. Mrs. Tusker seconded the motion, which after an animated debate was carried by 10 to 3.