Historic buildings star in TV programme

June 15

MEDIA RELEASE

Historic buildings star in TV programme

Two of Auckland’s most impressive historic buildings will star in a TV programme telling the story of how women in New Zealand successfully gained the right to vote in 1893.

Cared for by the New Zealand Historic Places, Alberton in Mt Albert and Highwic in Newmarket will provide gracious backdrops to a number of scenes in the film What Really Happened – Votes for Women which screens on TV1 on Sunday June 24 at 8.30pm.

The programme tells the story from the perspective of a contemporary reporter who has travelled back in time and has the opportunity to interact with the key people involved – including Kate Sheppard and the men in Parliament who successfully helped New Zealand to become the first nation in the world to allow women to vote.

It’s particularly fitting that Alberton features in the programme according to the property’s Manager, Rendell McIntosh.

“It’s almost a case of art imitating real life,” he says.

“Alberton was the home of suffragist Sophia Louisa Taylor – a leading Auckland socialite who supported the franchise movement for the very practical reason that women had to obey laws and pay taxes just like men did, so they should also have the right to vote.”

She also supported the Auckland Tailoresses’ Union and was reported as being an eloquent and enthusiastic supporter of women’s suffrage in newspapers and magazines of the day.

Not surprisingly, a copy of an 1893 petition for women’s suffrage held at Alberton includes the signatures of Sophia and her daughter Winifred.

“It was these petitions – the first in 1892 and another a year later – that helped bring about the change in legislation that saw Governor Lord Glasgow signing the Electoral Bill, and New Zealand becoming the first self-governing nation in the world where women had the right to vote,” says Rendell.

Although Votes for Women focuses primarily on the story of Kate Sheppard and her successful campaign, Rendell believes there is a nice symmetry in the fact that part of the programme was filmed at Alberton.

“Sophia was part of that number of men and women around the country who worked hard to bring about women’s suffrage. It seems somehow appropriate that her home plays a role in the telling of that story in this programme.”

Don’t miss What Really Happened – Votes for Women, TV1 on Sunday June 24 at 8.30pm.

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