Mock protest remembers suffrage battle
‘‘Oh dear, what can the matter be? Women are wanting to vote.’’ It’s a refrain that seems draconian in 2018, yet demonstrates the struggle against society that Kiwi women had to overcome 125 years ago.
It was heard again on Nelson’s streets on Saturday as theatrical group Nelson Histrionics revived one of the most important protest movements in New Zealand history – the push to give women the vote.
A group of about 30 marched down Trafalgar St in period costume, with attitudes to match. Actors recreating the prominent local suffragettes of the time spoke in support of women’s right to vote.
Accompanied by a handful of hecklers – part of the show – the vocal mock protest wound its way through Saturday shoppers to the Church Steps.
The marchers were eventually dispersed by the local constabulary, in the form of Histrionics member Gordon Taylor.
On September 19, 1893, New Zealand became the first selfgoverning country in the world to give all women the right to vote in parliamentary elections.
The campaign, which also involved a push for temperance, saw 24,000 women sign a petition that was presented to Parliament at the end of July that year.
Nelson Histrionics member Penny Taylor said there were surprisingly few signatures from Nelson – only 16. ‘‘This may be because the region was a producer of tobacco and hops, and therefore may not have been a great sympathiser of the temperance movement.’’
Taylor said there would be many events marking the passing of the suffrage bill into law in the coming months.
A Nelson Evening Mail report from March 11, 1891 documented a women’s suffrage meeting held in Nelson the previous day. Taylor said research into the women at that meeting had formed the basis of the characters in the march.