LARGE CROWD

Southland Times, Issue 22295, 10 April 1934, Page 6

LARGE CROWD

MR SHAW’S RECEPTION CEREMONY SHIFTED TO THEATRE HUMOROUS REMARKS (Per United Press Association.) Christchurch, April 9. Over 2000 people attended a civic reception to Mr George Bernard Shaw and Mrs Shaw to-day. The gathering was 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, the Rev. J. K. Archer, and Professor Shelley. Mr Shaw was given a tumultuous reception and was repeatedly applauded. He made a sparkling pithy speech and again stated that parliamentary institutions had outlived their usefulness and a change seemed desirable. He praised New Zealand, and said if starting over again he would come here and “make New Zealanders sit up.” (Laughter.) However, he added, that was only a threat, as his career had practically ended. Mr Shaw commenced humorously, remarking that it appeared as though he had at last been thoroughly found out. “I came here, with the reputation, so I gathered from your newspapers, of being perhaps the most ill-natured man on the earth,” he said. “You evidently have discovered the pitiful truth that I am the most amiable and harmless of human beings.” Member of a Council. Mr Shaw referred to the fact, apropos of the pleasure 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 Years hence, when all my plays are forgotten and all my novels are out-of-date and there is no literary enthusiasm about me, possibly it will be remembered that Shaw represented South St. Pancras. I learned a good deal from that experience. Usually I was in a minority of one. “I never voted on any question except on the merits of the case.” He stopped speaking and faced the silent audience. “I can feel in that silence,” he said, “your incredulity. No member of Parliament can make that statement. No member of Parliament on any single occasion has been able to vote according to his convictions on the question before the House. The question may be one of education; it may be one of foreign policies; or one of any number of innumerable questions; but, when a 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.” Government Must Dictate. Mi’ Shaw referred to the fact that people accused him of wanting a dictator. “What,” he asked, “do you elect men to govern you for? How can any government govern without dictating? If government goes on according to your present Parliamentary system, instead of your municipal system, it cannot govern, because it does not dictate. You have no dictatorship of Parliament, but dictatorship of financiers and industrialists outside Parliament.” After stating that this could never lead to the right system, Mr Shaw said that real dictators did not argue with those who sought reforms. “What do they do?” he said, “They say: ‘That man is an enemy of liberty. That man wants to put an end to democracy.’ “I do not want to make slaves of you,” said Mr Shaw. “I want to secure you from being slaves.” The majority of the people he had met, he said, had been slaves.