MORNING RECEPTION

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25551, 20 July 1948, Page 2

MORNING RECEPTION

MR AND MRS J. BOSTOCK WELCOMED At the invitation of the Mayor (Mr E. H. Andrews) members of the Civic Music Council and representatives of cultural groups in Christchurch met at an informal gathering held in the Mayor’s room, City Council Chambers, yesterday morning to welcome Mi J. Bostock, representative in New Zealand of the British Council, and Mrs Bostock. Though the British Council wa: founded as late as 1935 and became active in 1940, its importance could be gauged from the fact that it now was represented in 60 countries, the Mayor said. He felt that the promotion of cultural relations among countries could help to calm the turmoil and turbulence of the world to-day. On behalf of the city, he welcomed Mr and Mrs Bostock and said he hoped to have Mr Bostock’s help in arranging the centennial celebrations in 1950.

“We at Canterbury University College have concrete reason to be grateful to the British Council for the gift of a magnificent consignment of British music,” said Dr. Vernon Griffiths, speaking for the music committee of the Civic Music Council. The British Council, Dr. Griffiths continued, existed to establish co-operation in cultural work between Britain and other countries. It did not tell a country what to do; it found out what each country wanted to do and then did all in its power to help. “It does not force culture upon a community, it helps a nation to develop its own culture and supplies it with examples of the highest standards of cultural arts achieved in England. It will help us in New Zealand if we help ourselves,” said Dr. Griffiths, “and it emphasises the need for us to do the best we can for ourselves.”

“I’m getting in early,’’ said Mr zA E. Flower (president of the Canterbury Society of Arts) after thanking the British Council for what it had already done culturally in the Dominion. “For our centennial,” he continued, “we are hoping to obtain a really good” loan collection of art from Britain, and I want the help of Mr Bostock, of the citizens of Christchurch, of the City Council, and of the Government.” After the collection had been exhibited in Christchurch Mr Flower thought it could be taken to other parts of the Dominion, and perhaps to Australia. In thanking the Mayor and the other speakers for the welcome given to his wife and himself, Mr Bostock said he could claim for the British Council that its basis was sound, its ideals right, and its results good. He hoped the help given by the British Commonwealth and other countries would be reciprocal.