The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1934. THE “G.B.S.” WAY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19772, 13 April 1934, Page 8

The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1934. THE “G. 8.5.” WAY.

George Bernard Shaw’s broadcast farewell to the people of Sew Zealand, entailing, as it did, elaborate relaying arrangements to enable our distinguished visitor to speak to the people of New Zealand and Australia, hardly came up to expectations. When it was announced that Mr Shaw would speak on “Observations: Pertinent and Impertinent” the responsive ear of the people of New Zealand was turned to radio in the hope that the speaker would indulge in sparkling witty impressions on his visit to New Zealand. But Mr Shaw was in a serious mood, which hardly reveals him at his best. He was really somewhat heavy—a rare condition of mind for so versatile a speaker. Beyond indulging in a few obvious inanities, Mr Shaw’s speech was of such a character that it might have fallen from the lips of the everyday politician, who is such an aversion to our visitor. Introducing himself with a few pleasantries, in addressing his invisible audience, Mr Shaw set himself to point the way along which New Zealand should move in seeking the solution of the unemployment problem in the main, and all other problems after that. Perhaps there may be some theoretical solutions, which can be suggested by the man in the street, in relation to the return of the people to the land, but Mr Shaw ought to realise the plight to-day of the rural dwellers. The idea under this heading, propounded by Mr Shaw, is by no means new; indeed, we think it can be said that to follow Mr Shaw’s line of change, the country would be accepting the Communist idea of rural activities now in vogue in Russia, in which the individual family or groups of families who have their heritage in the land would be swept into the stream of land nationalisation, and vast territories would become large rural undertakings with the occupants living in community quarters. It is difficult to believe that Mr Shaw has given any • serious contemplation to the problem of land settlement in relation to present-day difficulties and obligations. Nevertheless, Mr Shaw made some striking references to the problem involved in the maldistribution of the abundant products of the fertile lands of New Zealand. Mr Shaw laid down the fundamental principle that no one in New Zealand should go short of food. Our literary visitor made particular reference to the child. In this Mr Shaw is absolutely sound in his observations, but whether his solutions are practicable is quite another matter. Mr Shaw suggests that just as municipalities provide abundant supplies of water for the use of the varied activities of the cities and towns of the day, so milk and bread should be supplied without cost to children. Mr Shaw did not wait to show how such drastic changes could be brought about; but the fact remains that no one in New Zealand desires that worthy people, particularly the young people, should go short of food. There is no disagreement on this point, but whether the community could carry out Mr Shaw’s proposals involving, as they do, the free distribution of milk and bread, need not be answered at the moment. Sufficient to say that the need for more adequate supplies of milk and bread, and indeed butter, being made available, stares the country in the face. Moreover, it cannot be denied that there is no shortage of produce; indeed, such adequate supplies are available; that one of the leading dairying authorities in the Dominion has suggested that a solution of the problem of disposing of the increased products of the dairying lands of New Zealand is to swallow the milk and butter. It is significant that at the very moment of Mr Shaw’s enunciation of his proposals for the largely increased consumption of milk and wheat products, in view of the congestion in the markets of the Homeland, comes the news that the Imperial Government is faced with the serious prospect of a large surplus of milk amounting to more than forty million gallons at a time when largely increased importations of dairy products from the Dominions are adding further to the difficulties of the day. Manifestly the problem of the over-supply of foodstuff’s and the under-supply of the necessaries of life, as far as millions of people in the world today, is exercising minds outside the everyday ranks of the economists. Bernard Shaw’s idea of free milk and free bread sounds revolutionary, but it is generally recognised that an obvious responsibility rests upon every enlightened community to find some way out of the maze into which the country has drifted; particularly in relation to the distribution of the products of the land which have come, it is worthy of note, with such uninterrupted abundance at the very moment that the monetary resources of the people are unequal to the strain of purchasing available commodities for the use of needy people.