STATUS OF NEW ZEALAND WOMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3030, 10 April 1912, Page 53

STATUS OF NEW ZEALAND WOMEN.

IMPERIAL NATURALISATION BILL. PROBLEM OF CITIZENSHIP. (Fiicni Oi-r Own Correspondent.) LONDON, February 16. The Australian and New Zealand Women Voters' Committee in London is paying great attention to the proposed new, • Imperial Naturalisation Bill, and the fol-' J lowing letter signed by Miss Newcomb, the hon. secretary, has been sent to Sir ) Joseph Ward : —" My committee understand that the draft of the proposed new v Imperial Naturalisation Bill has now been ' sent to you for consideration. They . would beg to remind you of the assur- ! anoe you were good enough to give to their deputation in June last, in London, that the advantages already possessed by I the women of Australia and New Zealand, i under the naturalisation laws of their own ' countries, shall-be secured to them under \ the new Imperial Act. My committee feels sure that it can rely on you to keep the matter before the attention of your Government when the question cornea' j up for consideration." ( The loss of nationality by marriage is \ also pointed out by the committee. Miss I Newcomb writes :—" As far as Australia and New Zealand are concerned, the mat- \ ter is perfectly clear. In those countries ' since the franchise was granted to both \ sexes equally, the word man, in all legis- •' lation is held to include woman. But the' case is different in those parts of the British Dominions where full.citizen rights are not as yet granted to women. In those parts, including the British Isles, an Englishwoman who marries an alien; loses by that act her nationality, and with it all protection as a British subject. An instance from New Zealand will bo fresh in the minds of many. An Englishwoman married in London to an American, had with her husband settled in Auckland. Believing herself still a British subject she sought to take up in r voters' rights. Her husband on hiss sidy wished to retain his own nationality. The local judge declared that the wfo had lost her nationality by marriage, and consequently her name could not stand on the voters' roll. .'> " Ma.rriages between Australian and 1 New Zealand girls and foreigners are pretty common. How many of these happy young brides realise that if they leave'their native land for residence elsewhere, even under the British flag, that flag is no longer their own ? They have no choice in the matter. They are Aug-: triane, Russians, Italians —what yon will, but never Englishwoman again. Now theordinary mind will naturally expect that., in the march of progress, the new lm< pcrial law will redress this wrong. In-'' credible as it may seem, the removal of the grievance is a mattter of doubt. Englishwomen are left where they were. Nay more, there are some legal authorities who hold that because the Australian and New Zealand Naturalisation Acts da not definitely state that the word man includes woman, the old Imperial Act of, 1870 overrides them. So we are faced with the danger that not only may the present evil be perpetuated, but that Australian and New Zealand women may in their own countries lose the rights which they now believe themselves to poesefifi."-,