C.H. Spence
Overview.

Pioneered Effective
Voting.

Means of
Reform.

Federation Convention Candidacy.

It is really because I have so many ideas for making life better, wiser, and pleasanter--all of which effective voting will aid--that I seem so absorbed in the one reform. My opinions on other matters I give for what they are worth--for discussion, for acceptance or rejection. My opinions on equitable representation I hold absolutely, subject to criticism of methods, but impregnable as to principle.

I have always held that, though the Pilgrim Fathers ignored the right of the Pilgrim Mothers to the credit of founding the American States--although these women had to take their full share of the toils and hardships and perils of pioneer and frontier life, and had in addition to put up with the Pilgrim Fathers themselves--Australian colonization was carried out by men who were conscious of the service of their helpmates, and grateful for it.

In New Zealand and South Australia, founded on the Wakefield system, where the sexes were almost equal in number, and the immigration was mainly that of families, the first great triumphs for the political enfranchisement of women were won, and through South Australia the women of the Commonwealth obtained the Federal vote for both Houses:...