The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1913. FRANCHISE PROBLEMS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12857, 28 January 1913, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1913. FRANCHISE PROBLEMS.

After spending many weary weeks on the Home Rule Bill, and having for all practical purposes disposed of the Welsh Disestablishment, the House of Commons has been turning its attention to the third important measure to the passing of which in the present session the Government is pkdged, in order that advantage may be taken of the provisions of the Parliament Act. As one writer reminds us, passions were aroused over the famous Reform Act of 1831, and considerable interest was taken in the two subsequent measures which extended the franchise in Great Britain. It is evident that the present Bill, which, according to this morning's news is in serious peril of being strangled by red tape, has awakened even more widespread interest. The Bill does not, a.s far as men are concerned, extend the franchise, so much as simplify the registration of electors and remove other electoral anomalies. It adds by its various provisions two and a half million men to the electoral rolls, and follows our colonial practice of ono man one vot-3. It has been said that tho abolition of plural voting, quite apart from its intrinsic justification, will incidentally prove of political value to the present Government; it has been calculated that at least forty seat's at prasenfc represented by Unionists will b& gained by supportersof the Coalition at the next election if this provision of the Bill is carried. Such.anomalies a<3 the-;"fancy'franchises" of .tho liverymon of thq.-ctity of London must inevitably h.ave been- removed soonc-r or later, and the university franifliifee censed to have'any. jui'i^in eat km when-it was dominated by men who had long ceased to have the slightest association with the past traditions or the present learning <jf tho universities, and when the university stats were largely occupied by ordinary politicians of no special claim to academic distinction. 'Again, a system which disfranchised a, man when he changed his place of residence from .ono side of a street to the other. and often made it necessary that qualified doctors should be deprived of their vote for as long a period as two and a half yews, could not be regarded aft fp.fcisfaetory. Tho old property, sorvioo and lodger qualifications are to be abolished, and the right to vote will bo based on residence or occupation only, with a six months' qualification. The Hill is, indeed, liaised on the principle that in <a democratic country there should bo tho fewest^ restrictions on the exercise "or the f ranchjse, and to the extent.vfcDifjyikieii itrigoesiu that direction it will meet ivMi .#i&*gbod wishes of the majdrTtyi'bFlcoloh'jaF electors. But the greatest interest in connection with the Franchise Bill has centered on the prospects of the proposed amendments seeking io confer tho vote on women, and it is on an amendment to this effect moved by Sir Edward Grey, that the Sneaker has just given -a ruling interpreted to mean

tho killing of the Bill. Replying to a question put to him by Mr Bonar Law, Leader of the Opposition, the Speaker said that without expressing an opinion on the Government's amendments, including that cancelling the occupation franchise, ho had to warn the House as to the, general principle that if in committee a Bill was so amended as materially to affect its substance, it raust be withdrawn and a new Bill introduced. This means, of course, that if this ruling is applied to Sir Edward Grey's amendment, which is designed to settle the general principle of sex distinction, it will not be possible, or ait- loast (practicable, for the Government to introduce another Bill during the present session, and as a result not only will the hopes of the suffragettes be once more blighted, "but the cause of electoral reform generally will sustain a damaging set-back.