Page:The case for women's suffrage.djvu/148

 inspection. In shops a weekly half-holiday is compulsory, and to all young persons a minimum wage of 5s. per week must be paid, with an increase of 3s. per week until they are twenty years old. The following are a few of the Labour Laws passed since the enfranchisement of the New Zealand women:—The Alcoholic Liquor Sale Control Amendment Act, 1895 (re holiday on licensing election day); the Electoral Act, 1905 (re holiday on election day); the Factories Act, 1901; Industrial Arbitration and Conciliation Act; Trades Union Amendment Act, 1896; Wages Protection Act, 1899; Workers’ Dwellings Act, 1905; the Land for Settlements Consolidation Act, 1900 (with provision for workmen’s homes); Servants’ Registry Offices Act, 1895; Shops and Offices Act, 1904; and many others. Those people who say the enfranchisement of women will stop all Social Reforms will be surprised to learn that the very reforms they are talking of have been brought about with the aid of the women’s vote.

The education, too, of the children at the Public Schools is free and purely secular, doing away with the sectarian controversy. There are a great many other reforms of which I have written but do not wish to refer to them here, so will pass on to the first State of Australia which followed New Zealand in giving her women the vote. South Australia enfranchised her women in 1894, and the following are a few of the Social and Industrial Acts of Parliament passed since that date:—Married Women’s Protection Act; Workmen’s Liens Amendment; Gambling Suppression; Indecent Advertisement