Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania, which decided in favour of
popular election of the delegates to the new Federal Convention and the
subsequent approval or rejection of the Draft Constitution by a direct
popular vote, are those in which the Ministry advocate a plebiscite for
the settlement of disputes between the two Houses of Parliament. The
acceptance of the Federation Enabling Bill by the Legislative Councils
of these Provinces must weaken the moral force of their opposition to
the plebiscite, as it may reasonably be argued that, if the people can
be trusted to give an intelligent vote upon the most important of all
Australian problems, they can still more be trusted to deal with any
question of current politics. In Tasmania Ministers are {177}
confronted with a Legislative Council which continually amends, as well
as rejects, their financial proposals, justifying its attitude upon the
wording of the Constitution Act of 1854. The section in question
states that "all Bills for appropriating any part of the revenue or for
imposing any tax, rate, duty, or impost shall originate in the House of
Assembly, and it shall not be lawful for the House of Assembly to
originate or pass any vote, resolution, or Bill for the appropriation
of any part of the revenue, or of any tax, rate, duty, or impost for
any purpose which shall not have been first recommended by the Governor
to the House of Assembly during the session in which such vote,
resolution, or Bill shall be passed." As the right of amendment is not
specifically withheld, as in the Victorian Constitution, the
Legislative Council assumes its possession. The case for the
plebiscite was put by the Premier and the Treasurer upon the second
reading of the Bill. Sir Edward Braddon stated that the financial
privileges of the Assembly had continually been infringed by the
Council, and that, on one occasion, in reference to the Drawbacks Bill,
they had almost assumed the power of initiating a money vote.
Curiously enough, the principal question mentioned by him as suitable
for the application of the plebiscite was that of Female Suffrage,
which, introduced as a private measure, had been rejected by the
Council after he had failed to secure its defeat in the Assembly. In
the {178} preceding session, he said, the Assembly had vainly asked the
Council to agree to a joint dissolution of both Houses when a Bill had
twice been rejected and a General Election had intervened. A similar
measure, passed in South Australia in 1881, had operated most
successfully, its mere presence on the Statute Book having put an end
to the deadlocks which had previously been of constant occurrence. It
is probable, however, that the comparative absence of disputes has
mainly been due to the democratisation of the Council, which has
brought it into close touch with the feeling of the Assembly; and that,
in Tasmania, where the electors for the Council are only one in five of
those for the Assembly, a joint dissolution would produce little change
in the _personnel_ of the former body. The Treasurer, Sir Philip Fysh,
treating the subject historically, pointed out that the Council had
thrown out year after year votes, first passed in 1863, for the
expenditure of L103,000 upon the construction of roads and bridges, and
had several times rejected the Launceston and Western, Hobart and
Launceston, and Mersey and Deloraine Railway Bills. They had three
times refused to accept a Bill for the re-assessment of the land of the
Province with a view to the imposition of a tax on unimproved values.
As regards its opposition to the proposed expenditure of borrowed money
upon the construction of railways, roads and bridges, it would appear
that the Council in most cases acted {179} wisely, and that the
Province would have been benefited if it had persisted in its
opposition. The total public debt at the end of June, 1896, was nearly
L8,150,000, exclusive of L215,000 in temporary Treasury Bills and
L250,000 in Local Inscribed Stock, and entailed an annual liability for
interest of L313,000. Towards this amount, the works which should be
directly reproductive, such as the railways and the postal and
telegraphic services, returned a net revenue, after payment of working
expenses, of only L26,000. It may be contended, of course, that the
country could not have been developed in the absence of a large
expenditure; but, as the liability forms a heavy burden upon so small a
population--a burden, indeed, which might have become almost unbearable
but for the valuable discoveries of minerals--the Council seems to have
had abundant justification for its efforts to check the extravagant
tendencies of the Assembly. The Ministry, after passing the second
reading of the Bill in the Assembly by a small majority, withdrew it,
as there was no possibility of getting it through the Council; its
introduction appears to have been due to the desire that it should be
discussed at the pending General Elections. The principal clause
provided that "any Bill which shall be passed by the House of Assembly
in two consecutive sessions of Parliament, and which shall be rejected
by the Legislative Council in each of {180} two such consecutive
sessions, may be submitted for the approval of the people of Tasmania
by means of a general poll of, or referendum to, the electors for the
House of Assembly." An interval of not less than six weeks was to
elapse between the two sessions, and where a Bill had been amended by
the Council, the Assembly was to be vested with the final decision
whether the amendments effected such substantial alterations as to be
tantamount to a rejection, and might present an address to the Governor
requesting that a Bill which had been rejected twice or substantially
altered might be submitted to a general vote of the electors. A bare
majority of the votes so recorded was to be sufficient to secure the
enactment of the measure subject to the constitutional rights of the
Governor.
