"WOMEN IN CIVIC AND POLITICAL LIFE."

Otago Witness, Issue 3029, 3 April 1912, Page 73

"WOMEN IN CIVIC AND POLITICAL LIFE."

ADDRESS BY HON. J. T. PAUL. The following is the concluding portion of the address given by the Hon. J. T. Paul at the Convention of the Women's Christian Temperance Union: Do the women of New Zealand desire direct representation in Parliament? 1 erhaps not. though I should hope that at least a few women our Dominion have dreamed of the day when some of their sex will enter the front door of Parliament.— (Applause.) What use would they be? That remains in some measure to be seen. If we argue from the example of Finland, they would be a decided acquisition. What would they do? Well, as half the people are women, and all the legislation affects all the people, all the people must be interested in making the legislation. As all the people must obey the law, it is wrong for half the people to make the laws. And as the most prejudiced male must admit, some of the laws more directly affect women than men. It is certainly fair, to say the least, that women should have a more direct voice in the making of those laws. But you say they are represented by the members for whom rhey vote. Is that satisfactory? You say "Yes." Then would the male section of the population bo satisfied if the choice of parliamentary candidates was restricted to any section of the male population? Suppose, for instance, the choice of candidates was restricted to those who had passed a university course, or to those who owned land above a certain value, or to any othnr select class. Would the male voters be satisfied? Not a bit of it. They would never rest until the area of choice was widened to include all males. Well, why should women be satisfied with malo representation? I am sure the majority are satisfied But as a right any intelligent woman ought to be permitted to offer her services for any public position for which the whole population vote. The granting of the franchise to women is not a logical stopping place. The goal is absolute equality with man in all the essential lights of citizenship.—(Applause.) Of course, it lies with the voters whether they elect or reject any candidate, but I am arguing that the right should be immediately granted to any woman in the Dominion to offer her services for any position which is in tho gift of the whole people. The logic of that position cannot be denied. Listen to the words of a well-known Swiss lawyer. Bridel: "By means of legislation tho exact balance must be produced between a pair of scales, into one of which the power of wealth has thrown its sword." Those words are literally true. Wealth has always a greater influence than poverty, and wealth uses that greater influence to protect its interests It is for thoso who love their country and their fellows to equalise the balance, and I believe the great heart of the Mother of tho Race will ever be on the side of the oppressed. " Yes, that's just it!" I hear the cynic declare in his haste. "Women are all heart—a plausible tale will lead them right off the track." I don't deny for an instant that women are susceptible to certain influences. But are men never misled? I know men who are led clean off the track by prejudice, by self-interest, by comradeship, by a plausible speech, even by free beer or patronage of a similar sort—(applause),aye, and even by a pretty face.—(Laughter.) The argument that some women will be misled into wrong action in national or civic politics proves nothing, if proven true. Tho argument in practice applies with equal force to men. In the ultimate it is the great collective will that expresses itself in action and legislation. And that great collective will should not be cut in half bv the denial to women of all their just rights While contending for full rights for woman, I do not forget her apparent indifference to some of the rights she has. And again I hear the hasty opponent declaring that woman shouldn't he given newrights til! she has learned to use those she now has. Well, if man had been treated similarly, ho would have very fewrights to-day.—(Applause.) As it is, he sets no value on many of the rights he has to-day. In hundreds of thousands of instances he sets absolutely no value on the franchise. And _ the vote is at once the most priceless right and greatest responsibility a free man can enjoy. But the apathy of a section of the male population is no excuse for the indifference of women to their privileges and responsibilities. It was said long ago that God could not be everywhere, so Ho made mothers. The responsibility of the mother extends far beyond the home and caring for her offspring. And even if the mother decides to properly care for her offspring her work and influence must be exerted outside and beyond the home. The son or daughter must take her place in the world, as boy or girl, as man or woman. Then everything i > h exists affects the offspring of the mother. And, of course, all influences for good or bad affect everyone. Is it necessary '•, <-„y

