Women's Aspirations

Southland Times, Issue 16051, 31 May 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

Women's Aspirations

Opening the meetings of the National C >uncil of Women in Napier recently, the Pi evident (Mrs Sievwright) said : —

Death has been busy amongst us. Two lvJiee who eat with U9 at Wauganui last y. ar one of them new to the work but deeply interested, the other ao old und triei fnenr! — have passed to that silent land whence tru-re is no return. Another who was ooce with us and liked to be counted of our numb i next passed away, and ouly a few •veeks at; ■ ihe ttoingß cawe from America, whither 9i' had gone on a visit, that oue young, full . f life anci hope, and timely quivering wiih mental energy hud been cut down bj sudd* i and almost unaccountable disease. No one could have dreamed that our dear brigtv | 'roustabout' os ehe loved to call hersilf, would have been taken home co suddenly, and so coon. It remains for us who are let to work the harder, but if our tffl leacy as » national institution is to ba ma ntaintd, wt must bave the women of New Z-alaud flvui more widely represented than at present FbW people yet Beetn to understand what is> the meaning of the movement, uiiri the comn: element is net wanting in tho naive w»y li which B>me, who at present ridicu c ourpro[jotals, occasionally br ng t hem f or th as something quite original, or, if they h»ppu to huve fuuud place on tne St,*'Ute B >ok, »s quite right aiui prope' — 9omethiog 'we / ay- &' *ays advoi at'd.' Yes, Galileo, the world mcvi-a in a thousmd waye, but, because of men's obtusem^, e-ich evolution ii apt. i become amar yr' om of mi ro or let?, rnngui Uiii . We ue- d more woi kei h ; ei-p ci .lly, 1 ihiuk, we tif-eii an nrg-tniMng ccci e'.a y, *^< <-nuld go round and impiesi on the community the grown g and imperative netd th»-i. is tor <a:n to take up hism i.c- own bunin. ofdu'yand rtßpon-ibiliiy ; "ho would n - miudall that society is m organism, and r that org-iijim is to ne reilthy, well kni , and full of the >trngth and stability necee--Bary for u< r i al evolution, eajh unit, each io lividual ceil, aa it were, «,f the organi-m, must fnnct ion in ihe pleni vie cf power. We need B<.meoce who, while, keeping this edu-c-iiiot.al aim in view, would also endeavour to organise a 1 JCmi council of wudbu nr i-Vfii a local committee of women io tachel<ctor Ht- ; at uny rate, in each country eli-etor»U-, which wonld keep and be kept in touch wit i all ih-it interests »nd engages the Lest endeavours of ti e N -ti' ual Council. The object, of our Woman'-. International Council if he better uncerstanniLg, the beter crysalising into all our lives of t he golden rule of love and mutual consideration, it&eeka mv tual understaoding, the subs itutionof love for hate, of blessing for cursing, of pea:e fo war, of a more ganeial, genial grace, beauiy and reSuem-nt of expression for cmrse deformity and squalor. Io seeks, in a wo-d, the religion of CMrut, or the realisvion in c -induct of the thirteenth chapter of l'au".firat letter to the Corinthians. I confess my inability to understand how any, Ci'llm^ themseives Christians and enn 1 eil um'.er Hibanner, c*n refuse allegiance to such a Caus .

eema to Tie the purest and nimpieoi Christianity. 'Bui,' someone soya, 'alt the world is not Christian.' No, but /ultimately, the goldon rule ia not a monopoly <<f Chrii-tiiinity. The creeds of Ancient Kgypt, of Buddhism, and of Confueiauiam enjuiue i tnia motto of ours long before the Christiiii era ; and if the missionaries of the Christian Churches, whum we have from time to time sent to convert the heathen, had been as faithful in liviDg up to the golden rule ap they have usually been in implanting ther> logical *nd metaphysical dogma, and ha^ those accompanying them or following in their wake been as faithful in living up to and inculcaiing the same rule as they havtbeen in intiodnoing the evils of civilisation ana fi. ling their own pockets, our tafk to day would be lighter. Even our own Maoris are aot seldom bewildered at the difference between our precept and our practice. Wtfirmly believe that juat as fifty years ago socalled 'blue blood,' or proof of direct desccent from Norse or Norman pirates w&9 the key to Royal and aristocratic society ; jue 1 as mouey is so to-day, just to will allegiance to the golden rule become the ball-mark of future good breeiiug. Having sketched the international doing* for the past yea r the president went on to eay — 'I think few people here havp gia^peo the very large proportions which thia work is as timing. I would rouse in eaoh one who is listening to me to-night the deaire to nubsoribe according to bis power toward the j strengthening of our own link in the chaiD. This ytar we have been invited to Bend a delegate to the annual mettiDg of the Tasmania and the Dutch National Councile, to the International Executive's meeting at Tne Hague, and to a huge congress at Washington, but alas ! the lajk not of pence but of many pounds vetoes any such ex'rivagtvnce. Victoria did send a deleg.teto Washington, representing three or fuur Stttes, aod the Americano are tietermiDed she Bha.ll have what they call 'a good lime.' ft he has been interviewed ard interuinod all along t hi line. They call her 'little Autt alia,' and have evt-n bunt into verbe in her honour. Tne National Coui-cil of Ne* Z -aland is a member of that laig^r a^ociiUiuD. h*vir-|< i^e name aims und ol ject-, bu free to a' range t.e dtraila if work, he iieceneary reforms, legal, Boc at, pr «f» s ional,edu auonal, ► oonomio, or indualiia', aa may bttt *-uit tru requirements of its ovvn people. We B*id that each m«n and woman as sepirate units do not function in the pient.tu.de of individual power, and this is simply, of course, beoause he or she has never had (ho chance, even in this school-scattered Und of free and compulsory education, of picking up the necessary information, or— which is of infinitely more irr.portanca — of being trained to think, to weigh evidence, aud to bring each new idea to the bar of conscience and of morfll responsibility. Therefore education, from various points of view, will receive attention from our delegates, 'and,' said the chairman of a meeting in Christchuroh lately, 'the Council will never find a subject more worthy of it) deep and constant consideration than that of education. 1

