VARIETY OF TOPICS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12617, 9 April 1934, Page 7

VARIETY OF TOPICS.

MR. BERNARD SHAW’S FEELING.

NOT ENERGETIC YOUNG MAN

‘ ‘Any country wliich Has human beings in it would make an ideal Socialist State/’ said _Mr Bernard Shaw, when discussing a wide variety of topical subjects during the •course of an interview with a Manawatu “Standard” reporter. “However,” he added, “you must remember that New Zealand has carried communal and State activities much further than older countries with large populations. “In England, for example, long before public institutions were felt to be necessary, there were groups of people known as the rich and social class, who had enough surplus money to pay for the provision of facilities. New Zealand people had not much money and consequently were forced to put communal methods into action. It has been a great advantage, but you must be careful to keep it up. “Probably in the future, when there is a reasonable distribution of leisure and work, every man will be able to pay his debt to society with three or four hours of service a day. People like myself will seek out ithe most mechanical work possible. I should like someone to make me a robot.

“I would like something requiring no thinking or brain work at all,” lie observed. “I then should not have to write for money. As a public speaker I am free of all that, though plenty of money is made out of me,” he said as he dwelt on the capitalisation process. f ‘l have never spoken in public for a farthing,” added Mr Shaw in answer to a query on these lines. “However, societies under whose auspices I have spoken have made the largest hauls possible. 4 'When I was a young man there was in England a Sunday society which sponsored lectures on art and was a standby for literary men, who were offered ten guineas for their services on the condition that no allusion must be made to religion or politics. I replied that I never spoke on any other subject, and always spoke in the most controversial manner possible on religion or politics. The society then informed me that _they were certain my good taste would not allow me to hurt the tender feelings or susceptibilities of some peopk?- They gladly accepted the terms on which I would lecture. I always believe that the people who pay the piper should call the tune. “When 1 arrived here agents from all over Australia, and New Zealand approached me with lecture proposals. People in New Zealand seem to have the impression that I am a young man 35 years of age, just beginning life. They do not know that I am played out.” “Nonsense,” suggested the interviewer. “It is a fact,” said Mr Shaw. 4 ‘l am an old man, and was substantially exhausted forty years ago.” A LITERARY PRESS. NEW ZEALAND NEWSPAPERS. ‘‘There is one very remarkable thing about New Zealand, and that is that it still lias a literary press immensely superior to the best English newspapers,” declared Mr Shaw. “In fact, the New Zealand standards would pass in England for those of a high-brow paper,” added Mr Shaw. “Some people do not realise that others cannot write. We do not mind writers who have at least read the Rible and Macaulay’s Essays. Although some modern illiterate journalists write quite well, it is so embarrassing to find people with no cultural learning and who, when Cain or Abel or the French Revolution is mentioned. really believe that it is the name of a horse or a greyhound. “It seems to me that the presentday standard of English literature, however,” he continued, “is very superior to that of the Victorian era. On the whole, I think that the level lias risen greatly, only, of course, for every one person writing in the Victorian era there are probably millions now, and that runs down the quality, and there are a number of illiterate people writing who have apparently never read anything but newspaper snippets. STANDARD OF PLAYS. “Oh, immeasurably and enormously superior,” declared Mr Shaw vigorously when asked, as a playwright, what he thought of the standard of present-day plays as compared with those, say, of half a century ago. “Present-day plays would he unrecognisable to the people of fifty years ago,” he said. “They would bo looked upon as impossible. Tt would be a good sign that to the eyes of the Victorian age they would have been regarded as rubbish. There are, too, much newer methods of presentation.

“Only,” counselled the visitor in conclusion, “if New Zealand does not make its own films it will soon become Americanised or, might we say, even Anglieanised.” PHOTOG R APHER S OB I AGED. MR. SH A W TN PA LM ER STON NORTH. Smiling and showing the greatest cordiality, Mr Shaw, just prior to his departure by car for Wellington, posed obligingly on the footpath outside Ins hotel for an admiring band of photographers, who immediately got busy. He then gave some of the bystanders a verv friendly handshake.' “Von r latest book arrived in Palmerston North yesterday,” he was informed. “Well, evervtliing seems quite ' peaceful here/’ was Mr Shaw’s parting shot. “It does not seem to have produced any remarkable effect.” He waved a farewell as the car left.