Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1907 — Women Vote In New Zealand. [ARTICLE]

Women Vote In New Zealand.

Public life is extraordinarily pure in New Zealand, declares a writer In the Craftsman. Corruption or mismanagement in public office is almost unknown. The success of all the reform measures has been due as much to the men who have administered them as to the measures themselves, while no small degree of credit belongs to the people of the colony, because of their law-abiding character and their willingness to give fair trial to new statutes. the fearlessness * dth which the New Zealanders have cut loose from the established economic order one finds among them a curious strain of conservatism. For Instance, they gave the ballot to women thirteen yeans ago, and the women use it and cast almost as high a percentage of votes as do the men. Mr. Seddon told me that he did not think his*government could have Carried a good deal of Its social legislation without the help of the woman voters. But they have not yet given to the wife her joint right in the home, and Premier Seddon was being soundly rated when I was there because he was advocating such a measure.