employed in the factories. Socialistic
regulations, such as fixing the minimum wages in certain industries, and
the establishment of obligatory courts of arbitration, have been
instituted in several colonies (Victoria, New South Wales, etc.).

In the beginning the English Common Law regulated the legal status of the
Australian women. During the past fifty years this law has undergone many
modifications. Each colony acted independently in the matter, and
therefore there is no longer uniformity. In all cases separate ownership
of property is legal. However, joint parental authority is legally
established only in New Zealand. The divorce laws are prejudicial to women
in almost all respects.

In the field of legislation the influence of woman's suffrage has already
made itself definitely felt. Each colony has its state legislature which
consists of a Lower House and a Senate. Every Australian who is twenty-one
years old is a voter in both state and municipal elections. (There is a
property qualification only for those voting for the Senate.) In 1869 the
woman's suffrage movement began in Australia (in Victoria). The right to
vote in school and municipal affairs was given to women as a matter of
course.[30] The right to vote in state affairs was granted to women first
in New Zealand in 1893, in South Australia in 1895, in West Australia in
1899, in New South Wales in 1903, in Queensland in 1905, and in Victoria
in 1908.

When the six Australian colonies (excluding New Zealand) formed themselves
into a federation in 1900, an Australian Federal Parliament was
established. The women of _all of the six colonies_ voted for the
parliamentary officers on an equality with men. Here was a curious
thing--the women of the four conservative colonies voted for the members
of the Federal Parliament but could not vote for the state legislature.

On the basis of the documents dealing with Victoria I shall give a more
detailed account of the history of woman's suffrage in this colony. The
greatest statesman of Victoria, George Higinbotham, in 1873 introduced the
first woman's suffrage bill before Parliament. This met with no success. A
number of similar attempts were made until 1884. In this year there was
founded the first "Woman's Suffrage Society" in Victoria. The movement
then spread rapidly, and in 1891 thirty thousand women petitioned
Parliament for the suffrage in state affairs. For the time being this
attempt likewise met with fa