Just a quick post to cheer up our followers before the weekend.
On April 8th, 1934 the Shaws visited Christchurch as part of their tour across New Zealand. During an impromptu reception in their hotel lounge, he was told "about the New Zealand
Moa, a wingless bird. Shaw jokes: 'It sounds like a politician to me. One of
those politicians who haven't the slightest knowledge of politics.'"
I found this quotation on page 297 of Gibbs's A Bernard Shaw Chronology, one of those books that is full of amusing anecdotes and sourced Shaw one-liners. A joy to read!
By the way, if you want to know a little more about the hotel the Shaws stayed in, here's an interesting fragment of a documentary that recounts the history of this former hotel, now a home made museum.
To finish with, let me recommend you digitalnz.org - a fantastic digitizing initiative from the antipodes (for those of you reading this from western Europe, of course). They have a nice collection of pictures of Shaw and other printed materials. Definitely worth a look.
Shaw's visit to New Zealand was such a momentous occasion that there was extensive newspaper coverage. All his interviews ended up being transcribed, word for word, in a book you can read online here.
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