in our upward and onward progress—­a day for not only wearing best clothes, but for reading our best books and thinking our best thoughts.  I have often grieved at the small congregations in other churches no less than in my own, and the grief was aggravated by the knowledge that those who were absent from church were not necessarily otherwise well employed.  I derived so much pleasure from the excellent and cultured sermons of my friend the Rev. John Reid during his term of office here that I regretted the fact that others who might gain equally from them were not there to hear them.  I would like to see among the young people a finer conception of the duties of citizenship, which, if not finding expression in church attendance, may develop in some way that will be noble and useful to society.

In the meantime the work of the Effective Voting League had been rather at a standstill.  Mrs. Young’s illness had caused her resignation, and until she again took up the work nothing further was done to help Mr. Coombe in his Parliamentary agitation.  In 1908, however, we began a vigorous campaign, and towards the close of the year the propaganda work was being carried into all parts of the State.  Although I was then 83, I travelled to Petersburg to lecture to a good audience.  On the same night Mrs. Young addressed a fine gathering at Mount Gambier, and from that time the work has gone on unceasingly.  The last great effort was made through the newspaper ballot of September, 1909, when a public count of about 10,000 votes was completed with all explanations during the evening.  The difficulties that were supposed to stand in the way of a general acceptance of effective voting have been entirely swept away.  Tasmania and South Africa have successfully demonstrated the practicability, no less than the justice, of the system.  Now we get to the bedrock of the objections raised to its adoption, and we find that they exist only in the minds of the politicians themselves; but the people have faith in effective voting, and I believe the time to he near when they will demand equitable representation in every Legislature in the world.  The movement has gone too far to be checked, and the electoral unrest which is so common all over the world will eventually find expression in the best of all electoral systems, which I claim to be effective voting.

Among the many friends I had made in the other States there was none I admired more for her public spiritedness than Miss Vida Goldstein.  I have been associated with her on many platforms and in many branches of work.  Her versatility is great, but there is little doubt that her chief work lies in helping women and children.  Her life is practically spent in battling for her sex.  Although I was the first woman in Australia to become a Parliamentary candidate, Miss Goldstein has since exceeded my achievement by a second candidature for the Senate.  It was during her visit here last May-June as a delegate to the State