Today New Zealand celebrates White Camellia Day, also known as Kate Sheppard Day, or Suffrage Day. New Zealand was the 1st country in the world to give women the right to vote.  Universal suffrage was achieved on 19 September 1893: 9 years before Australia (1902),  27 years before women in the US were given the right to vote (1920), and 35 years before women in Britain could elect their own representatives (1927). The campaign for universal suffrage was led by a few notable women, including Kate Sheppard, who is commemorated on the NZ $10 note. For two decades leading up to 1893 these women wrote, campaigned, and petitioned, finally in 1893 assembling a petition with 31,872 verified signatures: the largest petition ever assembled in Australasia up until that point.  Pretty impressive considering that New Zealand’s population in 1893 was just over 700,000! Those who signed the petition and supported women’s suffrage were given a white camellia as thanks and to wear to signal their support, and the white camellia is still linked with women’s rights …