The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1879.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 155, 9 May 1879, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1879.

The abstract question of Woman's Eights is ono we should be sorry to take up. We are, however, glad to see that the claim or the sex to personal, not political, independence is being advocated by all the leading journals of Great Britain. It is obvious that women in New Zealand, among well to do classes, are being brought up about as badly as 'tliey can be, The Colonial young lady of the present day is a fair fragile being, whose existence is devoted to talking, dressing, eating, drinking, dancing, and flirting. In this little round of occupations she is perfect, but take her out of these she is very helpless and useless. All Colonial young ladies, some time or other, get married, and look forward to that consummation as a matter of course, How is it, however, when that period in their existence arrives, and a happy bridegroom fancies that he takes to his home some one who is perfection, slowly and surely he discovers that the companion of his existence, the mistress of his house, can't

cook, can't sew, can't' manage lier liouso herself, can't make a servant manage it; can't nurso Mm when.lie is ill; can't wait on him when he. is well—aiuj when slio possibly has a baby does does not know what in the world to do with it. If the husband, when all this disappointment break's upon him, sickens of home and home life, who is to blame,? The butterfly of a girl becomes the wife of a miserable husband. It is a pity ■that.mound women's live§..shouldJ)Q soured and spoiled by the silly training which Colonial girls receive. Who is to blame 1 The girl who permits herself to sink into the existence of a' doll —who lets her intellect narrow down to the mere twaddle of society—who depends on either parents or 011 a husband for everything she cats, drinks, or wears; or is the mother culpable who. as mothers usually aro, is prouder to see her daughter belle of a ball than queen of a household—who fosters all that is frivolous in her daughter at the expense of all that is good, genuine, useful and honest. Or is the father free from censure, who supplies the means for foolish parade and silly extravagance, and spends more on making, perhaps, his favorite a useless, idle, miserable woman than would be required to make her what Nature intended her to be, the helpmate and companion of man, not a mere dependent on his bounty, but a companion with him in all his life's labors, The mere question of the political franchise for woman is as nothing by the side of this greater claim they lmve : for personal independence, for freedom from those influences which enervate both mind and body. The Colonial girls of the present day are far from what they should be, or what they might be, and it is a reproach to the men of the Colony who are their fathers that they do not always use their influence on the right side. Till men do their duty in the matter of educating and training up noble women, we cannot expect much improvement in the home life of New Zealand.