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 Staffords, Dometts, Wakefields, Foxes, and others, whose names appear on the colony’s records as the men who laid the foundation stone for any greatness New Zealand may claim. Of those very early colonisers, however, Sir William Fox is the only one who stood by Mr. Saunders in advocating the new franchise. It was not so fashionable to be “advanced” then as it is now, and it required strength of mind and firmness of purpose to press forward with Liberal doctrines.

About 1850, Mrs. Müller, wife of Dr. Müller, Resident Magistrate for Wairau, in the Nelson district, quietly but determinedly suggested in public that the women of the little nation should be enfranchised. Dr. Müller was not only opposed to the proposal, but also disliked the idea of his wife appearing as its advocate. Mrs. Müller then made use of a Nelson newspaper, placed at her disposal by a friendly proprietor, and wrote anonymous articles on the subject, which were reproduced in other newspapers in the colony. Later, Mrs. Müller, believing that this reform was far ahead of the times, took up other branches of work in connection with legislation affecting women, and helped many other reforms. She lived to see the franchise granted and exercised by the women of the colony on three occasions.

The next who stood beside Mr. Saunders and Sir William Fox was Dr. James Wallis. He was another of the colony’s Liberals in the pre-party days. On Sir George Grey coming forward to organise the party, Dr. Wallis stood for the constituency of Auckland City West in 1877, and was elected. On the first day he sat in the House he brought up the subject he had at heart. He was the fifth speaker on the Address-in-Reply. Being opposed to Sir Harry Atkinson, who was then Premier, he criticised the Governor’s Speech, and remarked incidentally that “there is a great need for some change in the representation of the people in two directions—namely, more equal electoral districts, and of manhood, and I may say womanhood, suffrage—of universal suffrage.”

On August 8th of the following year, he showed himself to the House in all his ultra-radicalism. The subject of a motion he moved was so great and so important, he said, that he feared