RECEPTION TO “G.B.S.

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXIX, Issue 89, 10 April 1934, Page 3

RECEPTION TO “G.B.S.

CHRISTCHURCH ENTHUSIASTIC 2000 AT CIVIC WELCOME (Per Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. Over 2000 people attended a civic reception to Mr. George Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Shaw to-day. The gathering was so large that it had to be changed from the Council Chambers to the Civic Theatre. Speeches of welcome .were made by the Mayor (Mr. D. G. Sullivan), the DeputyMayor (the Rev. J. K. Archer), and Professor Shelley. Mr. Shaw was given a tumultuous reception and was repeatedly applauded. He made a sparkling, witty speech, and again stated that Parliamentary institutions had qutlived their usefulness and a change seemed desirable. He praised New Zealand, and said that if he was starting all over again he would come here and make New Zealanders sit up. (Laughter.) However, that was only a threat, as his career had practically ended. Mr. Shaw commenced by 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 earth. You evidently have discovered the pitiful truth that I am the most amiable and harmless of human beings.” Mr. Shaw referred to the fact, apropos of the pleasure which he said he took in civic receptions, that he was for six years a member of a municipal council. .‘‘l 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 Years hence, when all my plays are forgotten and all my novels are out of date and there, is no literary enthusiasm about me, possibly it will be remembered that Shaw represented South St. Pancras.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.”

Independence Lacking. “I never voted on any questions except on the merits of the case,” Mr. Shaw stopped speaking and faced a 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 convicitons on a question before the House. “The question may be one of education; it may be one of foreign politics, or one of any number of innumerable questions, but when the 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 who have no responsibility—financial gentlemen and industrial gentlemen.” Dictatorship Question. Mr. 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 the Government governs on your present parliamentary system instead of on your municipal system it cannot govern because it does not dictate. You have no dictatorship of Parliament, but a dictatorship of financiers and industrialists outside Parliament.” After pointing out 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 rescue you from being slaves.” The majority of the people he had met, he said, had been slaves.