NEW NEW ZEALANDERS, NEW DRINK, NEW SHAW

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25891, 25 August 1949, Page 4

NEW NEW ZEALANDERS, NEW DRINK, NEW SHAW

NEVILE WEBBER]

[By

LONDON DIARY

London, August 16.—The party given bV the Overseas League last Friday to 21 young Britons bound for New Zealand showed me how realistically parents are taking the migration of their children, These children, from 17 families, are the first to be sent out under the child migration scheme to New Zealanders who. are not relatives. The stepmother of three of the children told me that their father, a stoker, thought this opportunity of starting life in a new country too good to miss. Gordon Bell (12) his twin brother and sister. William and Ann (7). are going to the farm of Mr and Mrs V. Wright, Methven. Eating huge cream cakes, they told me ‘they were all going to be farmers, too. Mrs Burford, mother of the youngest member of the party, Maureen, aged six, has three other children. “It’s a wonderful chance for Maureen.” she said. “I only wish we could all go.” Maureen’s home will be with Mr and Mrs F. G. Sheppard, Messines road. Wellington. Although no mother or father likes to see children departfrig so far, all the parents I spoke to had made up their minds to a sacrifice for their children’s good, to give them a real chance in life. Bright-eyed, eager for the future, these 21 children should make first-class New Zealanders. Oval Test As before when our cricket team has been playing in London, the New Zealand colony was well represented in the packed crowd on Saturday at Kennington Oval for the last test. The Oval is without the ivy, the dignity, and the cooing pigeons of Lord’s. The Oval’s small stands are not yet creepercovered, the atmosphere is lighter, and round rhe boundary hop sparrows; not pigeons. From the great blocks of. flats which sprround the ground on three sides—the huge gasometer takes up the fourth—at least 1000 watched the play free of charge. As the afternoon were on and the scoring became slower and slower many New Zealanders began to think of the other test in South Africa. This is small news in Britain. The radio gave the bare result and most newspapers carried only a five-line report. Dollar Tourists The British press this summer has freely criticised the sort of entertainment provided for the welcome dollar tourists from the United States. Hotels, meals, and service have all been under reproach. I have spoken to many trans-Atlantic tourists and have not found them complaining. They say they did not come to England for luxury and big meals. They came to see Britain because it was Britain and to see the British way of life. Most of them display a very intelligent interest in the history of old buildings and customs herQ. and they ask some very penetrating questions. In U.S.A, it seems to be the newest things and inventions that attract; in Britain, the oldest and quaintest. Street Shows Last night in Charing Cross road, for the third time I watched a man escape from a heavy mail bag after being tightly bound with 100 feet of chain. Before he got into the bag his arms had been tied behind his back and his feet manacled. The chainer and manacler is also the patter man, and so good is he that the money rattles into the ring at each perform-

ance as musically as the brandished chain. A goliceman told me that the two make about £3O a week from their kerbside stage. That is only one of the many shows to be seen in every London street. Most of the performers are musicians: their instruments range from barrel organs to saxophones. Broken-down opera singers are among the performers, too. One of the best acts is put on outside Waterloo station, where a three-man band entertains the bus queuers at rush times. I have noticed that it is nearly always the not-so-well-dressed who pitch a coin into the grimy hats. Bluff Oysters in Sheffield Bottles A new drink fast becoming popular is oyster stout. This is made by mixing one gallon of New Zealand oyster concentrate with 180 gallons of stout; it is sold here in London at Is 3d a bottle, a penny more than ordinary stout. The restaurant proprietor who served i©e with a glass of it said that a contract is being negotiated to supply it on the Queen Elizabeth. The Canadian Pacific Railways already serve it. Two big Sheffield breweries are backing oyster stout; and so the Bluff oyster industry has a new market.

The Inexhaustible The play that has evoked most interest at the Malvern Festival is “Buoyant Billions.” by Bernard Shaw, still ebullient at 93. While the critics find there is a lot in it that Mr Shaw has said before, they agree that he ha« said it just as wittily and neatly as he did in his prime, 50 years ago. Thia “comedy of no manners.” Gays Shaw, in the proper Shavian style, is “the best I can do in my dotage.” Thirteen characters discuss all sorts of topical subjects from taxation (characteristic emphasis on money) to atomic warfare. This tireless teacher tells the world that there are too many teachers and not enough learners. Alan Dent says of the play: “It is at once footling, brilliant, wise. It is both shallow and profound. It is at the same time and exasperating.*’ Gold Coast Chief’s Soc. Sec. Spectacles More grandiose than the New Zealand scheme, British social security undertakes to provide free spectacles and free dental treatment—besides free wigs and corsets and many other things. Several services have almost broken down under the demand. Last month I wanted a tooth stopped. No State dentist could take me under four weeks. I had it fixed within three days, however, in Harley street, but at my own expense. It is the same with spectacles. If you want State spectacles (and millions do) you will wait up to a year; if you want ti em sooner, you pay. Visitors to Britain also are entitled to benefits. The brilliantly garbed Chief Nil Kwabena from the Gold Coast, has been much publicised as a beneficiary, as well as for other reasons. He arrived with a flourish and a wide smile, said he had come to get a pair of free spectacles, and in three days, to everyone’s surprise, he had them. Mr Jordan Answered

The High Commissioner (Mr Jordan), walking downstairs after a recent London reception, remarked to a stout old char on the landing that like life it was a lot easier to go down stairs than up. “Ah, I always says, sir,” she replied, “it takes a live fish to swim up-stream but any dead one can go down.”