WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17294, 18 October 1919, Page 10

WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT.

END OF THE DISPUTE. AMENDMENT ACCEPTED. SEPARATE BILL FOR COUNCIL. [BT TELEGRAPH. STECIM, REPORTER.] WELLINGTON, Friday. A further stage in the progress of the Women's Parliamentary Rights Bill was reached this afternoon, when the report of the committee of managers was presented to the House of Representatives. The Prime Minister stated that the conferences had failed to reach an agreement. I'he managers of 'he Council had been adamant. They could not be moved in any way. The only course now was to accept the amendment made in the Bill by the Council and pass it, thus giving women the right to sit in the House oi Representatives. The alternative would be the loss of the Bill. He therefore proposed to ask. the House to accent the amendment. He had arranged with his colleague in the Council that a Bill should be introduced there, which would give the members of that body an opportunity to agree to the proposals of the Bill as it left the House of Representatives without interfering with its privileges. The Hon. A. T. Ngata (Eastern Maori) : Then we give way on the privilege Mr. Massey : There is nothing else we can do. The Hon. J. A. Hanan (Invercargill): There is no health in us. Mr. Massey added that he did not think it necessary to go into the question of privilege or of the Speaker's ruling. He thought that in similar circumstances they themselves would have stood by their Speaker's ruling in the same way as the Council had done. Rir Joseph Ward, Leader of the Opposite, l, said he thought the course taken by the, Prime Minister was the wisest. There was nothing to be gained by discussing the matter. With the arrangement made for the introduction of another Bill, the matter should be satisfactorily settled. Mr. Massey: There is no arrangement with the Council. It is mere'y an agreement with my colleague to introduce a BUI. That will be done within the next few days. Sir Joseph Ward proceeded that it was quite like old times to find a lively spirit of independence being displayed by the other House. After all it was a compliment to the House that strong expressions of opinion should come from the Council regarding the decisions of the House. A litt.e further discussion ensued. Dr. A. K. Newman (Wellington East), who was one of the managers, said that while at the next election a woman could become president of the United States, and could sit on the Council of the League of Nations, unless the matter were rectified women would not be eligio'e for the Legislative Council of New Zealand. Mr. Downie Stewart (Dunedin West) reminded the Prime Minister that when the question was in dispute last year the Lender of the Council committed himself very deep's- to the principle of the Bill. The House agreed that a message should b e sent to the Legislative Council agreeing to the amendment. =