This was only one of many temperance societies which have existed since 1840. The WCTU, the first national body, was also associated and organised by and for women, with a number of other reforms including the teaching of religion in schools, welfare work and, perhaps most important, woman's franchise. Long before organised women's suffrage agitation had begun, several leading statesmen, including Stout, Ballance and Vogel, had seriously advocated political emancipation for women, but opposition had been formidable. In the late 1880s the position of women in New Zealand society was altering under the influence of the feminist movements, especially the WCTU. The correspondence columns of both New Plymouth papers helped keep the issue alight, and at the request of the national WCTU Sir John Hall of Christchurch, a former Prime Minister, undertook the leadership of the political battle. This aroused a correspondent to complain to the editor of the Taranaki Herald on November 18,1887: 'When women's suffrage is advocated by a man it is a good sign that softening of the brain had commenced.
After many false starts and against much opposition, Sir John piloted a Bill through the House giving women the vote. They exercised it in numbers which astounded the country in the 1893 election. Since then many other legal provisions for public acceptance of women's rights have come into force; the Women's Parliamentary Rights Act of 1919 made women eligible to stand as parliamentary candidates, but New Plymouth has never been represented by a woman. In 1942 and 1963 Women Jurors' Acts allowed women aged between 25 and 60 to have their names included in the jury list. In 1971 legislation was passed providing for equal pay for women, and the Sex Discrimination Act of 1978 further advanced the cause of equality. A branch of the National Council of Women (which was formed in Christchurch in 1896) was opened in New Plymouth in 1909, but all records of its activities between that date and 1930 have been lost. In 1980 there were 37 New Plymouth delegates at a national conference representing 22 organisations.
These included Country Women's Institute and Townswomen's Guild, established in the early 1920s, the League of Mothers (.1926); Maori Women's Welfare League (1951); Women's Division of Federated Farmers (1925) and others, all of which were concerned with social reforms in general and, in particular, reforms affecting the status and condition of their sex. Most religious denominations in the city have various women's organisations, and women have been prominent in such bodies as Girl Guides, Boy Scouts, Girls' Brigade, Boys' Brigade and a variety of school activities. During recent years New Plymouth women have taken an increasing interest in local government. The first woman elected to the borough council was Mrs Janet Davie in 1947. Longest serving woman councilor was Mrs Audrey Gale, who retired in 1977 after 21 years as a councilor, but remained on the council committee responsible for the publication of this history. In 1907 Miss Ada Whitaker was successful in becoming the first woman office worker for the borough council (there were seven other applicants), and she joined the staff at $1 a week. She was responsible for recording council minutes and keeping valuation and rate books. She served under Mayors Dockrill, Brown, Wilson and Tisch until she resigned in 1912 to marry Mr Fox of Hawera. Hours were 9 to 5, plus Saturday mornings, 'if we were required; there was an hour for lunch, but no tea breaks, and nobody went home until everything balanced.' In 1979 there were 107 women employees on the city council staff. The Birthright Society's New Plymouth branch was opened in 1967 'to bring a spirit of friendship, informality and normality to families in need.' Prominent among its workers was Avis Moulden, who for more than 10 years headed a team of enthusiastic (male and female) field officers and counsellors, dealing mainly with widows and their families, Solo Parents, the Women's Electoral Lobby, Sisters Overseas, Abortion Law Reform, Women's Action Group, the Women's Centre, and the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child, are among the 40 clubs and associations active in furthering the cause of women's interests and their' liberation' in the city of 1980.
Although seldom officially acknowledged, it has never been denied that women have played a major behind-the-scenes role in most men-only organisations. In recent years the title 'Rotariannes' has been bestowed upon Rotary Members' wives, but they are often not participants in club meeting affairs, although most clubs hold 'ladies' nights' and committee meetings in one another's homes. Rotary is strictly a professional and businessmen's affair, with its motto' Service before Self,' and among its aims is the fostering of community welfare. One of the founder members of the New Plymouth Rotary Club on February 10, 1925, was Thomas Currie List, proprietor of the Taranaki Daily News. He was president of the club in 1932 and governor of District 294 (now 299) in 1935. He was prominent in the foundation of the Crippled Children Society of New Zealand in that year, a movement in which Rotary clubs in New Plymouth have been interested ever since. In addition to its many other vocational, international, youth and com- munity commitments, the New Plymouth club helped provide a workshop for the SIH Society, several rooms in the Rotary halls of residence at Massey University, funds for the YMCA and Heritage. In its early years it gave a mobile X-ray unit which proved of great value to rural residents of Taranaki, especially the Maoris. District governors have been List, Stuart Hayton and Wynn Bassett.
