A correspondent writes:- "The paragraph giving Sir John Hall's acknowledgments of the congratulations of the National Society for Women's Suffrage on the success of the woman suffrage principle in New Zealand does not reveal all the facts of the case, which are remarkable. In 1891 Sir John introduced a Woman Suffrage Bill into the New Zealand Parliament, and it was defeated by a majority of two. Last year the Government took the question up, and, by a clause in a Registration Bill providing that the word 'person' should include women as well as men, proposed what was substantially womanhood suffrage. The measure passed both Houses of the Legislature, and the Upper House added an amendment enabling women to vote by post, as is allowed to seamen and certain other classes of electors. This was objected to by the Lower House; whereupon no fewer than three successive conferences were held between committees representing the two Houses in the hope of securing an agreement, but without result. There the matter stands at present, and the supporters of woman suffrage in the colony are disposed to attribute the creation of the situation to a desire on the part of their opponents to defeat the principle on a subordinate issue."
