Memorable Moments in the House

Over the years, New Zealand's Hansard reporters have taken down some gems from MPs who were concerned about everything from pirates to hacksaw blades being hidden in women's underwear.

In 1893 the topic on everybody's lips was women's suffrage. After much vigorous debate, New Zealand became the first country to grant women the vote. One can only imagine that this speaker, the Hon W.C. Walker, was a little miffed.

"I say, with all respect to the female brain, it is as strong as the male brain on some questions, but it is not the same kind of brain. It is not the brain to originate. Who ever heard of a female Shakespeare, or a female Raphael, or a female Mozart? Even in music women can do nothing whatever, and you would have thought music was a subject specially suited for females; but they have never excelled in it. And I say, as a legislator woman would be a failure, for, if you are to grant woman suffrage, how are you going to prevent women by-and-by from occupying seats in this Chamber or in the other Chamber?"

Mr Jennings, a supporter of the measure, breathed a little eloquent common sense into the debate.

"It appears to me the pen must be dipped in the rainbow and dried by the dust from a butterfly's wings when woman is the theme with some honourable gentlemen. They will not come down to life as it is with the majority of women in the world. During the Maori War here, many women were left widows with families; and on whom was devolved the responsibility of bringing up those families, and bringing them up so well that some of them occupy high positions in New Zealand at the present time? The whole responsibility was left on the woman, and she did her duty well and nobly. I think the time has come when she should be taken into the counsels of men, and I believe her influence in those counsels will be of the best character."

Seventy years on, Mabel Howard, an MP from 1943 to 1969 and New Zealand's first woman Cabinet Minister, took a particular interest in women's issues. She shocked Parliament when she produced two pairs of ladies' bloomers in the House in the mid- 1950s to demonstrate the lack of size standardization in women's clothing. Presumably this was exactly the sort of carry-on that Mr W.C. Walker had feared back in 1893. Here she raises the issue of alarming corsetry.

"GARMENT STIFFENERS ( 1952)
Miss HOWARD (Sydenham) asked the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Whether he will take steps to see that, where women's dresses are stiffened by the use of hacksaw blades, this fact is clearly printed on the dress so that purchasers will know the risks they run in case of accident and also the risk of such clothes being ruined if dry-cleaned?"

"The Hon. Mr WATTS (Minister of Industries and Commerce) replied, There is no provision in the existing law to compel manufacturers to label garments as to the type of stiffener used. There is no general agreement that hacksaw blades, properly inserted in the garment, create any hazard to the user, and some manufacturers think it an improvement on whalebone or other type of support. The risk (if any) of clothes with hacksaw blade stiffeners being ruined if drycleaned does not in itself appear to justify the introduction of special legislation. Where the use of any material is believed to be dangerous suitable steps are taken, wherever possible, to see that adequate protection is given to the public-for instance, the importation of lacquered net has been prohibited by means of a Customs Prohibition Order."

Miss Howard was also passionate about animal rights and later that year turned her attention to the fate of cats after a new fad hit New Zealand's shores.

"CAT SKINS FOR HATS
Miss HOWARD (Sydenham) asked the Minister of Police, Whether he has seen the article in the Evening Post of 4 October stating that the Davy Crockett craze is reported to have been responsible for children in one Masterton area catching cats in opossum traps and converting the skins into hats; and, if so, will he consider taking some action in this matter? [Note-This practice has been drawn to the attention of Ministers on a previous occasion.]"

"The Right Hon. Mr HOLLAND (Minister of Police) replied, There have been instances of cats being caught in traps set to catch opossums in the Masterton area, but police inquiries have been unable to establish that: (1) the skins of cats so caught have been converted into hats; or (2) traps have been deliberately set to catch cats."

Other interesting topics arose in 1961 when the Crimes Act was rewritten to abolish capital punishment, and to get rid of some anomalies in New Zealand law. For example, at the time a miscreant who injured a goat could be locked up for 14 years, but the worst case of child neglect could only earn the perpetrator 2 years in jail. Mr Hanan explained further improvements in the new law.

"A number of existing crimes that are obsolete or out of place in a code of serious offences, or inappropriate to be dealt with by the criminal law at all, have been omitted. I instance the present crimes of pretending to practice witchcraft, challenging to fight a duel, libelling foreign sovereigns, abducting an heiress, and, believe it or not, failing to resist pirates is a serious crime in our law. Members will doubtless be relieved to learn that it will no longer be an offence to write a letter to a pirate."

Trading insults with members of the opposing party is not a new phenomenon. Here is a fine example from the Hon Sir J.G. Findlay, which he made as the House debated the issue of six o'clock closing for hotels in 1917.

"If there is one thing about the Minister of Defence that I admire it is his strength of resolution, and the strong moral fibre of the honourable gentleman's constitution is that of a really strong man; but it seemed to me that when he dealt with the six-o'clock-closing question he was wandering like a blind man in a dark room looking for a dark hat that was not there."