In its first year, 1960, the Fitzroy Rotary Club, in association with its parent, the New Plymouth club, built a youth hostel at Waiwakaiho Park, a hut at Camp Huinga, tiered seating at the YMCA Stadium, and sponsored the firs Rotoract Club in New Zealand, as well as the country's first Interact Club for girls-at the Girls' High School. For many years this club had its own grace, written by a member, Padre Burke, set to music by another member, well-known blind musician Joe Papesch. Two other clubs have been formed in the city. New Plymouth West (1966) had Alex McPhail, principal of Spotswood College, as its first president. This club secured drums of the first oil from the offshore well, Maui, bottled it and sold it as souvenirs. This continuing source of revenue has been devoted to charitable purposes, among which has been $3000 for baths at the SIH school at Westown. It sponsored the first co-educational Interact Club at Spotswood College. The New Plymouth North Rotary Club was formed in 1972 and its first president was Colin Marceau.
A major fund-raising project was a sponsored mid-winter swim to provide $4500 for an infant incubator at the Base Hospital. In the event $7500 was raised, the surplus being devoted to amenities for nurses and patients. A 'death seminar' in 1977, which provided advice and counselling in all aspects of moribundity, was surprisingly well attended. The Soroptimist Club, 'the female equivalent of Rotary,' was established in the city in 1964. Affiliated to the South-West Pacific Federation of Soroptimist International, membership qualifications include 'a responsible job within a particular professional category.' Membership in 1979 was 30. Often regarded by some as a 'rival' to Rotary, the International Association of Lions Clubs (motto 'We Serve') was introduced in New Plymouth in 1962. Charter president was a bank manager, Eric Scott. This service club has been responsible for many community projects. The entrance gates to the Bowl of Brooklands annual Christmas parades, assistance towards the Opera House restoration and various social events, including a charity dinner aboard the Gothic, earlier fitted out to carry a Royal tour party to New Zealand, have been features of Lions activities. An annual collection for the blind is one of the club's prime responsibilities. A second club, Pukekura, was formed in 1967, and later a third, Egmont, was established. Total Lions membership in the city averages 120. A women's auxiliary, a Lioness club, was later established, as was a youth auxiliary club for Leos. A popular misconception is that Jaycee (Junior Chamber of Commerce) is an offshoot of the Chamber of Commerce. In fact, Jaycees come from all walks of life (some are indeed chamber members), while chamber of commerce is 'a body of business and professional men working together to advance the interests of its town or city.' 6 New Plymouth has three Jaycee chapters-New Plymouth, founded in 1946, Pukekura (1970) and Bell Block (1979)-and they, too, have devoted much effort to establishing and assisting various community efforts in the city.
Perhaps the most notable achievement was the New Plymouth chapter's work on the Brooklands Zoo, which began in 1962 and has continued ever since. The zoo attracts more than 40,000 people annually and houses animals and birds and a children's playground. Although a Freemasons lodge was not established in New Plymouth until 1853, there had been members of the order in the town from the time of the arrival of the first ships in 1840. The' mysterious' craft, which operated under English, Scottish and Irish constitutions, had been active in Wellington and Auckland in 1841. Meetings were held in a raupo hut in Wellington until the first lodge, New Zealand Pacific, met in Barrett's Hotel (imported by Dickey Barrett), in the following year. The first lodge in Taranaki was Mount Egmont, English constitution. The minutes of the inaugural meeting on December 14, 1853, reveal that the master was John Newland, for a time the town's jailer and later a farmer, who had arrived in the Amelia Thompson in 1841. Secretary was Richard Brown, a merchant and whaler, a native of Ireland. Because Freemasonry is a 'secret' organisation, Roman Catholics were barred membership until a Papal decree removed this restriction in the early 1970s.
When Brown died more than a hundred years previously his will caused surprise in many quarters when it was found he bequeathed to the Catholic community of the town the site on which St Joseph's Church now stands. Egmont's first candidate for initiation was James Craig Sharland, a chemist, who later moved to Auckland to found the well-known firm of Sharland and Co. He lived in a large house which he named Bonithon, on the site of West End School, and his comparatively brief stay in the town is commemorated in the: name Bonithon Avenue. With the arrival of British forces in the town in the 1850s many of the soldiers were Masons, most belonging to the Irish constitution, who attended Egmont until the formation of an Irish Lodge, De Burgh Adams, in 1865. They met in a small shed at the rear of the present White's drapery building, which was also used by Egmont. After the formal inauguration De Burgh Adams members caused something of a spectacle in the town as they marched in full regalia to St Mary's Church for a special service conducted by the Rev. H. H. (Parson) Brown, their chaplain. They returned to the Masonic Hotel for a banquet.