The placid progress of the Session was impaired by the introduction of
a private railway Bill, which led to many nights of contentious debate
and much hostility among the various sections in the Assembly. All the
railways are owned by the State with the exception of a few short lines
in the Northern and Western portions of the Province which have been
constructed by Mining Companies without any concessions from the
Government. During recent years the Western district has become an
important mining centre, and should, in the opinion of most Tasmanians,
be connected by railway with either Launceston or Hobart. But the
condition of the {181} finances is such, as has already been seen, that
the Government cannot venture to undertake the construction of further
public works unless it can be shown that they will immediately give an
adequate return upon the outlay. The small surplus of the last two
years was obtained at the cost of rigid retrenchment and high direct
taxation, an income tax of eightpence in the pound upon incomes derived
from personal exertion, and a shilling upon those derived from
property, and a land-tax of a halfpenny in the pound upon the capital
value of land. It, therefore, became necessary, if the construction of
the line or lines were not to be postponed indefinitely, that the aid
of private enterprise should be invoked and that concessions should be
offered which would be sufficient to attract private capitalists.
In 1895 a Bill was passed which authorised the Van Diemen's Land
Company to construct a railway of about forty miles in length, which
would place the West Coast in communication with Emu Bay in the North.
At a distance of eighteen miles from the latter place is Ulverstone,
which is directly connected with Launceston, and the Government have a
balance from loan funds which may be devoted to the construction of a
railway across the intervening space. The inducement offered to the
Company was the right to mark off, within certain areas, twelve blocks
of 320 acres of mineral land, which would be granted to them upon the
{182} completion of the railway. They were limited in the charges
which they might make for the carriage of passengers and the conveyance
of merchandise, were to pay a royalty of 2-1/2 per cent. upon the gross
value of all minerals obtained by them in addition to the statutory
income tax of one shilling in the pound, and were to be liable, after
the expiration of twenty-one years, to the resumption of the railway
and all its appurtenances by the Government at the price of 20 per
cent. above the actual cost of construction. At the end of 1896 the
Company had not taken the initial steps towards the commencement of the
undertaking.
The proposal made by a Victorian Syndicate and submitted to Parliament
during the session of 1896, aimed at the connection by railway of the
West Coast with some point on the State lines in the South. In return
for the construction of the railway, which would be about a hundred
miles in length, the promoters asked for a concession of large areas of
land along its proposed route and for considerable rights to make use
of the rivers in its vicinity, which are running to waste in the
greatest abundance, as sources of electrical energy. As the railway
would, admittedly, be worked at a loss for many years, they based their
hopes of a profit upon the probability of the discovery of minerals and
upon the generation of electricity, which they would either use
themselves or dispose of to companies mining on land belonging to the
{183} State. The district in question, it may be stated, is believed
to be of little agricultural value, but to be likely to carry minerals,
though it has not adequately been prospected. After its second reading
the Bill was referred to a select committee, which made reductions in
the concessions, and these were further reduced, after prolonged
debate, upon its reconsideration in the Assembly. I have mentioned
these details in order to show that, while the State was not in a
financial position to undertake the direct construction of railways
deemed to be necessary for the development of the resources of the
country, the Assembly was not unmindful of the interests of posterity,
and sought to reduce the inevitable concessions to the lowest possible
point.
{184}
VIII
_FEMALE SUFFRAGE_
I do not propose, in the present chapter, to discuss the hackneyed
arguments for and against female suffrage, but to indicate the progress
of the movement in the several Provinces of Australasia, and to note
some of the results of the adoption of adult suffrage in South
Australia and New Zealand.
As regards the other Provinces, we are bound to consider the existing
franchise for the election of members of the Assembly in order to
realise what would be the effect of extending it to women upon similar
terms. In Victoria manhood suffrage would be superseded by adult
suffrage; in New South Wales and Western Australia, where residence of
three and six months, respectively, forms a qualification, the vast
majority of women would obtain a place on the rolls; but in Tasmania
and Queensland the right to exercise the franchise would be confined,
practically, to widows and women of independent means.
