WHY SNUB OUR WOMEN?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23505, 20 May 1938, Page 11

WHY SNUB OUR WOMEN?

TO THE EDITOR

Sir,—Can any reason be given why all spheres of national and human service should not be quite as open vo our New Zealand women as they are to our men? This question is prompted by a contemplation of the wonderful achievements of women of to-day when invading fields of activity formerly entered and worked in only by men. Then there are the new fields, such as aeronautics, radio, television, electrical power and light, international diplomatic and trade conferences, and so on, in which women s gentler touch can excel. Should they not get the fullest opportunities in these, and in the Parliaments, public commissions or bodies controlling such activities? It seems to me that women never will until they take the matter in hand as seriously and determinedly as they took up the political enfranchisement of women. As a life-long Labourite, I was keenly disappointed at the snub offered our women by the present Labour Government of New Zealand. Although it sought for and accented the support of tens of thousands of women to get it into power, not one woman was included amongst its supporters who were called to the Legislative Council, and no woman was included in the Cabinet. Yet women have seats in both Houses in Canada and the United States, while there are a dozen women in the British House of Commons. ' It is provided, and very properly too, that the Maoris shall have tour seats in the Upper House, as well as four in the Lower House of the New Zealand Parliament. It would be a nice action on our Government’s part if it took steps to place our women on at least the same footing as the Maoris in our Upper House of Parliament. Scats in Parliament are not, however the only positions our women should earnestly seek. Other countries are appointing women to diplomatic positions, trade commissionerships, and other represenlative posts abroad and at home. Are not our New Zealand women just as capable of filling such posts? We who know them and have heard them address public gatherings in Britain and America, can vouch that they are. Here is a paragraph that caught my eye in a Liondon evening newspaper last week: —

Madame Prunier has just returned from Paris very delighted with the fact that she has been appointed “ Conseiller du Commerce Exteneur de la France.” This is a species ol Government honour awarded to trade ambassadors who do exceptionally good work. Madame Prunier is the youngest person ever to have had it.

I have before me a copy of a Dunedin daily newspaper dated April U, Io9A which contains a four column and ahalf report of a public meeting at the City Hall, Dunedin, to urge the adoption of woman suffrage m New Zealand. Mrs Hatton presided, and the movers of resolutions were Miss H. xt. Morrison, Mrs Gordon Macdonald, Mrs Don Mr G. J. Bruce, and Mr W. Hutchison. M.H.R.; while _ supporting speeches were made by Miss Cannon. Mrs Brodie. Mrs Trainer, Miss Brownlie. Sir Robert Stout, Mr R. Oliver. MLC Mr Downie Stewart, Mr W.M. Bolt, and Mr R. T. Booth. I wish the children or grandchi dren of the 1000 people who attended that meeting could look up the newspaper files and read the speeches made at that meeting, which gave the required impetus to the movement for the enfranchisement of women. Soon afterwards its object was secured as far as New Zealand was concerned. The women of Australia, South Africa, Canada, and Great Britain cmickly followed the example of their New Zealand sisters. Helped in their campaigns by the organising expedience and platform addresses of the youngest male speaker, who assisted at that Dunedin meeting of 1892, the won the right to vote. The camDelians in Australia, South Afi*ca, women or those countries also and Canada were relatively easy < r oing for us who took part, compared with the bitter and cruel opposition encountered in England, where some of the campaigners suffered severe losses, privations, imprisonment, and even gave their lives for the cause. This is what I have to suggest: Let us have immediately a great women s crusade in New Zealand to get done those things our country is falling down in before the world. First, we must "el as many women as possible into both Houses of Parliament, and at least as many women as men in the Government. The men alone are making a mess of international matters to-day. New Zealand now ranks as a nation in the world. Then let her realise she is no longer merely a colony. It needs women evidently to get off the nursery baby gowns of a colony and put on the garb of a nation, while also instructing the subject in the enlarged responsibilities and duties of nationhood. Canada is waking up, and has sent out Ministers and ambassadors to several nations, and has some fifty trade commissioners placed in various countries. tier Governor~General, Lord Twecdsmuir, in a recent address at Montreal, advised Canada that there was no reason for her to wait for any other member of the British Commonwealth of Nations to speak or act for her. She was a nation, and should make her own voice heard in international matters. This I agre with, and contend it applies equally to New Zealand.

Now. on my fifth visit to England, after spending a quarter of a century of activities in some twenty-five countries of the world, the thing that strikes me, with sadness, about England and its people, is the strange decadence in almost every feature of life that has set in here. Afflicted with the weakest and most inept Government which Britain has suffered from during the past fifty years, the people do not seem to worry much about it or its continual back-stepping before the dictators in Europe. In this I find a strong reason for the sturdy sons and daughters of the British overseas dominions finding their legs and standing up to the task of keeping the British Commonwealth of Nations in the respect and lead of all nations. Need I remind my fellow-New Zealanders of the times in the history of nations when the women of a race came to the rescue of their country when the men were failing? My idea would be that every woman s society, fellowship, club union, and association in the Dominion, be they church, political, social, workers, teachers, professional, recreation, or sports, make it their chief business this year to see that women candidates are presented in every constituency. Forgetting all party differences and prejudices, let all unite in the finest women’s political effort the world has ever seen. Support would be forthcoming from all the best of New Zealand’s young men, especially those who love their womenfolk more than their stale old political men’s parties, which think only of giving men a chance, I hope I am right in thinking that the young New Zealand-born men of to-day would be found ready to do as much, if not more, than we “boys of the old brigade” did in the 1890’s. Some of us are still at it. you see, and ready to take the field again with them any time. I could list many things that women might take up at once besides getting the Dominion dressed up to go out as a nation with her Ministers, ambassadors, and trade commissioners appointed to various countries. The way New Zealand products are marketed abroad leaves much to be desired. The retailing of butter in the sloppy, unbusinesslike way it is put before the women buyers in London to-day would make any New Zealand woman blush lor her country .'f she had seen what I saw while making over 50 visits to retail shops to buy New Zealand butter and products. I have suggested ways of improving this to members of different New Zealand Governments, but got little attention to any appeal for better methods in marketing New Zealand products abroad. Some fellows in Tooley street told our Minister for Foreign Trade that it was all right. Therefore, “the procedure will not be altered ” we are told — unless our women see to it. Although Miss Jean Batten showed our people and the world that the journey from New Zealand to Europe and Great Britain could bo done m a few days, and another New Zealander, Mr Clouslon, proved this to be correct, our mails yet take six or seven weeks to and from England. Then those of us who have travelled the world extensively can testify that the passenger transport services between England and New Zealand are not comparable with the Atlantic or the Mediterranean to the East chief services. Yet our men Governments seem to do nothing much about it. New Zealand’s appearance at exhibitions abroad is, to say the least of it, not impressive. New Zealand House in London would not be long allowed to remain the dirty-faced urchin in a class of clean and tidy boys if we had women Ministers responsible. Women would, I believe, make good trade commissioners, for they would understand how to appeal to other women to buv and try New Zealand's products, by addressing women’s gatherings and meeting their questions with replies from a woman’s standpoint. It is not the men who attend oublic luncheons (hat decide the household buying. They possibly have a

list in their pockets of what the woman head of the house wants them to order or bring home that day, and may not dare to change it, no matter what another man says at the luncheon. When will our men Governments use sense in these things? But I must not trespass further on the invariable irtesy and help of the Dunediji press in matters of concern to women, —I am, etc., George J. Bruce. Woburn House, 38 Tavistock place, London, W.C.I, April 5.