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A Popular Vision
Victoria University Press
Victoria University of Wellington
PO Box 600 Wellington
© Rachel Barrowman 1991
isbn 0 86473 2I7 1
First published 1991
This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without the permission of the publishers
Published with the assistance of a grant from the Historical Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs
Printed in Hong Kong through Bookprint Consultants Limited, Wellington
I am greatly indebted to the many people who shared with me their recollections of left-wing politics and culture in the 1930s and 1940s, and those who made available papers and photographs. I would especially like to acknowledge with gratitude the assistance and generosity of the late Winston Rhodes. Bert Roth has also been extremely generous in sharing his knowledge and personal archive of left and labour history. This book began as an MA thesis completed in the History Department of Victoria University of Wellington in 1987. I would like to thank Jock Phillips, my supervisor, for his encouragement and guidance. A six-month Fellowship at the Historical Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs enabled me to undertake additional research and revise the manuscript. The publication of this book has also been assisted by a Historical Branch publications grant to Victoria University Press. I would like to thank Fergus Barrowman for commenting on and proofreading the drafts of my thesis and for his editorial advice on revising it. Thanks are also due to Stephen Danby who shared the task of proofreading the thesis, Geoff Short who did research for me in Hamilton, Alison Southby at Victoria University Press who copy-edited the manuscript, and Jane Hurley who did the final proofreading. I am also grateful for the support of Bill Oliver and Claudia Orange and other staff at the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Finally, thanks to my family and friends, especially Hugh, for their support and patience.
To My Mother
'There was nothing In the larder but sour milk and a few grey potatoes. In the salon there were piles of the G. Texidor, New Statesman and a shelf of Left Book Club books.'These Dark Glasses, in Texidor, In Fifteen Minutes You Can Say A Lot. Selected Fiction. Ed. and with an introduction by K. Smithyman. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1987, p.26These Dark Glasses (1949), which describes a group of left-wing intellectuals taking time out in a villa in the south of France during the Spanish Civil War. The bright orange or dull red covers of the Left Book Club volumes are one of the most familiar icons of the Popular Front period, a time when many writers, artists and intellectuals became involved in political activity or identified themselves with the left-wing cause in opposition to the rise of fascism. The Left Book Club is one of a number of left-wing cultural organisations established in New Zealand in the late 1930s and the early 1940s which form the subject of this book: the influence of the left in New Zealand literary culture in these two decades.
In the standard literary history of New Zealand the 30s and 40s have been identified as the country's moment of cultural awakening. According to this history, New Zealand found its distinctive literary voice, and attained a stage of cultural maturity, in the poetry of those who have come to be known collectively as the 'Phoenix group'—principally Tomorrow from 1935; and in John Mulgan's 1939 novel, Man Alone. In 1945 two major anthologies of New Zealand writing were published, works which identified a new kind of New Zealand literature as having emerged in the previous two decades: Allen Curnow's A Book of New Zealand Verse 1923-45) and Frank Sargeson's short story anthology Speaking for Ourselves. Major statements of the manifesto of cultural nationalism appeared in the 1940s. Curnow's introduction to the Book of New Zealand Verse was the most important of these, but the essential themes of the
Discovered Isles trilogy of essays (1940-6) and Creative Problems in New Zealand (1948).
It was the poets who led the renaissance. Some who are identified with the literary nationalist movement, such as Phoenix in 1932. Phoenix was one of a handful of outspoken, and short-lived, political and literary magazines which emerged from the university colleges in the depression years. At Victoria the Free Discussions Club produced Student, a journal of strongly left-wing political comment, and at Canterbury College there was Denis Glover's single issue Oriflamme, effectively banned because of an article advocating 'free love', and its equally ephemeral successor Sirocco.
