Wednesday 23 April 2014

Petitions part 4

Collecting the Signatures


Instructions for collecting signatures for Woman's Suffrage Petiton
Alliance Record 11 July 1891 page 171
The Woman's Petition presented to Parliament consisted of more than 28,000 signatures.

The success in gathering so many signatures was largely due to a number of suffrage societies working together for the cause and the established network of branches of the WCTU throughout the state. Being able to publish regular reports and updates regarding woman suffrage and the collection of signatures in the petition in the bi-weekly Allianace Record meant that constant reporting of the project and its progress was available. Readers of the Alliance Record were aware of suffrage issues which had been discussed in articles in the paper in the months leading to the petition. The ladies of the WCTU had previous experience in collecting signatures for causes and when the word went out to collect signatures to create a Monster Petition the ladies were ready to comply.

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