PETTICOAT GOVERNMENT,

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 952, 27 March 1897, Page 3

PETTICOAT GOVERNMENT,

A New Terror for Benedicts.

The National Council of Women ib making haste to open its second session in Christohurch. So far as the male portion of the colony is concerned, it does not seem to be penetrated with a due sense of the importance of this feminine conclave. Let it be our mission, therefore, to enlighten the masculine community.

Perhaps the most interesting subject Bet down on the Council's agenda paper is that of the ' Economic Independence of Wives.' It is rather obscurely worded, and that possibly is the reason why the Benedicts have not taken alarm ere this at the fate which threatens them. Bat the resolution which has been prepared for the consideration of the Council leaves no room for doubt as to the intentions of its framersHere it is, in itß naked simplicity :— ' That in the eye of the law every married woman shall be held to share and share alike the earnings or income of her husband ; that if she also earn money, it shall go into the common treasury, always provided that at any time the woman may require that her share be paid to her separate account, or that the bank account shall be in the names of both, and require the signatures of both.'

Dow, let us see where this sort of thing is likely to land us. We shall assume, for the sake of argument, that the women get their way, and that the wives obtain the sanction of law for their financial claims. What then ? Is it not likely to follow in many cases that the husband may turn round and say, 'Look here, Maria., I've been the sole wage-earner in this here domestic establishment so far. But as we have now to sqaareup every Saturday night and divide the coin, you'll have to set to and earn your share.' That certainly will be the result. If Maria is expert at the wash-tub, out she must go in the interests of the partnership and earn her wages. If Ethel, a little higher up in the social scale, can work her sewing machine with dexterity, she will have to enter into business as sempstress. Or, in the case of Augusta, who never soiled her delicate fingers with any menial office, there are at least her accomplishments to be turned to account, and she will have to coin money out of music or painting.

of Women will be the surest sentence to enforced celibacy. ISo man will be insane enough to propose marriage to such a woman, and as Boon as the fair sex digest that awful fact the National Council of Women will cease to ex ist.

* • • But if the 'economic independence of wives ' is made compulsory by law, then, in the words of Hamlet, ' We will have no more marriages ; those that are married already shall live ; the rest shall keep as they are. 1 Marriage, in fact, will be surrounded with such awful terrors that the women will have the country • entirely to themselves, and if one man be left he will be in the unhappy plight of the hero of Mr Edward Tregear's book ' Hedged with Divinities,' the sole male inhabitant of a colony of women madly competing for a husband. After all, it seems to as that the National Council of Women are embarking on a wild-goose chase. Men and women will continue to regulate their domestic economy for themselves, in spite of aught a parcel of old wives or elderly spinsters may Bay or do.

In fact, matrimony will become subject to the law relating to partnerships in general. Housekeepers will be. in request, the household expenses must be shared in just proportions, covenants must be entered into limiting the size of the family and adjusting the costs of maintenance between husband and wife. The house itself may have to be divided into separate suites of apartments for husband and wife, and, the male and female partners in the concern being divided as to their pockets, will also have entire ' economic independence ' to spend their money as they please, indulge in their own peculiar pleasures and entertain their own separate cronies or friends. One step further, and only a small one at that, and we reach the haven of Free Love.

Once you reduce the holy state of matrimony to the level of a business partnership, you must at the same time make commensurately easy and cheap the means for securing the dissolution of the partnership. That follows as a matter of course. The National Council of Women want to entirely re-model the relations of husbands and wives, so that they may be adjusted on strict business lines. So mote it be. If it is made optional, the thing will soon right itself. In that case, the men will have such a wholesome dread of the advanced woman that membership with the National Council