Page:Outlines of the women's franchise movement in New Zealand.djvu/64

 were in favour of a property qualification could be secured, success would be almost certain. Sir John Hall therefore asked Mrs Sheppard, "Would your Union be content to accept the franchise for women who are ratepayers and property-holders, at first, and if they succeed in obtaining that, try for the general franchise afterwards." The question was a difficult one. In establishing manhood suffrage, the colony had declared that the claims of human beings were paramount to those of property. To make the right of women to vote dependent on the amount of property they possessed, would be not only making an unjust distinction between the sexes, but also to again exalt property