more to convince any woman that > she has great rights and greater responsibilities? To-day women could if they cared take active part in the government of the city. Here is a great field for effort. The work of civic government directly touches the homes of the people. Think of the things the municipality of to-day does. It is concerned in the supply of water, lighting, tramways, providing- reserves (trulv named the lungs of the city), making streets and footpaths, the prevention of overcrowding in dwellings, the prevention and e'imination of slums, the preservation of health, the removal of refuse, and many other things. The up-to-dat-e municipality ought to be concerned in the housing of the 1 people, where necessary providing dwellings for them. It is neglecting that work at present. It ought to provide facilities in the shape of markets for conveying foods produced by some of the people to all of the people. That work it is generally r.eslectinsr. It ought to provide baths wliere the youth of both sexes could learn to swim.—(Applause.) That dhity is neglected in many cases, wholly so in the case of our own city. It ought to provide libraries for the people. That duty was left undone until a local citizen appealed to an Old World capitalist to help us in cur poverty, and the capitalist gave us £lO 000. The local civic authorities are now making amends by providing a splendid selection of literature. Personally, I always feel a little ashamed when I enter a library which ought to have been provided bv citizens instead of begged from a man—(applause) —who mad'e most of his millions out of the unpaid labour of his brothers.— (Applause.) Now, there is hardly any length to which municipal activity cannot go. In the Old Country municipalities run all sorts of conveniences, from an oyster fishery to a rabbit warren. In short, the work of civic government embraces the things which most closely touch the daily lives and the daily wants of the people. Municipal enterprise is bound to assume even greater importance in the future than in the past. I expect to nee the people in their civic capacity undertaking much of the work that is now done in the home. I believe that work will take manv new forms, even perhaps to the cooking of the daily dinner and the cleaning which is usually associated with spring. (Laughter.) The field for activity here is very wide, and women ought not to fail rn carrying out their share of the wor «L °[ creating the "great city" of which Walt Whitman wrote: — Where «man walk in public processions in the streets the same as men, Where they enter the public assembly and take places the same as men. . • • Where the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands, Where the city of the healthiest fathers etands, Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands, There the great city stand*?. I have previously mentioned another great field for social service—the management of the State machinery for the distribution of charitable aid and the care of the sick -The Hospital and Charitable Aid Boards of the Dominion are elective, and women are eligible as members. In the best interests of all there should be no further delay in having women members on these boards.— ("Hear, hear.") Outside of the public immediately affected by the distribution of charitable aid and the management of the hospitals there are the conditions of the nurses to be considered. I hold strongly that no nu.rse should be asked to work more than eight hours per day.—(Applause.) Women must instinctively feel that my contention is right, but many male members of the boards strongly disagree. They say the nurses are devoted to their humanitarian work. That is true. But there is no reason why these noble women should bo compelled to work a daily number of hours which menace their health and break down their constitutions. Doubtless the nurses prefer that thev should live long to continue the noble Work of their choice. But on tho purely public side these hoards have largo powers and facilities for wide service. Much o f that service can best be performed by women. I do not desire to further emphasise tho necessity for women taking places on juries, especially in certain oases. It strikes mo as an outrage on public decency that an unfortunate girl who has fallen through trusting a man too well and who, in the hour of her groat trial and humiliation should have tried to hide her mistake, should bo exposed to tho additional shame o f a trial by a court of justice composed wholly of men.—(Applause.) The position only needs fco be stated to carry condemnation of existing customs and demand reform for the morrow. I am of opinion that women's influence in politics has been considerably greater because of the franchise than most people imagine. If we apply tho test of an ordinary standard of decency to members of elective bodies we find the standard very generally complied with. We find in practice that the drunkard and the dissolute man is Quickly dismissed from public life. The influence of the woman's vote has cut short the public career of manv aji undesirable. (Applause.) T am also fairlv certain that tho very fact of women having a vote has been sufficient to prevent manv another undesirable from attempting to enter public life. Then again, in the matter of legislation more closely affecting women, her influence with the vote is unquestionably greater than without the vote —(" TTenr. hear.") It. would be. tedione to review the legislation of of the 19 years since the granting of the franchise to women. Tt is unnecessary because it is known to the large majority of those present Suffice it to say that it covers an unprecedently -wide field of social and humanitarian influence. Nevertheless I believo much of it would have been improved by woman's presence in Parliament. Tn many oases the existing legislation must be extended. I need but mention one instance to illustrate my meaning—the Widows' Pension Act of last session. Yon will acree that it was a most commendable pi ice of legislation. As you know, it grants a pension to n widow according to the number of children she has. The a.rt i c really a recognition of the State's duty to the child when the breadwinner is taken away. I hope the future will see increasing attention devoted to the cnr<* of the child. But, beneficial as the Widows' Pension Aet is it leaves some thing yet undone. It relieves the widow. The wife with an invalid husband and a family is really worse off than the widow. Yet the new act gives such a woman no relief. A woman whose husband has desorted her and her children can get no help from the act. A woman who has

