WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE.

White Ribbon, Volume 19, Issue 223, 19 January 1914, Page 7

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE.

RECOLLECTIONS OK A REGIS--1 K \K’S CANVASSER.

Some time since 1 saw in the overseas ‘‘bail Mail” a letter from a correspondent, who said that a friend of his, a \ *ung New Zealander, had told him that women’s franchise had made no practical difference in New Zealand, as all the married women voted with their husbands, and the unmarried ones would not tell their age* to be placed on the roll. It seemed to me that the most salient facts about the letter were that the New Zealander must have been very young, and certainly was very untruthful, while his Old Country friend must have been very green to swallow hi" statements. How the editor of the “0.5.1). Mail” could have give n room to such a transparent piece of ( laptrap was a puzzle* to me. Why, th«* everlasting hills were juvenile beside it.

As regards the* assertion that married women vote with their husbands, no doubt this is true in many cases. So it is with regard to sons and their father* politics, like religion, are apt to run in families. It is not often, comparatively, that a family is foun 1 to be divided in its views, at least when it is residing under one roof. Hut, in proportion, as many wives are to be found exercising their own judgment as there are sons, I fancy, and I have a very clear recollection of a man of a very dominant and overbearing nature who told me that lie believed his wife had never yote'd the same way as lie had done.

That was after five or six elections had passed in the country. 1 remember, too, a case of a by-election in my electorate, when the Opposition thought it had a good chance of heating the Government candidate, and bent its energies to doing so. Hut the Opposition candidate, the only man with whom the* leading men of the party thought they could beat the Government man, was not popular with many of the women, for some reason, well or ill founded, and many wives and daughters refused to suppou him.

In regard to the assertion about not giving ages, it may be pointed out that the only declaration that has ever been asked for is one that the applicant for a v<Wc i- “of the age of twenty-one years or over.” It is evident that in the great majority of cases the answer would be selfevident, and that in any cases there would be very little hesitation in answering. Generally a girl is a hit proud of being twenty-one and eligible for the franchise.

I have had a good deal of experi cnce on this point, for when the Women’s Franchise Act was passed in 1803 it was very near the time of the general election, and the Government issued instructions to the* Registrars of Electors in the* different districts to put on canvassers to enrol the* women in their electorates. In 1896, and each succeeding . election year, except iqoK, similar instructions have been given to the Registrars, but including the enrolment of men, the* object being to get as full and complete a roll as possibly could be got. Each year I have been engaged by the Registrar of this dis trict for this work, and so can fairly claim to have some knowledge of it, and to speak with some experience. And I can say that I have never found a woman who objected to say whether she was over twenty-one or not, while I have met very few women who objected to being on the roll excepting those who objected fv reasons of religious belief, such as Plymouth Brethren or Christadelphians.

Some incidents of my experience may be amusing. Away back in i«Sq3 I rnmc to a house where an dd Scandinavian lady lived. 11 Well, Mrs , I’ve come to see about putting you on the rolj.”

