18 Facts About Ada Wells

Ada Wells was an English-born New Zealand feminist and social worker.

Ada Wells's parents emigrated to New Zealand with their four girls and one boy in 1873, arriving on the Merope in Lyttelton on 31 October of that year.

Ada Wells attended Avonside School from 1874, and Christchurch West High School in 1876, where she then worked as a pupil-teacher from 1877 to 1881.

Twelve years Ada Wells's senior, with a violent temper and fondness for alcohol, he was a poor financial manager.

Ada Wells was a teacher at St Albans School which was situated in a poor working class part of Christchurch.

In 1892, Ada Wells, pregnant, sought two months' leave of absence.

However, Ada was opposed by the headmaster, James Speight, who wrote a long letter on 'the delinquencies of Mrs Wells'.

In 1892, Ada Wells established the Canterbury Women's Institute with Professor Alexander Bickerton, an organisation similar to the Women's Franchise Leagues in other parts of the country; for many years, she was president.

From 1899 to 1906, Ada Wells was an elected member of the Ashburton and North Canterbury United Charitable Aid Board.

Ada Wells was associated with the Prison Gate Mission for the rehabilitation of ex-prisoners.

Ada Wells died in Christchurch on 22 March 1933 and was buried at the Waimairi Cemetery.

Ada Wells advocated a meatless diet and was a vegetarianism activist.

At the 1897 conference of the National Council of Women, Ada Wells promoted an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet.

Ada Wells authored magazine articles supportive of naturopathy and vegetarianism.

Ada Wells advocated for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act, which legislated for the compulsory inspection of women and detention on suspicion of carrying venereal disease.

Ada Wells campaigned for the corollary to women's suffrage, women's right to stand for Parliament.

In keeping with her educational background, Ada Wells was the City Council representative on the Board of Governors of Christchurch Technical College, where she was the sole woman member.

Ada Wells is represented in a fictional account of her life and those of her daughter, Bim, and fellow suffragist, Kate Sheppard.