LOW’S CARTOONS.

Wairarapa Age, 15 March 1933, Page 4

LOW’S CARTOONS.

WORK OF A GREAT & GIFTED NEW ZEALANDER. MR. J. A. BRAILSFORD'S SURVEY. OPENING OF W.E.A. SESSION. That gifted New Zealander, David Low, and his cartoons were the subject of an. illustrated lecture delivered by Mr. J. A. Brailsford, 8.A., to a large audience in the Municipal Lecture Hall last evening. The lecture was the first of the W.E.A. session ia Masterton. There was great need in these difficult times, Mr. Brailsford observed in opening, for the honest study of fundamental things. It had to be honest study and that was where David Low came in. Low belonged to the "Not for sale" tribe;. He was one of those who demanded the right to seek the truth and follow it wherever it might lead, regardless of commercial or other interests. Low was classed as taking a leading place amongst the world's great cartoonists. A New Zealander by birth, Low went to England, with/ success in. Australia’ behind him, after the war. He was born in Christchurch. in. 1891 and. started; drawing at a very early age. At the age of twelve he published a few cartoons in a little paper called the "Spectator." Though he had received little instruction in drawing, he was now regarded by some at least as the world's leading cartoonist.. The 1 ideas expressed in his cartoons were the outcome of constant thought and study. He knew his politics. Of the politicians whom he satirised, he was perhaps more severe on Winston Churchill than on anyone else. Yet Churchill wrote and asked him to. sell! the original of a cartoon in which he (Churchill) figured. Low sent him the drawing as a gift. The cartoonist spent about four hours on the actual drawing of each cartoon and drew four .per week. He had mellowed in his later work, but was as courageous as ever.

The middle part of the lecture was an interesting running commentary on lantern slides of many of Low's most famous cartoons.

Ia concluding, Mr. Brailsford said that Low claimed the right to sav in tutF w eS he fel ‘ t 0 be the truth. He risked unpopularity. The cartoonist had maintained that there riionld o^ 80 ?- . Why pictorial satire should be spiritless and tame. The J tne real interests of £he pretended to represent P i- \ hey politicians, the ores, ‘ apphed to church, to some Lv.'l . r d even to the S. 40 ‘' N - Wo;®Tot f ± more men « Low/,^““ 1 . th , ey ot (Applause.) P ]eaderwa?:n ’ e Xdu°eti^ W to an a d Cart °° n 9 lectures by Mr B» j o f®™ 8 of six