{185}
We are also bound to take into consideration the constitution of the
Legislative Council in order to gauge the full significance of female
suffrage. If it is elective, as the electors must be qualified as
freeholders, leaseholders, or occupiers, the vote would be confined to
women of independent means and widows or spinsters in personal
occupation, and, while the wife and daughters of the poor man would
necessarily be excluded from the register, those of the rich man might,
as has been done in South Australia, receive special gifts of freehold
property which would be sufficient to render them eligible. To this
extent, therefore, as in Tasmania and, to a small degree, wherever
plural voting is allowed, female suffrage would constitute a new
property vote. Similar conditions would not prevail when the members
of the Council are nominated upon the recommendation of Ministers who
are subject to the control of the popular representatives.
It is probable that Victoria will be the next Province to follow the
example of South Australia and New Zealand. A ministerial measure
which would have introduced female suffrage, though only in the
constituencies of the Assembly, has twice been passed by that House.
On the first occasion it was rejected by the Council, on the second it
was laid aside on the ground that it had not been approved by the
absolute majority which is required in the case of amendments of the
{186} constitution. Both Bills were rendered distasteful to the
Council by the inclusion of a provision for the abolition of the plural
vote, but it is unlikely that the first would, apart from that fact,
have been accepted. Many members of the Council, I was told, are
favourable to female suffrage, but would have voted in accordance with
their opinion that important constitutional changes should not be
passed until they have been placed before the electorate. As the life
of the Assembly may not exceed three years, the reference need not long
be delayed.
In Tasmania, in 1896, the House of Assembly passed a private Bill
containing a similar limitation to that in the Victorian measure, and
was equally unable to secure the concurrence of the Council. A
resolution in favour of female suffrage has been adopted by a large
majority in the Assembly of New South Wales, but the question has not
been taken up by either of the recognised parties. The Premier may be
reckoned as a personal supporter, but declines to move in the matter in
view of differences of opinion in the Cabinet. Neither in Western
Australia nor in Queensland does the subject arouse much interest.
Such is the state of feeling in five of the six Australian Provinces.
In South Australia an arduous contest was concluded in 1894 by the
passage of an Act which placed women upon an absolute equality with men
in the right to vote for {187} members both of the Assembly and of the
Council. It is unnecessary to trace the history of the agitation which
may be said to have commenced in 1888 upon the formation of the Women's
Franchise League, though a Bill for the enfranchisement of women of
property had previously been introduced. Thenceforward it was pursued
vigorously, and culminated in 1893, when the Government pronounced in
favour of adult suffrage. But the difficulties were not at an end: the
Bill of that year was wrecked, mainly because its adoption was to be
dependent upon an affirmative plebiscite; reintroduced in the following
year without the obnoxious clause, it was passed through both Houses of
Parliament, though only by the bare statutory majority in the Assembly,
and shortly afterwards received the Queen's assent.
During the course of the debates the Premier, who holds the portfolio
of Attorney-General, said that, if women were entitled to vote, they
would have the right to sit in Parliament, and the Assembly, by
twenty-eight votes to eight, refused to exclude them. A doubt has
since been expressed, which is not shared by the Ministry, whether they
are qualified to be elected to the Council. I have not had the
opportunity to read the arguments, which concern the interpretation of
several statutes, but they would be of no great interest, the main
point being that Parliament intended to enable women to sit in both
Houses. {188} In New Zealand, on the other hand, the enfranchising Act
of 1893 expressly denied to women the right of election to the House of
Representatives or nomination to the Council; and the succeeding House,
though elected under adult suffrage, refused to go back upon this
decision. The subsequent proposal of the Premier that women should be
eligible for nomination to the Council, was intended, I believe, partly
as a bid for their support, partly as a means of casting ridicule upon
the non-representative body.
The first elections in South Australia under the new franchise were
held early in 1896, and, apart from a few rural constituencies in which
the issues were personal rather than political, were contested under
three recognised programmes. The National Defence League, or
Opposition, mentioned in its programme no items which were likely to be
especially attractive to the female voters, and treated as open
questions temperance legislation, and religious instruction in State
schools; the Labour platform, with discreet vagueness, advocated any
equitable and reasonable claims of women for the amendment of the laws;
and the Ministerial policy, as enunciated by the Premier, included an
amendment of the Licensed Victuallers' Act in the direction of greater
local control over licenses, and various measures of social reform, of
which the principal were the raising of the age of consent, the
simplification of the remedies of deserted wives, {189} and the
restriction of the importation and sale of opium. It should be
mentioned, however, that, as the Labour Party are united in a close,
though independent, alliance with the Government, the supporters of the
one in many cases voted for the candidates of the other. In several
constituencies a Ministerialist and a Labour man contested the two
seats and received jointly the assistance of both parties.
