Page:Outlines of the women's franchise movement in New Zealand.djvu/73

 and thus any progress would be imperilled. He urged that those in favour of out and out reform and those in favour of partial measures should unite to carry some instalment.

The debate that followed was animated and instructive. As might be expected, the solid, sound argument was all in favour of the motion. Against it was produced a strange mixture of ridicule, baseless assertion, and dire prognostication. Mr W. P. Reeves, the present Agent-General in London, eulogised Sir John Hall. He thought that a gentleman who had the courage to face the laughter, the ridicule, the empty jeers of unthinking persons, and bring forward a subject of great national