MR JOHN BURNS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21358, 11 June 1931, Page 7

MR JOHN BURNS

FAMOUS LABOUR LEADER’S “RETURN.” (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, April 23. For 17 years Mr John Burns, the famous Labour leader, has not appeared in public. Last Friday night, however, he attended a dinner given by the Garden Cities and Town Planning Association. It was Mr John Burns, who is now 72, who was president of the Local Government Board in 1009. He piloted through Parliament the first Town Planning Act. “ I was born in a slum,” he said, in the course of his speech, “and it was that fact more than any other that made me a town planner. Having slept both in Windsor Castle and Pentonville, I consider I am a competent authority. He recalled how, when studying town planning, he went to Germany, and there learned what to avoid. He preferred the teachings of two Englishmen, Christopher Wren and John Evelyn. „ ... , “ In every aspect, from the cottage to the castle, give me the English conception of home life,” he said. Speaking of the fight to get the Bill through Parliament, he likened himself to Saint Sebastian. “ I had arrows shot at me from all quarters, but I survived the ordeal and we got the Bill. But I will tell you a secret. I nearly went under on the subject of back-to-back houses —the greatest injustice ever inflicted on the industrial poor. We received a deputation advocating such houses, and Mr Asquith said, ‘ What am I to do?’ I said, ‘Leave them to me,’ and, like the sensible man he was, he did so.” “MOBILITY WITHOUT NOBILITY.” One deputation he received consisted of four or five peers. He argued and reasoned with them, quoted Shakespeare, Themistocles, and Pericles to them, and in the end sent them on their pensive way. In an outburst against motorists, Mr Burns declared there was too much “ mobility without nobility,” and that our roads were becoming unfenced railways, to the detriment of the pedestrians and also of the motorist himself. He protested against the highways being cluttered with ,•" ugly, silly, greasy, wasteful, redundant oil stations, which are a disgrace to everybody connected with them.” _ Mr Burns carries his 72 years lightly, and the stocky figure is still alert. His voice is full and resonant, and he spoke without effort for nearly an hour.