Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 4.djvu/1103

 without themselves losing a jot of their innate purity. ‘No poorer they but richer we,' by their addition to the electoral roll."

The women of West Australia enjoyed the unprecedented experience of having organised their Franchise League and gained the Franchise in one year. The question, however, had been more or less before the Colony since 1893. In that year Mr. Cookworthy had introduced a Women's Suffrage Resolution in the House of Assembly which was lost by only one vote.

After the next General Election, Mr. Cookworthy again introduced his Resolution in 1897, when it was lost by two votes, one of its strongest supporters being absent. Although there was at that time no organisation specially for the Suffrage, the Women's Christian Temperance Union did much to extend interest, and there was a large body of support to be found amongst the intelligent women of the Colony. This led to the formation of a Women's Franchise League for Western Australia.

This League was formally organized at a public meeting of the Leisure Hour Club in Perth, May 11th, 1899, Lady Onslow presiding. That autumn a Resolution similar to the one which had been introduced in the Legislative Assembly passed the Council, and before the year closed the Electoral Act was passed of which the important part for women lies in the interpretation clause, which interprets "Elector"? as any person of either sex whose name is on the Electoral Roll of a province or district. Royal assent to the Bill was given in 1900. Although women now can vote for members of the Parliament they can not sit in that body.

Already the Women's Franchise League of Western Australia is transformed into the Women's Electoral League.

The Mother Colony seems likely to be the next to enfranchise women. The question in that Colony first came prominently forward when Sir Henry Parkes, the veteran statesman and ofttimes Premier, proposed a clause to give equal voting power to