By 1886, Steadman Aldis was complaining about dishonesty in New Zealand politicians, and Aldis had begun a letter-writing career that historian Keith Sinclair considered made her "for ten years, the most literate, persuasive, partisan, and advanced of writers in the columns of the local Press".[1] Both Aldis and her husband opposed the Contagious Diseases Act of 1869, under which women suspected of prostitution could be forcibly examined, and restrained for treatment.