MR. BERNARD SHAW

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21765, 3 April 1934, Page 10

MR. BERNARD SHAW

VISIT TO THE CHATEAU f DAY AT COUNTRY SPORTS ASSISTED A LOST CHILD [UV TELEGRAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT] THE CHATEAU. Monday No previous visitor to the Chateau has attracted such widespread interest as Mr. George Bernard Shaw. He arrived on Friday afternoon. On Saturday he and Mrs. Shaw were taken by Mr. G. H. Clinkard, gcnferal manager of the Tourist Department, and Mr. R. Cobbe, manager of the Chateau, to the sports and axemen's carnival at Owhango, 16 miles south of Taumarunui. The news that ho would be prosent had spread rapidly and undoubtedly helped to increase the attendance, for there was a gathering of well over 2000 people at the sports. Mr. Shaw mixed freely with the crowd, walking about by himself and conversing with settlers and their wives when he wanted information about what was going on. Once he was seen holding by the hand a small child which had lost its parents and was showing the usual distress. He was particularly interested in the wood-chop-ping events. Mrs. Shaw, who comes from a io.vhunting district in the south of Ireland, showed an equal interest in the jumping competitions. When the sports were over, Mr. Shaw said he was delighted to have had an opportunity of meeting some of the people who, as he put it, were helping to make New Zealand the true pioneers. Yesterday Mr. Cobbe took Mr. and Mrs. Shaw over the new deviation on the Tokaanu Road. The party paid a visit to a camp occupied by prisoners engaged on road construction. Mr. Shaw, who has written much of a, critical nature upon the principle of imprisonment for crime, asked many questions of the warder in charge regarding the effect of an open-air life and country environment upon the men. Later the party visited a bush sawmill and inspected the plant and bush. The visitors greatly admired the magnificent views in the neighbourhood. Their car was the first to use the deviation, which had been made passable for motor traffic only just before the Easter holidays. Mr. Shaw did not leave the Chateau to-day, most of which he spent writing in the sun upon the balcony. The settlers' extraordinary interest in him was shown by an invasion of cars from far and near, laden with people who had come in the hope of at least obtaining a glimpse of such a famous man. One farmer from a very remote place brought his family nearly 50 miles over very rough roads. He was an Englishman to whom this contact with the great world apparently meant a good deal. Mr. and Mrs. Shaw will leave tomorrow morning by road for Wanganui and Palmerston North. They will go to Wellington on "Wednesday and board the Tamahinc the same afternoon for Picton. They intend to spend a fewdays at Nelson, returning at the weekend to Wellington, where Mr. Shaw proposes to remain until his departure for England by the Rangitane on April 13. A HAPPY ADDRESS MANY TOPICS DISCUSSED TRIBUTE TO LORD BLEDISLOE [by TELEGRAPH —OWN correspondent] TAUMARUNUI, Monday Mr. George Bernard Shaw entertained a gathering of nearly 250 guests at the Chateau last evening by making what might be described as a public appearance in the lounge, and inviting the assemblage to ask him questions, personal and otherwise. The invitation was readily accepted, and he was kept occupied in this way for over an hour. Queries on all manner of subjects, political. social and general, were directed at .him from every part of the room. Explaining that lie did not intend to make a speech, Mr. Shaw disparaged speeclimaking as a hindrance to democratic government, because, he said, electors were inclined, to choose representatives who were good entertainers, such as he himself had become, and nothing more. Asked what he thought of New Zealand's tourist attractions, he said lie did not think New Zealand was going to be a tourist country. He considered that it should be kept, for the recreation of its own workers. He had found the sights most interesting; the trouble was that when peoplo in other countries found out how interesting they were they would come in crowds and New Zeatanders would be tempted to give up some of their industries and become waiters. People thought he had come to >cw Zealand to see the Maoris, but he had come to see what the inhabitants generally were like and what was happening here. He believed that farming in New Zealand would have to become more scientific and that it would be necessary to change to collective farming on a large scale, dealing with thousands of acres at a time instead of hundreds. . Mr. Shaw warmly praised the Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe. New Zealand, he said, was extraordinarily lucky to have him. He was a very enlightened and stimulating man, very interested in New Zealand. "He is the first out-and-out New Zealnnder I have met," Mr. Shaw added. "He understands what a wonderful place New Zealand is and what a still more wonderful place it may become." New Zealand would have to acquire new political ideas and new religions ideas, because the country would need a great deal more religion that it had had iu the past. A great deal of what was called religion was not religion at all; indeed, some of it might be called anti-religion. . Mr. Shaw closed the discussion by suggesting that he might be allowed to' move a hearty vote of thanks to himself. As he was about to depart the gathering sang "For He s a .loll,\ Good Fellow" with great enthusiasm. NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS IMPRESSIONS OF DOMINION [by telegraph—own correspondent J WANGANUI, Monday Writing to Wanganui from Wairakei in replv to the question whether he observed that. New Zoalandors had developed separate national characteristics Mr. George Bernard Shaw said, iSo, it is the other wav about. The characteristics of the British Islanders have changed so much in this century. I hey no longer resemble the Knghshmen or the nineteenth century; New Zcalanders resemble them very strongly, and consequently there is now a marked difference, but it is the Englishman who has changed, not the New Zoalander. I, being an old Victorian, am much more at home here than i" London. You are quite natural to me, but to the English visitor born after 1900 you probably appear quaint, foreign and incredible—but that is only my guess, since you ask me for one." Mr* Shaw said the whole world was being Americanised by Hollywood, which, by the way, was not typically American. "You must really learn to make your own 'talkies' or you will lose your souls without even getting American ones," he said. "The tendency is no worse in Now Zealand than elsewhere, not anything like so strong as in British slums and suburbs."