Musings and Meditations

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 24, 9 December 1908, Page 2

Musings and Meditations

By

Dog Toby

Parliamentary reform.

I T is doubtful if New Zealand will ever be really progressive in the best sense of the word, till women sit tn our Houses of Legislature In England they are discussing the use of an Upper House, and we in this country have often done the same. That is because both legislative chambers are composed exclusively of men, though 1 believe Press reporters employed in the House of Lords refer to that august body as “the old women” because of the presence of tile bishops with their lawn sleeves and pious demeanour. There is no reason whatever why the Upper House both here and at Home, should not be entirely for women, elected by women voters, and the Lower House would be for men. elected by mon voters. This would make politics far more interesting, and it would do away with the many reproaches urged against a system that does not really- represent the will of the people. I'cr if you come to think of it. our present method is grossly unfair. Men will never introduce reforms that tell against their own tastes and inclinations, and many of what we call “ the crying evils of the day” remain unredressed because of the selfishness of the mere man. A House of women members could carry a bill to put a heavy tax on bachelors. This question was treated by our late candi-. dates in a spirit of unbecoming levity. Women urge that it is a tax on luxuries, and thus essentially democratic, and they ought to know. It is difficult to see any valid reason that could be urged against it, there is no doubt that, once imposed, it would be cheerfully paid, and if heavy enough, our revenue should be considerably benefited. Another thing that would l»e gained by women sitting in Parliament would be the greater attention that would be given to questions of social reform in regard to female labour. Men are essentially selfish in these, matters, and never consider the conditions under which women work. Women are noted for their considerate treatment of their own sex, as witness the way in which the average mistress always considers the comfort and happiness of any woman she emplovs. «> <S> But the greatest benefit of all to the community that would arise from having women legislators would be the great reform that could be effected in the male character. This is a thing our Parliaments have too long neglected. Men waste on selfioh indulgence the money that, should go to their wives. Smoking should be absolutely prohibited, as also clubs. How many a man spends oh tobacco in different, forms a sum that would be more than ssuffieient to buy a really stylish summer hat, and not a few stay at their elnb when they might lie far more usefully employed in helping with the dishes ami general tidying up. If men will not be unselfish of their own accord, they should bejnado unselfish by law: and if a woman cannot make a man contented with hie home by her own attractiveness, the moral agents of the policeman ami the gaol should be invoked to induce in him a spirit of content. As the famous Dr. ttrimstonc remarked on an historic occasion: “I’ll establish a spirit of trustful happiness and unmurmuring content in this school, if 1 have to flog every la>y in. it as long as X can stand over him”; or as a temperance advocate recently put it: “Well make the men drink water, even if we have to make them do it at the end of the cat o’ nine tails.’’ A law could be passed compelling men to be home at a certain time at night, and the hours of business could Is* so regulated that all offices should Is* compelled to elose at five o’clock, and thus the laconic wire, “Detained at olliee,’’ would Im impossible. Also, all buying and selling of canines

should b<* prohibited, or hours ‘fixed for mercantile transactions in these anima It*, as by this means a check would be placed on in<*;n deserving the society of their wives on occasions all and sun* dry that they may go and see a man about a ‘log. <s* How strange it seems, now that have found that men can be made good, by Aut of Parliament, to read of the old day* when people believed in the power of the grace of God. Even as 1 write my eye falls on an old-fashioned tract. It is headed. “Make Home Comfortable,” and says that if women thought more of their homes and their husband’s comfort. there would be fewer bad men. With what a curious Old World sound do thq words fall on our ear that God’s Holy Spirit can make us.good. Childish faith, soiiK! call it.; childhood’s faith, if you will, for tho.e* of us -who were children when Planctis was Consul. The modern poet says prayer is vain, the modern orator says the gaol is our moral agent, both proclaim the way, of salvation to be through the ballot-box and the power of Parliament. Be it so. And yet from the far-away Galilean hills there comes the faint echo of a voice, an echo almost lost ’mid the d'in of faction and party strife, and we catch the tender accents of the man of sorrows, ‘‘No man cometh to the Father, but by me.”