MR BERNARD SHAW.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 110, 9 April 1934, Page 7

MR BERNARD SHAW.

CIVIC RECEPTION AT CHRISTCHURCH. Mr Bernard Shaw, who is visiting Christchurch, was accorded a civic reception to-day. The Mayor (Air D. Sullivan, M.P.) presided. Mr Shaw spoke in his customary whimsical manner, being at times very witty. He referred in favourable terms to New Zealand. Mr Shaw made reference to the architecture of the Old World and the New, specially eulogising the architecture of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Christchurch, which attracted his attention immediately he got there. New Zealand, stated the famous playwright, would be a very desirable country in which to live if only the people were free and did not have the party, system of politics. He said the farmer who had land of his own was free, but he worked sixteen hours a day, usually for the mortgagee. People wanted dictators, he added. Unless a Government could dictate to them it was not a Government. It was true that he had written a few novels, some plays, and criticisms of the fine arts, but probably they would soon be forgotten; in fact they were out of date already. His greatest claim to fame would probably be the six years he spent as a municipal councillor for South St. Pancras.