Tuapeka Times

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 1812, 15 July 1891, Page 2

Tuapeka Times

AND QOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND AOVERTISER.

WEDNEDAY, JULY 15, 1891.

" MEASURES, NOT MEN."

fSi" ft Ifi W J SS

The question of female franchise can yet be hardly said to have entered seriously into the political calculations of the country. It has certainly many ardent and influential advocates in the House ; but it should not; be overlooked that they cannot be regarded as the expoj nent3 of public opinion on this subject, for the fsimple reason that no public opinion has yet been formed on it, that they have received no mandate from their constituents, and are merely giving expression to their own private views and opinions as members are» privileged to do on questions that have assumed no tangible form in the country and on which the public are not concerned one way or the other. The electors have not yet been asked to decide on the wisdom of giving women a vote, nor have women themselves in any large or extended sense taken the trouble to make their feelings known on the question. Hence it is. that the Legislative Council are inclined to regard the demand more as the outcome of sentiment on the part of a number of the more chivalric and sentimental members of the House of Representatives rather than as the deliberative voice of the country or of those on whom it is asked to confer the privilege. But it would be hardly fair to assume that because the country has not given much sign of being deeply concerned in the question, it looks unfavourably on it, any more than that women are averse to the privilege because they have not clamoured for it. The reason probably is that the electors, looking at the amplitude and completeness of the franchise as it now exists, and the fulness of the power it confers on them for all practical purposes, cannot see that anything, further can be gained by extending the privilege to the other sex ; while women themselves have not had the opportunity of making known in any numbers what their opinions are on the subject. Certainly, in some of the large centres they have made themselves heard on the question; ,

aud when oucc they havi> ni-vla tho deI maud and expressed a desire to h ivo a voice in the representation of the country, it is not easy to show why their request should be refused. A meeting was held in Dunedin towards^tho close of last week which was attended by a large number of women and addressed by members of the same sex who spoke in advocacy of the female frauchise measure now before Parliament, and advanced some very sensible arguments in support of their demand. "We do-hot quite share the enthusiasm of some of the gentlemen who lent the m3oting the weight of their influence and" oratory in : thinking that what one termed the " Paradisiacal state " would be reached when women were permitted to go to the ballot-box. Yet we think much good would be done without in any way lowering the status of woman or detracting from her domestic usefulness. We believe thac the women of any community in point of intelligence and keenness of discrimination, to say nothing of the quality of self-respect, are as well qualified to exercise the franchise as the great majority of the opposite sex. It is, of course, alleged that in this matter women would be to a great extent subject to the influence and control of their husbands, but it might also happen that the reverse would be the case and that light and leading would come largely from the other side. There is no need that women should be asked to crowd to the polls to record their vote ; and even were they to do so, it is not easy to see how their morals and feelings should suffer in consequence. In South Australia votes may be recorded through the post-office, and the adoption of that system would deprive squeamish people of their favourite argument against the granting of the franchise to women. Comparatively few women would possibly take to the study of political life as men do; but there are some social questions in which they are specially interested, and with which they are peculiarly fitted to deal, and on these grounds alone it is wrong and unjust to exclude them from a voice in the making of the laws. Of course the subject is one that lends itself for humorous treatment after the fashion of small wits ; yet in spite of all this burlesque and ridicule the movement is growing in force every year, and is drawing nearer end nearer to the range of practical politics. It is highlyprobable that the amendment in the Electoral Bill now before Parliament will be agreed to in the House of Representatives; but it is equally probable that it will receive very summary treatment when it reaches the Council. But this can only result in a postponement of the measure, its ultimate and near adoption both by the country and the Legislature being regarded as certain.

The Government Industrial Conciliation Bill provides in the first place for the formation of voluntary boards of arbitration before which disputes may be taken by mutual consent, the decision to be binding on both parties. The boards will also be vested with compulsory powers, and can compel either employers or workmen to submit their dispute for adjudication, the terms of which must be accepted as decisive by the contending parties. No one, after the experiences of the last few years, should dispute the great necessity that exists for the introduction of some law that will operate in limiting the frequency and duration of strikes or, what is still better, render jtheir occurrence altogether impossible. Yet there are people so delicately susceptible of what they consider to be the privileges of capital as to calmly accept even the disastrous state of things produced by industrial conflicts rather than that the will of employers, however unreasonable or hostile to the general interests of the community or country, should be bent or shaken by a compulsory law. They argue in addition that State interference of this kind is certain to restrict enterprise, that the fear of arbitrary interference and loss will prevent men establishing industries, and that no compulsory law or board can compel workmen to accept lower wages than they demand or employers to pay higher than they deem proper themselves. The former can pack up and leave the colony, and the latter could* shut up business and accept the first loss as final. Now this is precisely what is happening at the present moment, and what is likely to continue to happen until some peaceful method of settling the recurring differences between employers and employed is not only provided but its adoption by both parties made imperative by force of law. Employers at present are incessantly crying out against the tyranny of trade unions, and the workmen assert they are driven into revolt by the unyielding selfishness of their employers, while the neutral portion of the community, who suffer seiious inconvenience and injury from the j j indiscretions and offences of both, have a perfect right to demand some substantial and permanent form of protection by the law. Considerations for the general welfare, putting aside the interests of those more immediately concerned, render it necessary that individual selfishness from whatever quarter should be repressed, and experience has shown that this is possible only by the application of a compulsory law. In England where greater and more embarrassing trade complications exist, conciliation boards of a voluntary character have been formed and have succeeded in numerous instances in deciding questions submitted to them to the satisfaction of the interested parties. Compared to such disputes those to be dealt with in this country are comparatively simple in character, and their settlement should present no serious difficulty to impartial men of practical and discriminating minds. But conciliation boards in England have not prevented strikes, nor will they do so either here or there while they lack the one essential element of compulsion. Even now in. this colony trade of almost all kinds is in a most unsettled and distempered state *, capital is timorous and

suspicious, and workingmen, unable to find employment, are forced to leave the colony. The effect of such a state of things must be severely felt by business people and producers; and until a radical and decisive change is made in the relations existing between employers and employed, as far as they relate to industrial disputes, it is vain to look for any settled or lasting improvement in thia direction. Employers must be well aware that they are far more likely to get justice and fair treatment from a properly constituted court than from, such a body, for instance, as that into whose hands the unionists committed their interests during the late strike in this colony. Unionists also know by experience that they cannot exactly get such favourable terms as they could wish from an employers' association with a full war-chest and an overstocked labour market. The unionists, beaten and harassed as they have been at every turn, are naturally inclined to look upon the Bill as a relief from the position in which they have been placed, principally by their own folly and imprudence; while the employers lopk upon it as an attempt to deprive them of the fruits of their recent victory, forgetting that victory purchased at such a cost and held on such slender tenure is little better than a defeat.