:For the

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politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

, see '' Mary Bentley.'' Mary Ann Moore-Bentley also known as Mary Ling

Mary Ann Moore-Bentley, also known as Mary Ling (6 January 1865 – 1 September 1953), was an Australian writer and parliamentary candidate. Born in Braidwood to English-born

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...

s George Bentley and Mary Ann, ''née'' Moore, young Mary and her two younger brothers was primarily educated at home by her mother. She and her sister visited the

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in 1879, but when their money ran out they were forced to work as domestic servants. In 1880 the family settled at

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and Mary became a nursemaid to the children of Colonel Charles Roberts. She married postal clerk Henry Hill Ling on 3 September 1889 at the Salvation Army barracks in Burwood; they separated in 1897 and divorced in 1906. Moore-Bentley's first novel was rejected in 1890; she published ''A Woman of Mars; or, Australia's Enfranchised Woman'' in 1901. A Georgist, she joined the

Single Tax League The Single Tax League was a Georgist Australian political party that flourished throughout the 1920s and 1930s based on support for single tax. Based upon the ideas of Henry George, who argued that all taxes should be abolished, save for a sing ...

in 1901 and was appointed to its council, although she only attended two meetings. In 1903, under the name "Mary Ann Moore Bentley", she was one of four women to contest the 1903 federal election, the first at which women were eligible to stand, although she was not formally supported by the league. Contesting the Senate in New South Wales, she described herself as "the working woman's candidate" and support

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, abolition of state parliaments and a

state bank A state bank is generally a financial institution that is chartered by a federated state, as opposed to one regulated at the federal or national level. State banks differ from a reserve bank in that it does not necessarily control monetary polic ...

in addition to Georgism. She received 18,924 votes (6.1%), outpolling the other New South Wales Senate candidate,

Nellie Martel Ellen Alma "Nellie" Martel, (; 30 September 1855 – 11 August 1940) was an English-Australian suffragist and elocutionist. She stood for the Senate at the 1903 federal election, one of the first four women to stand for federal parliament. ...

, by 400 votes. By 1906, Moore-Bentley's relations with her brothers, her nearest neighbours at Bangor where she lived, grew tense. ''A Psychological Interpretation of the Gospel'' (January 1917) received a US publication in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and Moore-Bentley sailed to America later that year; she was repatriated at government expense in 1918 and blamed her disappointing time in America on the "

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" and the Australian government's misrepresentation of her anti- conscription activities. She retired to Menai, writing poems and children's stories. In 1943 she was committed to the Mental Hospital at Stockton in

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, where she died in 1953. Her memoir, ''Journey to Durran Durra 1852–1885'', which was written around 1935, was published in 1983.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore-Bentley, Mary 1865 births 1953 deaths Australian writers 19th-century Australian women 20th-century Australian women Georgists