WOMEN AS LEGISLATORS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15748, 24 October 1914, Page 9

WOMEN AS LEGISLATORS.

DEBATE IN THE HOUSE.

AMENDMENT REJECTED.

[BY TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington, Friday. Although the Prime Minister gave his support on Wednesday evening to the amendment to the Legislative Council Bill, providing that women shall be eligible to be elected as members of the Upper House, he does not take up the same attitude in regard to the question of women being permitted to sit in the Lower House.

When Mr. McCombs (Lyttelton) moved an amendment to the Legislative Amendment Bill (No. 2) last evening, providing that women should be eligible to become members of the House, Mr. Massey said that lie must oppose it. He said that ho did not think there was any member of the House who would like to see any lady friend of his elected to the House.

A Member : Or a member of the Legislative Council either.

Mr. Massey : That is a different thing. I have no objection to women if they can secure sufficient votes finding their way into the classic atmosphere of the Upper House, but it would be quite a different thing to become members of the Lower House. "If women are elected to the Upper House well and good," he added, "but we ought to draw the line at allowing women to be members of this House."

Mr. Isilt (Christchurch North) : And that is the utterance of a married man ! He contended in a speech of some length that the idea that women would not be able to hold their own in the conflicts in the Lower House was absurd.

Mr. Massey : Imagine any right-think-ing woman being compelled to sit here and listen to such a speech as that which has just been delivered ! She would get up and run. (Laughter.) Sir George Grey, whilst he agreed that women might be permitted to be members of, the Upper House, had never suggested that they should be members of the Lower House. Was there any demand from the women of the Dominion' as a body that they should be allowed to be members of the House ?

Voices: Yes, yes. No, no. Mr. Massey : There might be one or two, but I have never heard of them as a body expressing a desire to be entitled to be elected members of the Lower House. Fancy any woman being compelled to sit up as we are compelled to do until four or five o'clock in the morning in order to get a little business done, and then go home with the milk in the morning ! Would that be a proper tiling for a woman ? They do not do Mich things in the Legislative Council. They have more sense Mr. Massey subsequently staled that while he thought Mr. Isitt had made an unwise speech he had meant nothing more and had not intended to convey any reflection on that member, who had taken strong exception to the Prime Minister's comments on his speech. Mr. McCombs's amendment was rejected by 29 votes to 27.