Ibid., pp.16,18Phoenix showed more stamina than its counterparts by running to four issues, the first two edited by James Bertram, the third and fourth by Phoenix, Mar. 1932 (v.1, n.1), pp.[2], [1]Kowhai Gold anthology. In fact, there was nothing particularly 'New Zealand' about the content of Phoenix. Its authors, who included Curnow, Brasch, Glover, Fairburn and Mason, were keenly aware of and influenced by contemporary developments in poetry in England, to some extent by the young leftish poets, Auden, Spender, MacNeice and Day Lewis, but more so by the slightly older New Adelphi the first Phoenix was modelled. Phoenix went on to produce in the 1930s and 1940s a literature which was earnestly concerned with the task of discovering 'the local meanings of reality', of making New Zealand 'a home for the imagination'.Discovered Isles. A Trilogy. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1950, p.83; A Curnow, A Book of New Zealand Verse 1923-45. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1945, p.18
The Phoenix movement was not as original, or originating, as it perceived itself to be, notably unaware of New Zealand literary history, and acutely
The 30s can more justifiably be described as a cultural beginning in New Zealand publishing. D. Glover, Typographical Printing Today', in Phoenix was distinguished from its counterparts not only by the role it proclaimed for itself and the writers it supported, but by its quality of production. It was here, Denis Glover later wrote, that New Zealand's 'typographical renaissance' began.An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand Wellington: Government Printer, 1966, v.2, pp.871-2Phoenix poets, along with stories by Frank Sargeson and essays by Bookseller-, 3418, 26 June 1971, pp.2594-7; 'Book Production in New Zealand', Studio, Apr. 1948 (v.135, n.661), pp.130-1
The same period was also marked by the foundation of state patronage of the arts in New Zealand. The centennial publishing programme—which produced the multi-volume Historical Surveys series and the magazine-format Pictorial Surveys—was one of an impressive number of cultural initiatives undertaken by the first Labour government. During that government's first term of office the Broadcasting Act 1936 brought all areas of broadcasting under state control and the Country Library Service was established. The centennial supported a wide range of government-backed cultural activities, including literary and art
P. Fraser, Apr. 1948, quoted in
One recipient of the Labour government's beneficence towards the arts was the literary quarterly Landfall founded by Charles Brasch in 1947 with Literary Fund assistance. Landfall provided, for the first time since the demise of the left-wing fortnightly Tomorrow in 1940, a regular medium for the publication and discussion of New Zealand literature; and unlike Tomorrow, one devoted specifically to literature and the arts. It represented in more than one sense an institutionalisation of the Phoenix movement: Landfill expressed a philosophy and programme similar to that of the first Phoenix, looking to the validating standards of European culture while at the same time announcing that New Zealand literature had 'come of age'. As Phoenix defined the function of literature as 'the creation of cultural antennae, the communication of definite standards of taste', so Landfall claimed for literature a spiritualising and prescriptive role: the maintenance of'a single scale of values'.Phoenix, Mar. 1932 (v.1, n1i), p. [1]; 'Notes', Landfall, Mar. 1947 (v.1, n.1), p.3Landfall, along with the cultural initiatives of the Labour government and the development of New Zealand publishing, contributed to a significant expansion of the infrastructure of cultural and intellectual activity in New Zealand over this period. That development provides the broad context of this book.
The story of the 1930s and 1940s this book tells is different from the received cultural history, which has to a large extent been told by the actors themselves, and has been the story of the nationalist literary renaissance. This is the story of a left-wing cultural movement which was contemporaneous with, and in important ways related to, the rise of cultural nationalism. This movement drew its immediate stimulus from the international political events of the 1930s and the early 1940s, the rise of fascism and the world war; but it was also a response to local cultural conditions. And it was to play a very important part in the development of New Zealand culture in these decades.
In New Zealand the influence of the left was felt not so much in cultural production, in fiction, poetry, drama and the visual arts, as in the infrastructure of culture: in bookselling, publishing and theatre. This book is not then
Man Alone carries a Marxist theme in its depiction of the impact of economic forces upon society and the individual, and the novel's final section, in which the protagonist, Johnson, enlists in the International Brigade to fight in the Spanish Civil War, can be read as an affirmation of a socialist vision of international brotherhood. But there are stronger themes in Man Alone—of the legacy of war, of individual alienation, and of the struggle of 'man' against a hostile land. John A. Lee's novels, Children of the Poor (1934) and The Hunted (1936), expressed a 1930s concern with the lives of the working class. They present a grim portrayal of the life of the urban poor, in the genre of social realism, as does Robin Hyde's Passport to Hell (1936). Hyde's successor to that novel, Nor the Years Condemn (1938), surpassed the work of both her male contemporaries as a novel of perceptive social criticism, informed by a socialist humanism and feminism, and it provides an important contrast to the nationalist mythologising that has surrounded Man Alone, Sargeson and the poetry of the Phoenix group.
