1 64 Australian Life 



vanished incomes. One result of that episode in 

 Australian history is the air of pleasant refinement 

 that distinguishes the Australian tea-room from 

 similar establishments elsewhere. The condition 

 of the working-women of the poorer classes, un- 

 fortunately, leaves much to be desired. In some 

 employments, they have reaped the benefits of the 

 organisation and political power wielded by men, 

 but in other of the avocations peculiar to the 

 working-woman alone, their position is not as 

 advanced as that of the Australian worker gen- 

 erally. The sweater exists in Australia as else- 

 where, and finds his victims, as elsewhere, among 

 those who are poorest and least able to protect 

 themselves. 



This state of affairs may possibly be remedied 

 by the exercise of the franchise now conferred 

 upon the Australian woman. The woman voter 

 is, of course, no new thing in Australasia, for 

 both in New Zealand and South Australia, the 

 women have for some years held equal electoral 

 privileges with the men. But the granting of the 

 Commonwealth franchise to the Australian wo- 

 man was an experiment on a much larger scale, 

 and has resulted in some developments of a most 

 interesting nature. It has been found that the 

 women voters outnumbered the men in the Com- 

 monwealth, although the majority of women is 

 not a very large one. The woman's vote is, 

 therefore, a very important consideration for the 

 politician, who is alive to the experience already 



