The campaign for women's suffrage was led by Kate Sheppard (shown here on a stamp which depicts a detail of the $10 note). Listen to the reminiscences of Mrs Nellie Peryman (1868-1947), who voted in the 1893 election (the first in which women could).
Transcript
Mrs Peryman: I voted in the parliamentary elections of 1893, when women first had that privilege – that right – and I am voting in this general election [1963?] too. My first vote was in the Hutt electorate, and I well remember the candidates: Dr [Alfred] Newman and Mr Wilford, afterwards Sir Thomas, then making his first attempt to enter Parliament, where he had a very long career. At that time I was first mistress at the Petone School; there were over 600 children attending it in those days. I was very interested in the women's franchise movement, organised by the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and I helped to get signatures for the big petition you've heard about.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Reference: 2008 A to Z of New Zealand stamp issue
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