After the next General Election, Mr. Cookworthy again introduced his Resolution in 1897, when it was lost by two votes, one of its strongest supporters being absent. Although there was at that time no organisation specially for the Suffrage, the Women's Christian Temperance Union did much to extend interest, and there was a large body of support to be found amongst the intelligent women of the Colony. This led to the formation of a Women's Franchise League for Western Australia.
This League was formally organized at a public meeting of the Leisure Hour Club in Perth, May 11th, 1899, Lady Onslow presiding. That autumn a Resolution similar to the one which had been introduced in the Legislative Assembly passed the Council, and before the year closed the Electoral Act was passed of which the important part for women lies in the interpretation clause, which interprets "Elector" as any person of either sex whose name is on the Electoral Roll of a province or district. Royal assent to the Bill was given in 1900. Although women now can vote for members of the Parliament they can not sit in that body.
Already the Women's Franchise League of Western Australia is transformed into the Women's Electoral League.
NEW SOUTH WALES.[491]
The Mother Colony seems likely to be the next to enfranchise women. The question in that Colony first came prominently forward when Sir Henry Parkes, the veteran statesman and oft-times Premier, proposed a clause to give equal voting power to women in his Electoral Bill in 1890. The clause was eventually dropped, but the very fact that it had been introduced in a Government Bill by a man of such high position as Sir Henry Parkes gave the question the impetus for which the friends of the movement were waiting to collect the growing interest into organized form and combined action.
On May 6th, 1891, the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales was formed, Lady Windeyer was elected president and an active campaign was begun. On July 30th Sir Henry Parkes moved a Resolution in the Legislative Assembly "that in the opinion of this House the franchise for the election of members of the Legislative Assembly should be extended to women on the same conditions and subject to the same qualifications as men." The debate was a very long one, occupying twelve hours and concluding at 3 a. m., when the motion was lost by 34 ayes, 57 noes. The friends of Women's Suffrage were in no way cast down by this vote. They believed that in a full House on a fair test division their friends would have been in a majority, but many who were anxious for the passing of the Electoral Bill voted against Sir Henry Parkes' motion lest the inclusion of women should imperil its chances in the Upper House.
The next debate on the question was on November 18th, 1894, when Mr. O'Reilly moved a Resolution that "in the opinion of this House the time has arrived when the franchise should be extended to women." This was supported by Sir Henry Parkes. The Premier, Sir G. H. Reid, approved of Women's Suffrage in the abstract but objected that the present Parliament had received no mandate from the people. Sir George Dibbs thought the demand a just one. Eventually the motion, with the words "the time has now arrived" omitted, was carried by a large majority. No debate has taken place since 1894, as the pressure on the time of the Legislature has been great with Federal and other matters, but the question was never in a more hopeful position. The sudden change of government in 1899 placed a strong friend to the cause at the head of affairs in the present Premier, Sir William Lyne, and at the annual meeting of the Suffrage League in August, 1900, Mr. Fegan, M. P. (Minister for Mines) congratulated the women of New South Wales on being so near the goal of their desires. The Premier had definitely said that before the session closed a Bill would be introduced to give women the suffrage, and he hoped that next year they would be able to disband their League, its work being finished. The Bill was introduced in 1901 but was lost by 19 ayes, 22 noes.
On Aug. 14, 1902, the bill conferring the Parliamentary Franchise on women passed the Council. It had already passed the Assembly and is now law.
VICTORIA.[492]
In Melbourne an organisation for Women's Suffrage has been in existence some sixteen years, but it is only within the last five years that the question has come within the region of practical politics. The movement suffered from want of concentration of energy. "At one time the original association, though still in existence, was rivalled by other societies with the same object, but more or less tinged with local, class or religious characteristics. This rivalry, though it tended to the growth of the movement, deprived it of force and eventually led to divided counsels and consequently to comparative failure." The Australian Woman's Sphere[493] from which the above words are quoted, goes on to say: "A few years since, largely owing to the patience and tact of the late Annette Bear Crawford, its first Hon. Secretary, there was formed the 'United Council for Women's Suffrage' which aimed at including representatives of all the leagues that had for their main object, or for one of them, the political enfranchisement of women."