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White Ribbon, Issue 1, 1 July 1895, Page 1

[M launching this, the first issue of our Whitk RIBBOM messenger, we should have no fears as to its ultimate success, believing, as we do, that it will meet a long-felt want. To have a paper which shall not only be the official organ of the W.C.T.U., but will be a medium for the discussion of subjects bearing on social, political, moral, and religious questions of the day, will, we think, be found so useful that we shall wonder how we managed to do without one so long. It will be essentially a woman's paper, one that will deal with the many phases of the " Woman Question" in its legal and social aspects. That there is still "one law for man and another for woman " is, in this nineteenth century of ours, a humiliating fact, and the one-sided unwritten social code to which the law gives support, is a disgrace to our civilisation, and

altogether out of harmony with the spirit of love which should permeate society. When all the disabilities under which women labour are removed, then, and not till then, shall we DC I free country in the fullest sense of the word ; and we intend that our paper shall do its part in helping to cultivate a more healthy and just public opinion in this direction. As a Union we are well organised, but it is our great desire to see a Federation of all the \\ .men's Societies throughout New Zealand, that, while differing from each other in general aims, they may combine for special objects on which all may agree, and thus become ■ force. Our paper would do its best to help on this genet.il [.deration, and act as a medium between the federal Societies, Hecause this is ■ woman's paper, it should be espe< ially interesting to men, numbers of whom we hope to enrol as subscrih< The "New Man" will be well treated by OS, but to the conventional Mrs Grundy-ridden gentleman we don't promise much, excepting that if he thinks we are worth criticising, we will receive his criticisms in the spirit in which it is meant. We do not intend crowding our spare, which, for economic reasons will at first be limited, with descriptions of the latest fashions in dress, and what our friends wore at their last reception, but will endeavour to appeal to the more thoughtful section of the community—those who take an interest in their kind, and would like to see our beautiful new land freed from the blots that have stained the records of most of the older countries. It is possible that we may fail in much that we hope to do, but someone says, " High failure o*< rtops low success." It is also possible that our failures may teach us much that we should nototh rwise learn, and so we venture to send forth our Whitk Riuhon, hoping earnestly that our friends will help by subscribing to it themselves, and making its existence known to other s . K. \V. Shepparp.