adopted ohildren, and whose husband subsequently dies, can get no relief. Neither can the mother of an illegitimate child receive benefit, because such ohildren are expressly disqualified from the benefits of the act. The act will be extended with or without women's assistance, but does it not further show the necessity for women taking an increasingly active part in the practical work of legislation.—(Applause.) Now 1 wish to specially emphasise the importance of women studying industrial conditions, at least as far as they directly effect their sister women. If it be true that " woman was the last great gift of the Creator to man " it is incumbent that wo should treasure the gift. There are over Ia.UOU women employed in factories and shops in New Zealand. A very small proportion of those are married women. Jf we turn to the industries of Britain we find a much larger proportion are married, altogether over twenty odd thousand in the workshops alone. Industrial conditions are most important to those employed and important to the race. Several medical men gave evidence before a Royal Commission in Sydney the other day and their evidence ought to warn us to be exceedingly vigilant in regard to the influence of factory life on women. With remarkable unanimity they testified to many and grave evils resulting from factory employment as governed and carried on under the laws of New South Wales. The evidence created a sensation, and the report of the Commission gives much food for reflection by those who are anxious tor tho future welfare of the race. To my mind, as I have said, few things are so important as perfection in the industrial conditions under which women work. The woman who is following an occupation with unsuitable surroundings or inadequate pay is in partial bondage, and to escape that bondage she may unwillingly enter a more permanent and even more irksome one in the shape of marriage. I desire to see every woman's industrial conditions such that she can follow her chosen calling with dignity and comfort and be independent enough and happy enough to refuse to marry any man who may offer her something which appears to lie an improvement on an unsatisfactory industrial occupation —(applause), but which falls far short of the ideal marriage she has inscribed in the rece?ses of her imai^ination. Nothing less than complete economic independence will save the race. —(Applause.) I feel 1 have covered sufficient ground and detained you long enough. My main appeal to-night is that women should take a greater and fuller part in public life than they have hitherto done. I ask them in all earnestness to keep abreast of the thought, of the day. I ask them to takj the closest and keenest interest in the industrial conditions under which some of their sisters toil. I ask them to study the great question of eugenics, and all the newer phases of thought and 1 action destined to improve the race. I ask them to accept the responsibilities incumbent on all loyal and true citizens. I ask them to demand the fullest rights to which their womanhood and citizenship justly entitle them. Let me close with the words of Olive Rchreiner —"The ancient Chaldean seer had a vision of a Garden of Eden which lay in a remote past. It was dreamed that man and woman once lived in joy and fellowship, till woman ate of tho tree of knowledge and gave to man to eat; and 1 that both were driven forth to wander, to toil in bitterness, because they had eaten of the fruit. • " We also have our dream of a Garden; but it lies in a distant future. We dream that woman shall eat of the tree of knowledge together with man, and fhat side by side and hand close to hand, through ages of much toil and labour, they shall together raise about them an Eden nobler than any the Chaldean dreamed of—an Eden created by their own labour and made beautiful by their own fellowship. " In his apocalypse there way one who saw a new heaven and a new earth; we sec a new earth ; but therein dwells love—the love of comrades and co-workers. " It is because so wide and gracious to us are the possibilities of the future so impossible is a return to the past, so deadly is a passive acquiescence in the present, that to-day we are found everywhere raising our strange new cry: 'Labour and the training that fits us for labour!'"—(Loud applause )