'But sorrowfully admitting that even the most p9rfeot of educational (systems cannot do all, nay, in sooieoase- must confes* itself helphss, while other and more subtle forces are at work, we women dare not avoid the dark continent! of existing social relations between men and women. 'Aa if,' says one, 'beyond anything else that concerned mankind, his relations to woman, next to his relation to his Creator, were not Ihe most importaot.the most deserving of free, scientific, and conscientious research — the one supreme improvement for which the world's highest premium should be offered. 1 During tin debate on Mr WHford J s Divorce Bill last session, both Mt Wiiford and Mr Seddon regretted that the bill could not be fully discuseed on account of the presence of ladies in the gallery. These ladies, 1 suppose, knew what was to be under discussion before th y went— probably went hoping toleain much. If not it was in their power to leave the House if the discussion proved more disagreeable than their sensibility could endure. A discussion of the most vital importance to the race was for this frivolous and absurd excuse avoided, and a bill with at lea6t one vital clause shelved. How differently Mr Sheldon Amos, Professor oi Jurisprudence at Univerisiiy Collt-ge, London, expresses himself. 'The idjurious effects of shutting out women from large regions of interest have told quite aa heuvily upon mtn aa upon women themselves. There are many pressing questions of aocidl order and progress which men have become incompetent to gaze upon in their true colors from the life-long habit of never discussing them in the presence of women or hearing them discussed by women. The resuit is tha vicious legislation, thus proceeding sjlely upon men's views of the matter, goes far co perpetuate itself. . . . Neither flex en i see truly unless illuminated by the supplementary light contributed by the other. The conclusion is, th*t tt ia for the highest and best imereata of all— men aod wumen alike — that upon every one of the urgent problems of the day the mind of both aexee, and not of one only, be loyally turned.

'Temperance always takes a prominent place on our programme, and the awful ravages the drink traffij ia miking in other countries as well as in our own, ought to stimulate us all to renewed efforts for its extinction. Closely allied to this subject ia that of the duty of the S ate to the children. We have men talking hysterically about thr decreasing birthrate. We hear very little about the death-rate of babies undor two. Better were it that our birth-iate fell even further, if, at the same lime, wu could ensure a normil vitality in the litile nnes who oome. At the m^etiDg of the Bi tish Aa>o dition in Glasgow last year men of emiueut attainment in science simply played around this basio question ; in our own Houbo of Representatives, as I said a few minutes ago, exacdy the Bame thiDg happened. Never, it seems, till women take the initiative, in Senate House as in the borne, will srxual matterß be plaoed on a purer, more equitable, more ethioal baaiß. With regard to the ethics of wage-earning several ladieß will onoe more hoist the standard of ' All for All.' In so far as the great majority of those chi. fly supporting tne claims of women t) equal cilizenebip are women ihemeelvet, the M torian of the future will doubilees place tha laurel on woman's biow for herHUperior insight into the urgent demands of the ags. God made man dual, mala and famale

crared^fe them, but man has sought out many inventions. Wnrnin on her animil -i :e he his ofum«B deg'aded bene>uh the level >-f the beasts of the field ; wotrun oa ncr psychioil and spiritual side he once upon •k time re. udiated altogether, and bishops nat in eonehve to decide if their Bister had a soul ! Still, iv the very blaze of light which nodern science has thrown around her mateii'il f'irrn, her mental capacity, and her moral perceptions, he excludfS her from the '•ounrih of the n-.tinn, and debars her, by vi bitra r y authority, from iha education tr-at, mixii g witn tho !>u-<y wo'M involve-, him -elf fiom the modifying ii fluence of her woinin Di'ure, aid both from r.he coarn t^r'lui'dmg signiri an c of normal p l*rity ; and expos s iioih tithe har.feniDg and benumbir.g auurre i<f all «ex antagonism and je»lu^y. One part, of ito work of the National Council is to voice the spirit of the times ; to en 'eavour to make clear to the conscious thought of the many what is the meaning of he see hing forces in the midst of which they fi id tcemselvfa, and before I eit do*m 1 shouM like to ro<tßiure 'he public »,« regard t*>o things : — First, we have no wish to turn women into men. Our plaint ii thatthe masculine element is already toe much In evidence. We wish to increase the truly femintne — in the home, in the market placi-, in th" Civil Service, and in tho forum. S<cond, the National C»uocil has been accustd of one-^ideilnesß. Tbi* charge I can only reI'lidiaie as both illogical and uujtitt. Th(reporis of our proceedings during the six V' ira we have been in existence speak for hemaelveB — our prnyorß, echoed to very wo'»rinoßß of the fl sh, are for the restoration

'f n fairly b»laDced, truly dual life for doth -i' xes, for the abolition of all privilege and protection, and for the inauguration of a

• ign of justioe and brotherly iut.-rdepend c cc.

A hearty vote of thanks w*s accorded to the president for her address.