11,600 sign petition to South Australian parliament in 1894 as women's vote debate goes to Assembly
The House of Assemby at the South Australia parliament house still holds the 11,600 petition delivered on August 30, 1894.
The largest of South Australian petitions – asking for women to be given franchise for both houses of parliament on the same terms as men – had more than 11,600 signatures, was 400 feet long, rolled and tied with a gold ribbon.
It was delivered on August 30, 1894, to parliament house by Cornelius Proud – as only a man was allowed to perform the task. His wife Emily was a suffragist and Woman's Christian Temperance Union member.
Another petition, signed by 44 women, was also received by parliament. It opposed the vote for women because “the duties and life of men and women are divinely ordered to be different both in the State and in the home”.
The tabling of the pro-vote petition in the House of Assembly by the member for North Adelaide, George Hawker, was strategically timed. The adult suffrage bill giving women the right to vote and to stand for election to parliament had passed the Legislative Council and was about to be introduced by John Cockburn and debated in the House of Assembly.
The petition signatures varied from large copperplate flourishes in ink to other pencils. They came from Adelaide, Moonta Mines, Lyrup, Port Augusta, Andamooka, from Glenelg and Magill and many more places. The petition signatures had been diligently collected by members of the Women’s Suffrage League, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Working Women’s Trade Union.
Mary Lee, a member of all three groups, actively oversaw every step of the petition gathering – besides giving speeches at community meetings and events organised by suffrage league, writing letters and articles for the newspapers. arranging deputations to members of parliament and collecting subscriptions. Her commitment was matched by other prominent suffragists like Catherine Helen Spence, Elizabeth Webb Nicholls, Augusta Zadow, Agnes Milne, Mary Colton, Rose Birks and Serena Lake.
