WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14932, 4 March 1912, Page 8

WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE.

RESULTS IN NEW ZEALAND.

LADY GLASGOW'S ATTACK.

[FBOM OTTR OWN" CORRESPONDENT.] London, January 2*. . The fierceness of : ; the suffrage battle in this country gives frequent occasion for tho introduction of tho name of New Zealand, and Lady Glasgow this week writes a striking letter to tho Times, in which she declares her unhesitating opinion that female suffrage in'.'.NrT Zealand has had ill effect?. Introducing I ?r»olf as the wife' of tho Governor who signed the enfranchising rneasuxo, Lady Glasgow says: — "I saw two elections there under tho women's vote, and I hop© I may never see third under tho same conditions. I have been in fairly frequent communication and correspondence with socio of tho ablest and most capable men aid 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 seeing, as they do, that net only has it not helped to solve- tho social and other questions, but, on tho contrary, the enfranchisement of women has been in many ways that I cannot go into in this letter, most harmful. I do not say this on my own authority, but on tho authority of many able men and women, who are bitterly disappointed at the results of this measure." Lady Glasgow is candidly of opinion that femalo enfranchisement in Groat Britain would bo much more disastrous '-han in New Zealand, " where, as a matter of fact, it does not matter the least to England, or tho British Empire what legislation a comparatively small country cnooses to have forced upon it, and ; in any case, legislation ! by tho women's vote can always bo checked by the men, who . much outnumber tho women." Lady Glasgow's view is that the very virtues of womentheir impulsiveness, their horror of oppression or cruolty, unfit them I for a broad and statesmanlike view of great ! national questions; and the women who are j best qualified to take part in great political and philanthropic movements havo already as ' much as they can do. Shoj therefore, apI peals to all women, however repugnant it ' may he to the quiet, home-loving class to take part in an agitation,, that they should '.rise in "their thousands and protest against I a measure being forced on them which is not 'only repugnant to their ideals of true ; womanhood, but. which will be fraught with disaster to our nation and Empire." j In reply to this, Sir W. Chance writes from Godalming, asking whether it is good 'policy for anti-suffragists, "in their anxiety to discredit the cause of woman suffrage, to cast odium upon the political methods of the British Dominions beyond the Seas. Any stick is, of course, good enough to 'heat a dog with, but this particular stick is likely to reient very keenly being used for this purport." He also suggests that, while Britain, under a male electorate, is rushing along the path of socialism, "it hardly lies I with us to lay tho blame of Australia's and New Zealand's experiments in that direction, if blame there be, upon the women electors." Ho holds that "-wo are not justified in finding fault with the internal politics of any of our colonies. Their peoples have a right to manage their own affairs in their own way, and if they make mistakes in that department it is they who will have to bear tho burden of them." ~