IV.

Society, in relation to its preservation and defence, rests on physical force, which is represented by men, and not by women, and this fact bars the doors of the Legislature against women.

Society is based on physical force. The significance of this will he understood when we remember that our Colony and Empire have to be defended against foreign enemies; that order and peace must be preserved, and life and property protected, within our borders; and that the duties and whole business of legislation are entirely alien to the nature and education of the existing race of women. Living here in peace and plenty, under the shield and protection of the Imperial Government, we are to apt to forget that our foremost duty as citizens and as subjects of the Empire is to defend our country when assailed by the foreigner, and to maintain its independence and freedom. The long peace which has so fortunately been enjoyed here and in many other parts of the Empire, ought not to be allowed to hide from us this primary and supreme duty. Look around observantly and watch the shaky volcanic state of all the nations. Europe is little more than a huge camp where millions of armed men are ready at the order of some despot, or through some accident, to kill, to burn, to destroy. On all frontiers, rows of fortresses stand frowning against each other and threatening to belch forth fire and destruction all round. Iron-clad navies, with their fires a-lit, swarm in all the great harbours, and their smoke darkens oceans and seas. Home ambitious statesman, some boy-autocrat, has only to lift his little finger, and war may burst forth in circumstances of greater horror than has ever before been known in the history of mankind, and may envelope the four quarters of the globe.

Besides, while standing on this smouldering volcano, we all know that the wealth, the prosperity, the glory of Britain, has page 8 excited a vast amount of envy, jealousy, and predatory greed; [unclear: great] but poorer nations are gathering around us, like Russian wolves [unclear: in] winter around some out-lying village. In these circumstances, [unclear: our] national wealth may soon pass to others, and our glory vanish away if we are not prepared to meet all dangers, and to risk and sacrifies our lives for the defence, the independence, the welfare of our country. Now, it is on the men, and not on the women of our country, that this foremost patriotic duty falls. It is the men, as distinguished from the women, who must fight, even to the death if necessary, for the protection and safety of our women, of our sweet hearts, and our wives and our children. And this is a duty which brave and gallant men naturally take the greatest delight in; for,

How can a man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers
And the temples of his gods,
And for the tender mother
Who dandled him to rest,
And for the wife who nurses
His baby at her breast,
And for the holy maidens
Who feed the eternal flame?

From the circumstances in which we find ourselves placed we draw the natural and unavoidable conclusion, that it is men and not women who must manage all this kind of bloody business, and who ought to wield supreme, unshared power in Parliament. While we are still in the fighting stage of civilisation, supreme Parliamentary power must rest undivided in the hands of the men of the nation, We are not, as yet, even within sight of the Millennium of peace.

There is another duty of a homelier nature, but of no less importance than military patriotism. We refer to the duty of preserving peace and order within the community and of giving effect to the decrees and decisions of magistrates and judges. Here also society rests on physical force, on the bodily strength of combative males. We need not only soldiers and sailors, but also policemen, without whom peace and order could not be preserved internally, and without whom the administration of justice and the carrying out of the Acts of the Legislature would be impossible. For the performance of such duties women are unfitted by nature. They cannot regulate the traffic in our streets and harbours—cannot run in page break [unclear: the] drunkard and the prostitute—cannot hunt down criminals—cannot keep watch over life and property by day and by night—cannot do one of the hundreds of things that have to be done by our civil soldiers, the police. If the preservation of peace and the maintenance of order in our midst, and the carrying out of the law [unclear: be] thus the special duty of men as distinguished from women, it [unclear: follows] logically and irresistibly that legislation and government should be in the hands of men and of men only.

We venture to say further that the work of legislation and government is at variance with the nature and upbringing of the women of the present age. We know not what woman's ideal of true womanhood may be, but we do know that if they were thoroughly acquainted with political life in the Colonies, they would [unclear: feel] that it was inconsistent with ordinary truthfulnees and honesty. Men's ideal is that the noblest women are pure and loving, true and [unclear: apright] and consistent, sympathetic and unselfish and self-sacrificing. A political career requires and developes character rather the reverse of all this. Purity and love are hindrances and not helps in a Parliamentary career. Truth, Integrity, Consistency ! Members of Parliament are mostly trimmers, and sit on rails, and roll logs, and set their sails, as the poet says, to 'A' the airts the win' can blow,' Unselfish and self-sacrificing! The last thing that the mass of politicians ever think of being. This is a dark picture of political life; but those who have been longest and most intimately acquainted with it, paint it still blacker.

A true realistic description of political life in the Colonies would shock the public conscience.

It is as impossible to get into the Parliament of New Zealand in a contested election without breaking the law as it is to get into heaven without repentance.

If you read 'Hansard' and believe what members often say of one another, they must be continually misrepresenting and slandering one another.

It is as impossible to be long in Parliament without violating the principles of Truth, Integrity, and Consistency, as it is to touch [unclear: tar] without being defiled.

It is notorious that it is usually the most intriguing and worthless who succeed best in politics. Hence a political career has been apply likened to a donkey-race in which the hindmost wins.

If there be any truth in the preceding remarks, it certainly follows that there are very serious hindrances which bar, and ought page 10 to bar, a woman's entrance into Parliament; for she can no more [unclear: and] man's work there than he can do hers in the home and family.