THE GREY LYNN SEAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19144, 9 October 1925, Page 11

THE GREY LYNN SEAT.

MISS MELVILLE'S CAMPAIGN. WOMEN ELECTORS ADDRESSED. A CASE FOR PROMOTION. A pleasant touch of friendly informality was the outstanding feature of Miss Melville's opening address to the ladies of Grey Lynn yesterday as Government* candidate for the district. The feeling of the meeting was summed up by one. of the ladies iri proposing a hearty vote of thanks. "Miss Melville has done splendid work on the City Council," she said, "and I think you will agree with me that she. deserves promotion. It is our duty to leave, no stone unturned to return her with a good majority at the corning election." The motion was carried with acclamation. Miss Melville informed the audience at the outset that she did not intend to give a policy speech; that would be reserved for a later meeting. She merely wished to sneak on matters of particular interest to women voters, and to emphasise the urgent need for presentation of the women's viewpoint in the country's lawmaking deliberations. The old idea was that women had no interest in the making of laws, which was a matter beyond their sphere of activities. No greater fallacy had ever been cherished, for it was pre-eminently the women who were affected by the operation of the various laws, and they should therefore have a voice in the making of them. There was not a single law, land law, traffic law, building law, or any other, that did not in some way affect the women, either individually or through their husbands and children, and for this reason it was right that all women should take an intelligent interest in politics. More Women Than Men. A naive touch was introduced effectively by Miss Melville in an appeal for the personal support of the women of Grey Lynn. "You may not know it." she said, "but there are more women in this electorate than men, and a big enough majority of to put me into Parliament if they want to. Even if not one man voted for me, the women could do it, and men who are watching this campaign closely have said to me, "If you do not. get in, you can blame the women." Now, it only remains for you women to turn the scale, and you will have the distinction of being the electorate that returned the first woman to Parliament in New Zealand." (Applause. ) The Dominion was now limping sadly in the rear of other countries so far as women's progress was concerned. England, Canada, Australia, Germany and even the little South European countries that had not existed before the war, now had women in their Parliaments, and it was not to the credit of the Dominion that it had lost the proud position in the van of progress which it won over 30 years ago. "You must not expect the millennium, however, even if you do get a woman into Parliament," the speaker reminded her audience. "We are not likely to get all we want at once. It is a case of educating the men already in Parliament, a slow process of convincing them that we are not wanting to introduce anything revolutionary, but simply to do our best for the well-being of the whole country." Miss Melville enumerated other channels of service in which women could occupy themselves to the good of the country and incidentally made a spirited attack on several planks in Labour's platform, notably the proposed nationalisation of land and the substitution of "usehold" for freehold tenure. If they ever got the chance to put these utterly fallacious theories into practice, it would be a blue lookout for the ordinary citizen, and as Grey Lynn was essentially a district in which people owned their homes, they had better keep an eye on their own interests. When question-time came, Miss Melville declared herself a supporter of the Bible-in-Schools Bill as presented last session by Mr. Isitt, with strict safeguarding of the conscieuce clause arid no right of entry. "I am also a prohibitionist," she added, "and if anyone tries to tell you the brewers are 'running' me, you needn't believe it!" The feminine touch was again pleasantly in evidence at the conclusion of the meeting when, just as the. ladies were about to disperse, Mrs. J. A. Warnock, wife of the Deputy-Mayor, suddenly appeared from behind a screen. "Ihe kettle is just boiling, ladies," she announced smilingly. " and we shall be pleased if you will all wait and have *a cup of tea." And without exception the meeting waited. CONTEST FOR FRANKLIN. REV. W. C. WOOD WITHDRAWS His withdrawal as a candidate for the Franklin scat is announced by the Rev, W, C. Wood, of Papakura. He announces that owing to unforeseen circumstances he is unable to accent nomination.