Some of those poets, notably Curnow, Fairburn and Glover, produced a considerable body of topical, satirical verse in the 30s and 40s, but on the whole their 'serious' writing did not address explicit political themes. There were few 'facile tributes to the proletariat' (Letters andArt in New Zealand. Wellington: Department of
Internal Affairs, 1940, p.189; Enemies. Poems 1934-36, Tomorrow, 28 Apr. 1937 (v.3, n.13), p.415 10 J. Shelley, 'Canterbury Society of Arts
Annual Exhibition', Art in New Zealand, June 1934 (v.6, n.4), p.178Tomorrow and the wartime publication New Zealand New Writing, both of which are discussed in this book, were the principal media in which social realism in prose and political poetry were published, but only a small amount of their literary content came into these categories.
The New Zealand art world also remained largely untouched by the currents of international politics in the 1930s, just as it remained on the whole uninfluenced by the modernist and surrealist movements, which, by contrast, transformed Australian art in this period. James Shelley wrote in a review of the Canterbury Society of Arts exhibition in 1934: 'There is very little evidence... that anything is going on in New Zealand other than the flow of rivers along shingle-beds, the growing of trees, the sleeping of hills and the rolling of clouds'.Letters andArt in New Zealand. Wellington: Department of
Internal Affairs, 1940, p.189; Enemies. Poems 1934-36, Tomorrow, 28 Apr. 1937 (v.3, n.13), p.415 10 J. Shelley, 'Canterbury Society of Arts
Annual Exhibition', Art in New Zealand, June 1934 (v.6, n.4), p.178
The 1930s saw significant developments in left-wing and workers' film movements in Britain, America and Europe, with the establishment of organisations such as Kino and the documentary film units sponsored by government agencies in Britain, and the New York-based Nykino group in America. But there was no left-wing film movement in New Zealand. This was despite the visit to this country of British documentary film maker John Grierson in 1940, at the invitation of the Labour government. The result of Grierson's visit was the National Film Unit and its Weekly Review newsreels, which concentrated on tourist publicity, news items and war propaganda.
The example of left-wing cultural movements overseas had the most direct influence in New Zealand in the medium of theatre. Although relatively little New Zealand left-wing drama was written, left theatre groups were formed in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin in the late 1930s and the 1940s. These form the subject of chapter six. This book also looks at Tomorrow, journal of the intellectual left, which was published from 1934 until 1940, when it offended the sensitivities of the Labour government and was effectively suppressed; the Left Book Club, an organisation founded in England in 1936, which had 26 branches in New Zealand and provided a major focus for left-wing discussion, social and some cultural activity in the late 1930s; cooperative bookshops which were established in Auckland, Wellington, Christ-church and Dunedin; and the Progressive Publishing Society, a brave though short-lived venture which was inspired by both socialist and nationalist ideals.
The Progressive Publishing Society brought together interests in national and socialist culture. The connection between the left and nationalist cultural
Tomorrow written by Tomorrow magazine, of which Rhodes was one of the founders, was not only the major forum for debate within the intellectual left in New Zealand in the 1930s; it also provided the only regular medium for the publication of New Zealand literature and was the most important forum for the discussion of cultural, as well as political, economic and social, affairs in New Zealand. It has an importance in the cultural and intellectual history of this period far greater than the largely symbolic stature accorded to the shorter-lived Phoenix. The story of Tomorrow serves here to describe the cultural and intellectual climate of New Zealand in the 1930s which was the common background out of which the left-wing and nationalist cultural movements developed.