As the Women's Franchise League had been dissolved upon the attainment
of its purpose, the only organisation which interested itself,
specifically, in the female voters was the W.C.T.U., which, having
drawn up a scheme of reforms, suggested that it should be used as a
basis for ascertaining the views of candidates, but did not seek
directly to influence the votes of its members though leaning,
undoubtedly, to the side of the Government. Its efforts to instruct
women in the method of voting enabled returning officers to
congratulate them on their knowledge of the business. From personal
observation I can bear witness to the extreme orderliness of the
proceedings, both during and after the poll.
The elections resulted in a slight accession of strength to the ranks
of the Ministerialists and Labour members. As these are very Radical,
the majority of women, contrary to the expectations of many, had failed
to display Conservative predilections. It would seem, indeed, if we
take also {190} into consideration the result of two General Elections
in New Zealand, that their so-called Conservatism takes the form, not
of an aversion from advanced legislation, but of a disinclination to
bring about a change of Ministry. Under masculine influences, South
Australia had forty-two Ministries in forty years; women entered the
arena and a Ministry which had held office for three years was again
returned to power. An allowance must, of course, be made for a feeling
of gratitude to those through whom the privilege of the vote had been
obtained. Equally wrong was the anticipation that the women would be
found to be subject to clerical influences. At the instigation of
those who were under this impression, the electors were invited, under
a direct reference, to say whether they desired the introduction of
religious instruction in State schools during school hours and the
payment of a capitation grant to denominational schools for secular
results. Both questions were answered emphatically in the negative,
the second by a majority of more than three votes to one. The W.C.T.U.
was in favour of religious instruction, but strongly opposed to the
capitation grant.
The general conclusion formed after the elections was that, in the vast
majority of cases, the women had voted in the same way as their
masculine relatives, and that domestic harmony had not been disturbed.
It was impossible to obtain definite data, as the Premier refused,
rightly enough, to sanction {191} the issue of different voting papers
for the two sexes. But, even if the female franchise merely increased
the number of votes and did not affect the result of the elections, it
does not follow that it has been nugatory.
Members who have to consider the wishes of female as well as male
constituents will shape their actions accordingly. The effects of this
influence cannot yet be studied fully in South Australia, as they were
not manifested, to any great extent, in the first session of the new
Parliament. A Licensed Victuallers' Act was passed, as had been
promised by the Premier, which instituted local control over the issue
of licenses, but provided, in accordance with statutory enactment, that
the refusal of licenses, or reduction in their number, should be
accompanied by compensation to the parties directly interested. As the
Province has a steadily growing industry in the cultivation of the
vine, Prohibitionists will be met by a serious obstacle to their
crusade. In pursuance of an _ad feminas captandas_ agitation for the
prohibition of the employment of barmaids which had been carried on
during the elections, the Assembly inserted a clause in the Bill which
prohibited their employment after a certain number of years, but
submitted to its excision by the Council. A Bill which would have
given to widows a legal right to one-third of their deceased husband's
property was discussed, but allowed to lapse. The Franchise Act, I
should have stated, {192} allowed a female elector, upon the completion
of certain formalities, to vote through the post if she would be absent
from her home on the day of the election, a privilege already accorded
to men, or if she were resident more than three miles from the nearest
polling place, or, by reason of the state of her health, would probably
be unable to vote at the polling place on the day of the poll. This
provision, which permitted open voting, was found to have led to
abuses, and the Government passed an amending Act which withdrew all
the supplementary privileges except the last, and required absent
voters to fill in the paper at a postmaster's office and without
supervision. As I was not in South Australia during the session, I am
unable to give more than a brief summary of the proceedings which may
be connected, directly or indirectly, with the extension of the
franchise to women.
But when we turn to New Zealand, where a House elected under adult
suffrage has fulfilled its allotted term of three years, we may expect
to find more definite results. In that Province, as in South
Australia, women were enfranchised by a House which had received no
popular mandate to that effect; in fact, the matter had scarcely been
discussed in the constituencies, though attention had been drawn to it
by the advocacy of several successive Premiers. In 1892, however, a
new Electoral Bill, which conferred the franchise on all adult women,
was passed by the House of Representatives {193} and accepted by the
Council subject to the insertion of a clause which absolved women in
some cases from attendance at the polling booth. The Government
refused to accept the amendment, and the Bill lapsed for the session.
