Page:The Feminist Movement - Snowden - 1912.djvu/80

 The women of New Zealand were enfranchised in 1893, of South Australia in 1894, of West Australia in 1899, of New South Wales in 1902, of Tasmania in 1903, of Queensland in 1905, and of Victoria in 1908. In these countries there is full and equal adult suffrage, with the power that this implies of being elected to their respective Parliaments. In 1902 the Australian Commonwealth gave the women the vote for the Federal Government, thus completing the excellent work.

It is worth while here to recount the action of both Houses of the Commonwealth Parliament, which, in 1910, gave testimony to the good effect of woman suffrage upon the fortune of the Commonwealth, in the terms of the following resolution: 'That this House (and Senate) is of the opinion that the extension of the suffrage to the women of Australia for States and Commonwealth Parliaments, on the same terms as men, has had the most beneficial results. It has led to the more orderly conduct of elections, and at the last Federal elections, the women's vote in a majority of the States showed a greater proportionate increase than that cast by men. It has given a greater prominence to legislation, particularly affecting women and children, although the women have not taken up such questions to the exclusion of others of wider significance. In matters of defence