AUCKLAND Women's Liberal League.

Observer, Volume XV, Issue 861, 29 June 1895, Page 16

AUCKLAND Women's Liberal League.

* For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.' In considering certain suggestions submitted to them by the • Dunedin "Women' 9 Franchise League,' re federating "Women's Associations on non-party questions, the A.W.JJ.L. passed the following resolution, re the ' Contagious Disease Act,' to wit :— ' That we look upon the " Contagions Disease Act " as a protection to posterity by safeguarding wives unhappily circumstanced, and earnestly urge, as a strong preventive to immorality, that the " Act " should be made applicable to men and women alike, and should be rigidly enforced.'

Much criticism of a very illiberal character has been evoked, and in justice to ourselves, as well as in courtesy to the ' League,' whose propositions we were considering, we desire to lay before them, and other ' Women's Associations,' some part of our reasons for adopting our present position on this matter, we wish to state distinctly that, as a body, we are as emphatically opposed to the enforcement of the CD. Act on women only as any association of women in Britain or the Colony can jjossibly he ; further, our resolution positively sets forth as a condition to our favouring the enforcement of the ' Act ' that it should be amended so as to apply to men and vsomtn alike.

In answer to the assertion, so glibly made, that an amendment in this direction will be impossible to achieve —we have only to remark that the same empty assertion has been made in connection with every movement ever attempted for the betterment of humanity. A notable instance of this is yet fresh in the minds of the women of the Colony, in connection with womanhood suffrage, which is, notwithstanding, an accomplished fact. We believe that one of the first duties pertaining to good citizenship is that of handing down to the nation a posterity physically sound, and morally untainted. With this Social leprosy untrammelled by legal restrictions, the discharge of this duty is clearly an impossibility. Recognising this, and the equally pertinent fact that moral ' suasion ' has never yet lowered, nor is it all likely to lower, the statistical record of those who by their corrupt lives are poisoning the life blood of the nation, while on the other hand such reduction is shown in the statistical records of every place where the • Act ' has been enforced, even in the present form, we conscientiously believe that, in seeking to place this loathsome disease under quarantine, we are performing one of the highest duties imposed on the women of New Zealand by the enfranchisement of the sex. We are prepared, if necessary, to furnish official evidence, as well as the almost unanimous support of the medical faculty of this city, showing the beneficial results emanating from the enforcement of the ' Act ' in Auckland, and the disastrous relapse into vice resulting from the suspension of the same. In conclusion, we reaffirm that^ we look upon a ' Contagious Disease Act ' as society's protest against prostitution — a necessary precaution, aiming at the prohibition of the existence and the spread of terrible and prevalent diseases, a protection which we owe to humanity, and to posterity, a safeguard to women unhappily circumstanced, and a strong preventive to juvenile and adult immorality. We earnestly urge that an ' Act ' applicable to men and wmoen alike should, as soon as possible, be brought into operation, and fearlessly and rigidly enforced. S. R. Hendke, Corresponding Secretary, A.W LL. By order of the League. June 25th, 1895.