Victoria, which contains the capital city, Melbourne, and which is the
most progressive and democratic colony in Australia, the Legislative
Assembly is elected, and that body is chosen by unrestricted male suffrage
only, while, as with the House of Commons in the mother country, clergymen
are not allowed to sit in it. In West Australia, the newest colony, the
voting is done by men alone. In Cape Colony women have restricted
municipal suffrage; but the Assembly is elected by the vote of men who own
a certain amount of property.

In the Orange Free State every adult white male is a full burgher, having
a vote for the President, who is chosen for five years. The Transvaal
Republic has no woman suffrage amid its hand-to-hand struggles.

To comprehend the condition of European governmental affairs, one must
follow the condition of things produced by the struggle of socialistic and
anarchistic elements. Between the King on the one hand, and these forces
on the other, the true Liberal parties are slowly progressing toward free
institutions; both aristocratic and anarchistic movements being more
favorable than liberalism to woman-suffrage aspirations.

The countries where woman has full suffrage (save in the United States)
are all dependencies of royalty. They are: The Isle of Man, Pitcairn's
Island, New Zealand, and South Australia. The most important of these, New
Zealand, was once a promising colony, but it has been declining for a
quarter of a century. The men outnumber the women by forty thousand. The
act conferring the parliamentary franchise on both European and Maori
women received the royal sanction in 1892. At the session of Parliament
that passed the act a tax was put upon incomes and one upon land, so that
a desperate civilization seemed to be trying all the experiments at once.
Certainly, woman suffrage in New Zealand was not adopted because the