FEMALE SUFFRAGE IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1141, 12 January 1894, Page 13

FEMALE SUFFRAGE IN NEW ZEALAND.

ENGLISH OPINION, From Our Own Correspondent . London, December 1. The Spectator,- commenting on the passage of the Women’s Suffrage Bill in New Zealand, says : “ The alarm expressed when it was found that the Bill was actually passed was very great—even those who had exerted themselves to push it through feeling exactly like children who are trying to rush a door which they be* lieve to be barricaded, and who, finding it open without any effort at all, are consequently thrown on to their faces by their own precipitation. Perhaps the New Zealanders may teach us something by their rash experiment. We would not say to them fiat expeHmentum in carport vile, but rather that, as they have made so rash an experiment, in corpore honcsto , we will, at all events, watch it carefully before we think of following suit. New Zealand probably will not scruple to undo what it has done with so little consideration if the Colony finds reason to repent it." The Spectator's comment is based on the testimony of the New Zealand correspondent of the Pall Mall, who maintained that the Bill was passed by a fluke. Mrs Millicent Garrett Fawcett endeavours to' correct the editor’s notion by giving a short account of the career of the'Bi 11through the ZealaiidLegielatjupe. she ’ mentions file ‘names of Sip John Hall, Sir Robert fcjt’out, tlje late Mr Ballanpe, Sir Julius Yogel, I)r Poller/, snd the Hop. Mr Oliver as having rendered “invaluable service" in the direction of * female franchise, and winds up her letter so : “ If this record of the conclusion of a close struggle, in which many of the most distinguished colonial statesmen took an active part, can fairly be described as a ‘fluke,’ then I think the meaning of the word is not generally understood." ( The ' editor adds a footnote to the letter, stating that reliance was placed wn the testimony of the Pall Mall Gazette correspondent, and he further declares that “ there was a good deal of surprise and dismay in New Zealand, whether reasonable or unreasonable, on the passage of 1 the measure." The Westminster Gazette naturally refuses to believe the veracity of its contemporary’s correspondent. “It ia the last resource of the disheartened Conservatives to declare that the ABsem-' bly passed the Bill, thinking the Council would throw it out, and that the Counci) passed it trusting to the Governor to veto it." By a slip of the pen, the writer of the Westminster par. credits Lord Zetland with representing Her Majesty in New Zealand. The Queen says “the result of this bold experiment will be watched keenly by English people in the colony and in the motherland.” Ladies * who are arranging for a dance should patronise the printing department of the TimlEs. The price of 100 tastemlly printed programme cards is 6s 6d, qr t if you prefer them on fancy folded cards, the charge will be 12* Gl.