WOMEN IN POLITICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 21049, 7 December 1931, Page 13

WOMEN IN POLITICS.

Sir, —Now that tho electors have given their verdict on tho women candidates for Parliament one may, perhaps, ask what New Zealand women want more than they have already got in the way of rights and liberties, and how women members are go:ng to help ? The position hero is very different to that of England. New Zealand is primarily an agricultural country, and all the energies of Parliament aro now to be used to make it prosperous along those lines. How can tho women further this object, and are they inclined to do so? There are certain facts well known to social workers, and which come out now and again in tho papers and in tho Courts. Without comment, these facts are as follows: —Many New Zealand women will not go on tho land. Not a few of thoso who do so complain of loneliness, etc., till they get their husbands off tho farm and on to relief work. There are lar too many worklcss women and girls whose horizon is tho factory, the office. shop, and, perhaps, domestic work. And all these avenues of work aro overcrowded at present and likely to bo for some time. There is 110 future for most of these drifters unless they pick up a husband by tho way. There aro an astonishing number of divorces in New Zealand, and some crimes which might have been averted had the women concerned been different. Against this somewhat sad picture tho following facts stand out in radiant letters. Tho pioneer women of this Dominion, like thoso of other parts, endured or enjoyed a loneliness tho intensity of which can hardly bo imagined by the prosent generation. In New Zealand especially they, notwithstanding, enjoy an unusual measure of longevity, and thoy seem to prefer gold and diamond weddings to divorces! One wonders whether it was religion or pride, patriotism or the desire to build up homo and family, lovo of the primitive life or love of nature, or a combination of all those instincts welded together with the innate doggodnoss of the Britisher that made them "stick it." Whatever it was it helped to build up the country, and tho lack of it will retard tho progress of New Zealand. It is a problem for tho Government, which, in tho end, has to maintain unemployed women as well as men, to see if something can't bo done to get women mora interested in outdoor pursuits, and to provide openings for them in some oI tho many branches of agriculture. Gbanot®.