Editorial Reflections

Ladies' Mirror, Volume I, Issue 4, 2 October 1922, Page 5

Editorial Reflections

Women in Politics THE ancient gibe that woman’s sphere is the home, and politics is a man’s game, and.she would do well to keep ; out of it, has so lost its point that the finest of old crusted Tories now welcome her. assistance in the affairs .of the day. But though the efflorescence of woman’s emancipation has come, full fruition awaits achievement, and not till she has her full share in the Councils of State will the greatest measure of wisdom and consideration be brought to bear upon, the problems of the body politic. Not equal representation, numerically with the sterner sex; that is not the ideal of any feminist. For one thing, politics largely constitutes a career for its devotees, in proportion fewer women seek a life career than men, thus the number trained and available for the higher grades of public life is inevitably less. ' But there is a just proportion entitled to the highest honours in the service of the | public, and organisation and education should proceed until, | with a full realisation of women’s services to the ; State, New Zealand will demand and ensure the adequate representation of the sex in Parliament. The Dominion lags behind other progressive nations in this regard. England, America and Australia have their women politicians, and the value of their work is admitted by all students of economics. Woman’s ambitions are impersonal, and in that aspect she has a very full claim to consideration. A better, safer and cleaner world for her children and her children’s children is her main desire, and she wants to do her share towards bringing these aims into being. She wants to help to make civilisation worthy of its name, founded on a base of justice and mercy. One-sided government has proved its failure; the man-governed world has drifted into the deeps, just as a woman-governed world would also totter towards decay; but a well-founded combination of the sexes offers the greatest hope of humanity. Women have brought a great reinforcement to sane thinking and honest action in public life. They are less likely to be carried away by cant phrases, parrot cries and prejudices, reiterated at election times upon the mind, of man until- the judgment is warped, and full exercise of considered opinion becomes impossible. Less pervious to such shibboleths, women bring more commonsense to bear on their political beliefs; appeals to the emotions and to the passions are less effective, and the result is a sounder, calmer judgment, which will be of immense service to the State when the evolution of political thought has progressed to its logical issue, and women sit in Parliament. A Stabilising Fador Women have a special point of view upon many questions, and though no idealist seeks a political division which will ! have men on one side and women on the other— would be a disaster — fullest exercise of the powers of the sex demand that the control of affairs shall not be left to one side I of humanity. In these days of revolutionary propaganda in ■ so many shapes and of so widespread a nature, the steadying influence of women is particularly necessary. The urgent and imperative need of the day is peace, combined with unity and co-operation. Yet in every civilised land forces are at work, chiefly in the dark, seeking to subvert the State for its replacement by some fantastic system of equality, which in reality is tyranny naked and unashamed. Women will not encourage this brand of madness. They know that the first, victims of I revolution, as of industrial strife which is not openly revoluj tionary, are the women and the children. Thus, in the exer--1 cise of a policy of restraint alone, there is a great work for women who take a full interest in the affairs of the nation, in the organisation of the whole of the sex to a similar interest in industrial affairs hitherto left to men. It is the duty of women to see that their homes are not needlessly i involved in industrial disputes, and that disputes, when they do arise, are not needlessly prolonged or embittered. While the great work already done by women in the stabilisation of political and moral forces and thought must not be minimised, ; there is still need to stress the point that her direct voice in | the Councils of State will prove a vital factor in progress on rational lines, and too great emphasis cannot be laid upon this by the women’s organisations of the Dominion. Full and free

expression of the views we have enunciated will gradually bring their fulfilment, and no favourable opportunity should be lost of impressing on both sexes the abstract justice and inherent advantages of woman’s claim to absolute equality of treatment. * * * Ends That Will Not Meet THE way of the transgressor is proverbially hard, but it is a pathway of roses by comparison with that of the perplexed and struggling housekeeper in these lean days. For the breaker of the law has free board and lodging provided, without the torturing anxiety of the worried and harassed housewife, who tries to keep the family exchequer on an even balance when all the economic forces of the day seem arrayed against the feat. In that half-forgotten period “before the war,” whatever the income, there was always not only the chance of living, within it, but of putting by a pound for the day when emergency arose, or for the purchase of a home. But to the great majority that day is gone, to be replaced by a steady and perennial struggle to keep - out of debt while keeping pace with the decencies of life in the matter of dress and fashion. The bank balance finds growth difficult of achievement, and the little extras that used to help to make the pathway smoother have largely been cut out. The war and its upset of all human activities primarily caused the trouble, but its persistence must to a great extent be attributed, not only in New Zealand, but throughout the whole Empire, and no less in America, to the failure of Governments to realise the extent of the problems of peace, and the immediate need for deflation of currency, and for general economy in order to stabilise prices and secure the return of normalcy. To keep its great spending departments going, the State has been compelled to levy every shilling of taxation that the country could stand, with the result that prices, which soared during the era of plenty, have perforce been kept at a high level in the lean period. Heavy imposts on all business concerns, and the limit in Customs taxes find their natural corollary in the prices asked for goods, and though many retailers can point to pre-war prices for one article or another, on the whole the unfortunate housewife of limited means finds herself in difficulties every day in organising the family budget. Gas and electric light are dearer, coal and firewood are higher, and in scores of items, little and big, heavier expenditure must be faced. “We must have revenue,” . says the politician in excuse for the high percentage of every item of individual expenditure he exacts from a long-suffering public, but it is precisely that policy which keeps the high levels going, and until their charges are curtailed, the harassed housewife will find little decrease in the cost of living from the present levels. * * * . Our Native Flowers IN a . small back-blocks school away in the —one of those places blest in possessing a teacher of reverent soul, bush trees and flowers formed subjects of “talks” that were enjoyed as much by the children as the teacher. The former learned to take a pride in’ knowing the names of the trees which grow around them, especially when they found out that no other country had flowers and trees exactly like them. They were encouraged to collect native flowers and fruits, arid to draw , them in class competition, prizes being offered for these at the end of the school year. It was quite interesting to find children of eleven knowing the difference between the tiny berry of the totara and that of the kihikatea, with their vivid reds and blues. The yellow plum of the karaka, the handsome blue one of the taraire, the red cherry of the puriri and its dainty blossom, the greenish white fruit of the kohekohe, which the blackbird tears to pieces in order to eat its large orange scarlet seeds, the lily-like flower of the graceful kie-kie, whose honey the tui greatly loves-- could name these and many others without hesitation. Naturally they tried to grow some of them, and great was the joy of a certain small boy whose karaka plum, planted in a corner of his garden, grew into a tree with large shining leaves. What an opportunity is here for the teacher to foster the love of beauty, of country, and the feeling of wondera faculty that seems to be fading out from among —a wonder at the beauty, order and harmony of dear old Dame Nature’s doings.