Woman's Place?

Time marches on; civilisations grow and decay yet the sands do not entirely obliterate what has Gone before, and from this, the prophets and seers may toll us of the things to come. Women have never been the noble retiring creatures the fiery suffragettes would have us believe. The rebellious blood of our daring Anglo-Saxon for boars made this impossible, but there was a convention which decreed the time and the manner in which their initiative might be given full play. Conventions have now been thrown to the winds with a cheerful abandon. The modern maiden flirts, smokes and drinks in the most carefree manner and amazing fashion. Having burst the shackles her traits were bared to the searchlight of human analysis and she proved to know no moderation. Merely to prove her independence, her strongth, her courage, her foresight, her ability to [unclear: uncel] over the feeble male, her enthusiasm knew no bounds. She had her say, did her deed and proved that some of her kind were superior to some of the self-elected superior sex; then, with a feminine lack of logic, concluded that this applied to all her sex, The nation has paid the price of her folly. Our University in common with all institutions of society has suffered for the excesses of the female species and the placid complacence of the male homo genus.

Any suggestion that women have no part to play, nothing desirable to offer, nothing acceptable to give and are entirely a cancer feeding on the lifeblood of our academic institutions is the raving of on egoist, blinded by the glaring inconsistencies of the sad reality of our enfeebled society. That the influ nee and activities have far exceeded those which in the interests of society are desirable, is incontestable. Reform in our colleges is necessary, and the sooner this reform is commenced the sooner will our colleges begin to take their natural position as the leading institutions of culture, scientific-research and academic knowledge in our dominion. The term student would then designate a seeker after truth and knowledge, and not be a badge of supposed dishonour, a seducer of women or the seduced of men.

The University, apart from the education of the intellectual cream of youth, should fulfil three functions; firstly that of preserving and imparting the knowledge which past generations of scholars have been enabled to accumulate; secondly to act as a [unclear: centre] of research, for the solution of vital social and scientific problems finally to provide same of that elementary training which is considered desireable for those students entering the professions.

Women may or may not be considered worthy of inclusion amongst those who index the knowledge of past generations and add to its store, according to the philosophy of the reader. Some of our best students are women; but the gathering and increasing of the world's store of knowledge has been at the expanse of their feminine charm, the weakening of their bodies, and their unfitting for the serious problems of maternity and mothereraft. Women are able to give a different line of approach on scientific and social problems and this mode of page break approach should not be ignored; but the female mind is one of intuition and not reason. It was by the use of reason that nan developed-above and tamed the other [unclear: inb] bitants of the animal world. Women, mentally and psychologically, are unfitted for all but one profession-that one for which they are pre-eminently suited by nature, intuition and bodily function being almost entirely neglected by our University colleges viz. Marriage and motherhood.

The University cannot be oblivious to the needs of the community and should be the first to remedy any obvious defect in the administration of its functions thus giving a lend to a society which regards as specialists in every line of thought those who have suffered an education under its [unclear: tutelage.] The co-education of adolescents must lead to both sexes becoming less respectful of each other, the growth of [unclear: masculiness] in the female and effeminacy in the male. It is from this that the matriarchal state evolves and the edifice of future marital disharmony constructed.

It may be suggested that the knowledge accumulated by the mother may be handed on to the child. Although every case differs; as a rule, the mother has complete charge of the child's education till it is five years of ago, after which her influence gradually diminishes until when the age of twelve is reached it is negligible. That knowledge to be imparted and the manner in which it may be imparted is not obtainable at the constituent colleges of the University of New Zealand.

Immediate reforms which appear necessary to render our University Colleges something more than cramming houses are the seclusion of women from those colleges attended by males, a drastic revision of those courses which future female students will be permitted to take and in increase in those typos of courses which assist women in married life. This, it is suggested, would result in an increased virility in the masculine sex, the attainment of greater results from scholastic research, a general strengthening of those social institutions where graduates foregather and use their knowledge, and load to progress, future marital harmony and a more progessive and virile society.

[unclear: R.G.]