“Oh, 1 does not tink I vas vant to go on de roll. I does not tink I vas vote anyhow.” “Well, of course, it is for your own choice. If you are on the roll you can vote or not, just as vou please. But if you are not on th * roll you cannot vote whether you want to or not.” “Oh, veil, if everybody else vas go on d<* roll, 1 might as veil vas go on too. ” “All right, Mrs , just sign your name here.” “Oh, I not write my name veil at all; you write it for me.” “Oh, 1 can’t do that; you write it as well as you can, and 1 will make it .ill right.” (I would have written it out again on the margin.) “Oh, hut I not write it well at all; I not write it for twenty years; I not write it since I come to dc colony.” “Well, you do your best, and I will make it all right.” “Yell, I vill tell you vot I vill do. 1 vill write it out two or three time, and den 1 vill write it on de paper. No; I tell you vot I vill do, I vill call in my daughter, and I vill get her to write it, and den I vill copy it.” And that was what she did. ”\\ ell, Mr . I'm tilling up tlm roll, and 1 don’t see Mrs * ’s name on it.” “No, I don’t think it is there, and she is not at home, either.” “Well, I will till in a paper ready for her to sign, and you can witness it and forward it to the Registrar. By the way, what is Mrs ’s name ?” “My word, you’ve got me there. 1 don’t know really what h«*r name is.” “That’s odd. A man generally knows what his wife’s name is.” “\ou’d think he would, wouldn’t you? Hut though I know what we always call her in the house, I’m never quite "ure which form her real name takes.” So the form was left for him to ask his wife what her name was, and to fill in the form and forward it. “Well, Mrs , I’ve come about filling up the roll. Who is there in the house over twenty-one?” “Why, there isn’t anybody over twenty-one. My daughter will onl> he twenty this year!” “Wei!, if Miss is twenty, surely her father and mother will h * over twenty-one, won’t they?” “Well, I suppose, looking at it that way, they are.”

Behind .1 house to which I came I >.i.\ .1 Kid < h >pping wood, hair over her sic wildeis, '■kirts well above her ankles. “About seventeen or eighteen, thought I to myself, and went in to the house. “Well, Mrs M., I've come from the Registrar to sec about tilling up the roll. \\ ho is there in the house that is twenty-one ?” “I’m twenty one,” cried the girl from the back room. “Go on.” “Oh, but * am.” “You are making fun of me, Miss M.” With hair tucked up, and skirts let down about her ankles, she came into and passed through the sitting room to the bedroom, and brought out the family Bible to point out to me, in triumph, the date of her birth and to show that she really was of age. The door was opened by a young girl with her hair over hei shoulders and her skirts about half-way between her knees and ankles, a proper dress this time, no tucked up overskirt for work. “I have come from the Registrar to see about filling in the roll, Miss I*. \\ ho is there in the house that is twentv one? Your father and mother, 1 suppose.” “Oh, I'm twenty-one.” That astonished me, and I looked her delilx'rati. iy over from head to feet, and back again. “Honour bright ?” “Oh, yes, I’m dressed for hockey.” Ih e i\\<* last cases do not look as it tin' ills w.re either not anxious *o have the vote or unwilling to say if the> wer ■ ol ! enough to be entitled to it, do the> ? It was j.ist about a quarter-past twelve, »nd I thought to myself that if I reai iud the big house nearby I would be safe for some dinner. But I fixed up with the good man on the v< ran lab, and he did not mention the matter. So I went further on to sane hou-es along the road and fared no better. As I came back 1 took my courage in my hand, and went and asked the mistress of the house for some. “To be >urc we can give you some. I’m afraid it will be cold, for when the men are working in the field they want their dinner sharp to the minute when they come in. But we will do our best. 1 had meant to ask you if vou would like some lunch, but vou

were gone when I got out to the verandah. And she did, selling me down 'o a good feed very soon. Presently her husband < nine in. “Well, Mr I ~ I must apologise foi not having asked you would you like some dinner. But the fact w.ts that I had had mine, and never thought you might want any. If I had been hungry I might have thought th; « maybe you would be so too.” But, especially in the early days, most of all in iNqj, when the mattei was not so well un;lc*r-tood, the comtnm -l e.xperieiH e :.n\ v <m tin wise ; “Well, Mrs So-and-So, 1 have tome to see about putting you on the roll “Oh, I don’t think l will bother. I don’t want to go on.” “Ju>t as you please, Mrs So-and-So; it is your choice. If you are on tin* roll you can vote or leave it alone, but if you are not on you can’t vote, even if you want to.” “No, I don’t think I will trouble about it.” “Just a*- you please, Mrs So-and-So, but you know this is the roll which will give you a vote about the hotels.” “Oh, then, I want to go on.” With experience such as these it i< impossible for mo to believe that women arc* merely a duplicating factor, or that they have no interest in getting the vote.