To mark 125 years since New Zealand women won the vote, award-winning Tauranga author Debbie McCauley has released a
non-fiction bilingual children’s book on her suffragist ancestor. Eliza and the White Camellia: A Story of Suffrage in New Zealand tells the story of Debbie’s fourth great aunt, suffragist Eliza Wallis (née Hart), a first-wave feminist who actively
sought the vote for women.
Eliza also happens to be the grandmother of Ynys Fraser (née Wallis) QSM, the 'grande dame' of Rotorua, who on the 3rd
of August this year turned 101 years old. Ynys is related through her father, Wilfred Stanley Wallis OBE, who was the
youngest of Eliza and her husband John’s twelve children. On Saturday 1st December at 2.30pm, Ynys will attend the book
launch of Eliza and the White Camellia: A Story of Suffrage in New Zealand at Tauranga City Library, along with her son Iain. “I was so pleased to receive her blessing for the book,” says
Debbie, “Ynys will be the guest of honour.”
Visually beautiful, with period-setting illustration by Wellington artist Helen Casey, the book was translated into te
reo Māori by Tamati Waaka, and skilfully laid out by designer Sarah Elworthy. The endpapers feature suffrage related
political cartoons from the time. Extensively researched, the fact boxes sit alongside the read aloud story and cover a
wide array of topics such as the history of elections in New Zealand, dirty politics, the National Council of Women,
Minnie Dean, Māori women, the freedom of bicycles, rational dress, the suffrage petitions and the 1893 election. “I’ve
always been fascinated by my suffrage connection,” says Debbie, who won a Women’s Suffrage Centennial Year Scholarship
in 1993. “Women’s history is often more difficult to uncover, but I hope I have done Eliza’s story justice.”
On 13 April 1896, Eliza attended a women’s convention held in the Provincial Council Buildings in Christchurch. Eleven
women’s groups from throughout New Zealand had sent representatives to the convention, during which the National Council
of Women (NCW) was formed. Eliza was one of the founding members and the first president was fellow suffragist and
Eliza’s friend, Kate Sheppard. The NCW aimed to; ‘unite all organised societies of women for mutual counsel and
co-operation in the attainment of justice and freedom for women, and for all that made for the good of humanity; to
encourage the formation of societies of women engaged in trades, professions, and in social and political work; and to
affiliate with other national councils of women for the purpose of facilitating international Conferences and
co-operation’.
Eliza appears in the first photographs taken of the NCW, including the delegates to the women’s convention, and another
taken outside the council chamber. She is also in a Suratura Tea National Council of Women photograph from 1896. “I was
unsure about the Suratura Tea advertisement,” says Debbie, “until I remembered the temperance connection to the
suffragist movement, and then it became very appropriate”.
Debbie is on the Suffrage 125 Tauranga committee which has organised various exhibitions and events in Tauranga this
year, including talks by former Prime Minister and United Nations Development Programme Administrator, Rt Hon. Helen
Clark, and MP Jan Tinetti who has been invited to speak at the book launch. Suffrage 125 commemorations have run from
the anniversary of the ‘monster’ suffrage petition being submitted to Parliament on 28 July 1893, the signing into law
of the Electoral Act on 19 September, the first election in which New Zealand women could vote on 28 November, the
election of the first woman mayor in the British Empire (Onehunga) on 29 November, and will finish on 20 December when
women first voted in the Māori electorates.
Chris Wright from the Bay of Plenty Children’s Literature Association (Bookrapt) reviewed Eliza and the White Camellia: A Story of Suffrage in New Zealand, writing “the book is itself a celebration, showing younger generations some of the struggles people, especially women,
went through to win this right. Details of the struggle towards women's suffrage are shown in articles, photos and
cartoons from newspapers of the time together many other historical events and personalities. The protests and petitions
are joined on these fact pages by an array information that shows the changing times such as the advent of bicycles and
the resultant changes in fashion for women. By reading of her life the reader learns of the poverty and hardship in
England that caused her parents to leave, the suffering endured on the long voyage to New Zealand, and their attempts at
a better life in New Zealand. Author Debbie McCauley is to be commended for her extensive research into the life and
times of Eliza. With its extensive Glossary and Index, this is a reference text while also being the interesting story
of a New Zealand woman activist, one of many reaching forward to the present day.”
Debbie is well known for her beautifully produced non-fiction picture books for children which include; Ko Mauao te Maunga: Legend of Mauao (Mauao Publishing, 2018), The Treaty of Waitangi in Tauranga: Te Tiriti o Waitangi ki Tauranga Moana (Mauao Publishing, 2018), Mōtītī Blue and the Oil Spill: A Story from the Rena Disaster (Mauao Publishing, 2014, Best Non-Fiction category winner NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults & White Raven selected by the International Youth Library in Munich) and Taratoa and the Code of Conduct: A Story from the Battle of Gate Pā (Mauao Publishing, 2014, finalist in the LIANZA Children’s and Young Adult’s Book Awards).
Eliza and the White Camellia: A Story of Suffrage in New Zealand is available as a quality hardback picture book with extra educational pages which include a New Zealand timeline, a
world suffrage timeline, suffrage activities, classroom activities, a suffrage quiz, a glossary, an index and fact boxes
throughout. “It was important to produce the best book possible,” says Debbie. “Providing extra information rounds out
Eliza’s story and helps teachers cover the topic of suffrage more easily in the classroom”.
Tauranga bookshop ‘Books A Plenty’ will be handling sales at the book launch, and currently have a window display of Eliza and the White Camellia: A Story of Suffrage in New Zealand in support of Suffrage 125. The book is available from all good bookshops throughout Aotearoa, and through Debbie’s
indie publishing business, Mauao Publishing www.facebook.com/pg/mauaopublishing/shop.
There will be a prize for the best dressed suffragist at the book launch on the 1st of December, to which people have
been asked to RSVP via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/book-launch-eliza-and-the-white-camellia-tickets-52689421478 “Proud to be a part of the Suffrage 125 national event programme”.