MR BERNARD SHAW

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 110, 9 April 1934, Page 2

MR BERNARD SHAW

3.45 P.M. EDITION

WARM CHRISTCHURCH RECEPTION. CHARACTERISTIC SPEECH. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, April 9. Over two thousand attended the civic reception to Mr Bernard Shaw and Mrs Shaw to-day, the gathering being so large that the venue had to be changed from the Council Chambers to the Civic Theatre. Speeches of welcome were made by the Mayor (Mr D. G. Sullivan, M.P.), the Deputy-Mayor (Rev. J. K. Archer) and Professor Shelley. Mr Shaw was given a tumultous reception and was repeatedly applauded. He made a sparkling and witty speech and again stated that Parliamentary institutions had outlived their usefulness and that a change seemed desirable. He praised New Zealand and said if he was starting over again lie would come here and “make the New Zealanders sit up.” (Laughter.) However, that was only a threat, as his career had practically ended. “I have never voted on any question, except on the merits of the case.” Mr Shaw stopped speaking and faced a silent audience. “I can feel in that silence,” he said, “that you’re incredulous. No member of Parliament can. make that statement and no member of Parliament on any single occasion has been able to vote according to his convictions on a question before the House. The question may bo one of education, it may be. one of foreign politics, or one of any number of innumerable questins, hut when the division is taken he votes not on the question but on whether or not his party is to remain in power, or whether he is to face an election in the next fortnight. Under these circumstances, as far as Parliament is concerned, the country does not get governed at all by Parliament; it gets governed very effectually by gentlemen who are outside Parliament and have no responsibility, financial gentlemen and industrial gentlemen.”

Mr Sha-w referred to the fact that people accused him that he wanted a dictator. “What,” he asked, “do you elect men to govern you for? How’ can any Government govern without dictating? If the Government goes on your present Parliamentary system instead of your municipal system it cannot govern, because it does not dictate. You have no dictatorship of Parliament, but a dictatorship of financiers and industrialists outside Parliament.”

After pointing out that this could never lead to the right system, Mr Shaw said that the real dictators did not argue with these who sought reforms. “What do they do?” he said. “They say ‘that man is an enemy of liberty, that man w’ants to put an end to democracy.’ I do not want to make slaves of you,” said Mr Shaw. “I want to rescue you from being slaves.” The majority of the people he had met, he said, had been slaves. Mr Shaw commenced by humorously remarking that it appeared as though lie had at least been thoroughly found out. “I came here with a reputation, so I gathered from your newspapers, of being perhaps the most ill-natured man on earth. You evidently have discovered the pitiful truth that I am the most amiable and harmless of human beings.’-’ Mr Shaw referred to the fact, apropos of plcasure ; which he said he took in civic receptions, that he had been for six years a member of a municipal council. “I was probably more useful during those six years than I have been at any other period in my career,” he said, “and yet nobody ever congratulates me on that. Years hence, when all my plays are forgotten and all my novels are out of date, and there is no literary enthusiasm about me, possibly it will be remembered that Shaw represented South St. Paneras. I learned a good deal from that experience. Usually I was in a minority of one.”