The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WELLINGTON, SEPT. 18, 1917. 1893—1917.

White Ribbon, Volume 23, Issue 267, 18 September 1917, Page 9

The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WELLINGTON, SEPT. 18, 1917. 1893—1917.

It is 24 years this month since the women of New Zealand had conferred upon them the right to vote. Have they used that vote for the betterment of their native land? We publish below a list of laws passed since 1893, which show that gradually laws are being passed which are of benefit to all, but particularly to women and children. But there is much still to be done. We have not yet banished the liquor trade from our Dominion. Better protection is needed for our girlhood. Women are awake to the necessity of this. In America a procurer was sentenced to 19 years’ imprisonment ; in Dunedin lately a man, characterised as a “procurer of the worst type,” got 11 months. This scandalous sentence raised a storm of protest from one end of the Dominion to the other. There has also been strong agitation to secure the appointment of women police, and to ensure that the man who commits a

criminal offence against a little girl shall be detained for life, preferably on a farm colony. These things have yet to be won, as well as many other improvements in existing laws. Every woman should educate herself upon these questions, should organise with other women desiring the same reforms, and then should agitate, and keep on agitating, till her end is gained. We believe the surest way to secure better protection for girls and better environment for our children to grow up in is to secure the election of women to Parliament. And the first reform we should press for is an amendment to the Electoral Act, which will not only allow women to elect, but to be elected to the Legislature.