Nor'West News: March 05, 2019

8 Tuesday March 5 2019
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Papanui’s suffragettes
signed ‘monster petition’
Papanui Heritage Group
chairman Murray Williams
writes about the suffragette
movement in Papanui
IN MID-1893, New Zealand
suffragists launched a campaign
for a ‘monster petition,’ which
demanded that adult women
(those aged 21 or over) should
be granted the right to vote in
Parliamentary elections.
Eventually, 31,872 women
signed the main and subsidiary
petitions (men were not invited
to do so), and of these, 60 gave
Papanui as their address.
Papanui Heritage Group
researcher Christine Grant has
located information on 27 of
them and, although this is a
small sample, it does present
some interesting detail about the
local women who helped prompt
Parliament to take the step that
ensured New Zealand would
become the first country in the
world to carry out this reform.
In order to be classified as a Papanui
signatory, Papanui had to
be part of the address provided.
Thus the two women who
gave only their street (Mays Rd),
without adding a suburb, could
well have been Papanui residents
if they lived on the northern side
of that street, although the other
side of Mays Rd was technically
part of St Albans borough.
Another signatory gave her
address as ‘Mary’s’ Rd, although
subsequent evidence from the
electoral roll indicates that she
also lived in Mays Rd.
In another case, the address
Webb St, Papanui, was given, although
at the time this street was
in the borough of St Albans and
RIGHT TO VOTE: Of the
thousands of New Zealand
suffragists who signed
petitions, 60 gave a Papanui
address.
should not have been included in
the figures for Papanui.
Some unorthodox spelling adds
interest, for example ‘Pappanui’
and ‘Papnui’
It has been possible to find the
birthplaces of 18 of these Papanui
women.
Fourteen (78 per cent) were
born in England or Scotland and
only three in New Zealand, while
one came from Germany.
The ages of the women when
they signed the petition ranged
from 23-75 and the average age
was 48.
The marital status of 27 of the
Papanui women at the time the
petition was signed has also been
traced.
Nineteen were married, five
were ‘spinsters’, while three were
widows.
The majority of married
women would have described
themselves as being engaged in
domestic duties, but those who
were involved in professions
included two music teachers, a
‘ladies nurse’ and Sarah Maria
Pope, who gave her name to a
highly successful retail business
which she founded and managed.
•From page 1
“I didn’t trust my abilities and
I couldn’t stop worrying about
what people were thinking to the
point it would not allow me to
show what I can actually do as I
have to in an audition.”
Gregory has been passionate
about the arts since a young age,
starting ballet at six.
But it was when she was accepted
into the National Academy
of Singing and Dramatic Art
in 2015 that she began to train
heavily in ballet, jazz and tap.
“In terms of my love of musical
theatre, it was never a choice.
There’s nothing else I want
to do and I need to do it,” she
said.
When Gregory was eight, the
skin on her hands and feet began
to break and she recalls having
to walk on her toes because her
heels hurt so much.
But it wasn’t until she began to
get arthritis in her hands at the
age of 14 that she was officially
diagnosed with rheumatoid and
psoriatic arthritis.
Gregory said both conditions
are caused by the auto-immune
disease, psoriasis, which causes a
rapid build-up of skin cells.
Before she was diagnosed, she
was told her skin condition was
a result of dermatitis. But now
she is taking an oral immune
system suppressant, methotrexate,
which has kept her condition
under control. The only time she
ever stopped dancing was when
she attempted to take a break
from her medication in 2015
to find a more natural way to
control her condition. When she
stopped taking it her psoriasis
came back “horribly” and she
had to spend three months away
from dance.
“This time (away from dance)
allowed me to realise how much
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LOVE OF DANCE: Nothing has stopped Laurel Gregory from
following her dreams of becoming a professional musical
theatre performer.
I actually enjoyed dancing
rather than just doing it,” she
said.
Gregory said she is grateful the
medication gives her the ability
to do what she wants with her
life.