In the following year it was reintroduced in the original form, and was
passed by both Houses, though only by a slender majority in the
Council. The Act contains the striking and, as far as I know, unique
provision that the names of voters who have not exercised their
privileges are to be erased from the rolls, though a claim for
reinstatement may be made at the next periodical revision.
The elections, which took place at the end of 1893, aroused widespread
interest in the members of the fair sex, of whom nine out of every
eleven who were registered went to the poll and proved conclusively
that, though the desire for the vote might not have been general, women
would not refrain from its exercise. With the help of their lords and
masters, they falsified the expectations of those who had anticipated a
reaction in favour of Conservatism, by retaining in power, with an
increased majority, a Government which is, in some respects, even more
Radical than that of South Australia. So complete was the defeat of
the Opposition that it was reduced to a remnant of twenty members in a
House of seventy-four. Another important feature was the return of a
body of Prohibitionists who aimed at legislation which would enable the
electors {194} in a locality to close all the public-houses by a bare
majority. As they sat on both sides of the House, they did not affect
the numerical strength of the two parties, but constituted a force
which it was impossible for the Government to ignore. But while the
consequent liquor legislation and the increased prominence of the
temperance movement are the principal effects of the extension of the
franchise to women, other measures of considerable importance are
connected with the new factor in the sphere of politics.
Some of these would, doubtless, have been passed in any case. The
Shops and Shop Assistants Act of 1894, for instance, which limits the
total number of hours in a week, and the number of consecutive hours in
a day, during which women and persons under eighteen years of age may
be employed in a shop, and requires shopkeepers to provide sitting
accommodation for their female employes, was passed by the preceding
House of Representatives, and would have become law but for its
rejection by the Council. Similarly, the greater stringency in the
limitation of the hours of employment of women and young persons in
factories, the exclusion of young persons from certain dangerous
trades, and the prohibition of the employment of women within a month
of their confinement, all of which were included in the Factories Act
of the same year, might have been expected in the natural progress of
industrial legislation. The appointment of women, {195} also, as
inspectors of factories, gaols, and asylums is in accordance with the
recent practice of other countries. The same may be said of the Infant
Life Protection Act, which seeks to prevent baby-farming, and of Acts
dealing with the adoption of children and with industrial schools,
though it is probable that their passage has been hastened by a
knowledge of the approval of the female voters. Their influence is
also seen in measures such as the raising of the age of consent to
sixteen, in a country, be it remembered, in which girls come much more
early to maturity than in England, the permission accorded to women to
be enrolled as barristers and solicitors, and the simplification of the
procedure where a judicial separation is desired. Parliament has
discussed, but without legislative results, proposals that the sexes
should be placed on an equality as regards the grounds for a divorce,
and that a divorce should be obtainable if either party become insane
or be sentenced to a long term of imprisonment.
But we can trace the influence of women most directly in the desire of
the Premier, to which I have referred, to render them eligible for
nomination to the Council, and in the attempts to put an end to the
legal sanction accorded by the State to betting, immorality, and drink.
In these matters members are face to face with the most pronounced
opinions of their female constituents.
The prevention of gambling is sought through the {196} suppression of
the totalisator, which was legalised in 1889. In the following years,
it is admitted, the number of licenses issued was in excess of the
requirements of the population, and it was felt, even by the advocates
of the machine, when a strongly supported effort was made in the House
of Representatives to abolish it, that a concession was inevitable. In
its final form the measure reduced by one-third the number of licenses
which might be issued thenceforward, and prohibited all persons from
betting with minors and from laying or taking odds dependent upon the
dividend paid by the totalisator.
The female voters are even more anxious to secure the repeal of the
C.D. Act, though it has for several years been a dead letter. It only
applies to districts which the Government declares to be subject to its
provisions, and no Ministry at the present time would venture to
recommend its application nor Municipal Council to proffer such a
request. But the women will not be satisfied until they have expunged
from the Statute Book an Act which they declare to be a disgrace to New
Zealand. Their purpose would have been effected by a short measure
which was passed by the House of Representatives but rejected by the
nominated Legislative Council, which is less amenable to public
opinion. They have also inspired the Government to greater stringency
in the administration of the law against keepers of houses of ill-fame,
which has led, {197} according to common report, to a large increase in
the prevalence of venereal diseases.