Fascism and the threat of war dominated the course of international politics in the 1930s, and in consequence the consciousness of many writers, artists and intellectuals. At the beginning of the decade the depression had exerted a radicalising influence upon the intellectual community in western countries. But it was the threat of fascism, and the cumulative impact of the international political crises of the 30s—Manchuria, Abyssinia, Spain, China, Austria and Czechoslovakia, leading, with frightening inevitability, to the outbreak of war— which had a greater influence in turning many to the left. The increasing urgency of events on the world stage, building upon the existing apprehension of a crisis of capitalism, was the catalyst for the rise of a broadly based movement against fascism, both a political and a cultural movement, which was known as the Popular Front.
The emergence of the Popular Front followed a change in the policy of the international communist movement in response to the rise of fascism in Germany and Hider's accession to power in 1933. In 1935 the seventh world congress of the Communist International—the body to which all communist parties were affiliated—abandoned the sectarian policy which had been adopted by the sixth Comintern congress in 1928, a policy which rejected trade unionism and political labour movements as reformist, for a united or popular front strategy of collaboration with all progressive classes and organisations in the struggle against fascism. Although this was essentially a tactical change, it was supported ideologically by a revised analysis of fascism as qualitatively distinct from liberal democracy. In 1936 Popular Front governments, representing alliances of communist, socialist and liberal-left parties, were elected in France and Spain.
In other countries no such formal political alliance was formed. The Communist Party of Great Britain initially pursued a united front alliance
To the left, the meaning of the successive international crises of the 1930s was clear. The depression had heralded the beginning of the end of capitalism. Now the world was witnessing the final struggle between capitalism and labour, or fascism and democracy, a struggle of which the Spanish Civil War was seen as the culmination. Spain's importance to the left cannot be overestimated. It was Spain which dramatised the essential link between capitalism, fascism and war. It brought into focus the meaning of the depression as the crisis of capitalism and of liberal democracy, 'confirming all our beliefs', A. Blake, quoted in D. Carter, '"History was on our side": Memoirs from the Australian Left', Reaction to the Spanish Civil War in New Zealand is discussed in Meanjin, Mar. 1987 (v.46, n.i), p.113
Spain was only the battlefield for the larger struggle of opposing ideologies. The centre of the left's world political map in the 1930s was the Soviet Union. The rhetoric of the Popular Front may have identified the anti-fascist struggle as a struggle being waged in the cause of democracy, rather than of socialism or communism; but to the communist left it was really about the defence of the first workers' state, as the Soviet Union was threatened by the growing military strength of the fascist powers. The continuing faith of the western communist parties in the Soviet Union as the model socialist state was ensured by their affiliation with the Communist International, and thus their adherence to the
Russia held an appeal, as much symbolic and emotional as political, to many who did not call themselves communists. For people of capitalist countries in the aftermath of depression, the absence of unemployment in the Soviet Union and its planned economic growth under the second Five Year Plan provided a stark contrast to the contradiction of poverty amidst plenty. Its international policy of collective security seemed the only prospect of peace, whereas the British government's refusal to enter into an alliance with the Soviet Union and its policy of appeasement towards Germany would, it seemed, lead only to war. Russia stood as the sole bulwark against fascism; the saviour of the revolution, or populist democracy, according to one's political view.
Above all it was the threat fascism posed to culture, and to the practitioners of culture, that was instrumental in mobilising intellectuals, writers and artists on behalf of the Popular Front. In the rhetoric of the left, the stakes in this contest were nothing less than western culture, or civilisation, itself. As Winston Rhodes wrote in Tomorrow in an article on the Spanish Civil War:
The forces of reaction, the tide of barbarism which is seeking to sweep over Europe will obtain little help from the men of letters, the workers or the scientists who more and more are being made to realise that there is a future for art and letters, a future for science, a future for a free society only if fascism can be checked.
H. W. Rhodes , 'The International Brigade',Tomorrow,12 May 1937 (v.3, n.14), p.426
The commitment of western intellectuals to the Popular Front demonstrated, in the words of a young Australian volunteer in the International Brigade, 'not a misty idealism, but a realisation that their means of support are threatened by capitalist bankruptcy, and that their freedom to go on working is threatened by the forces of the Right.'
The burning of books and censorship of classic literature in Germany, and the exile of writers such as Heinrich Mann and the playwrights Erwin Piscator, Friedrich Wolf and Ernst Toller, showed fascism to be the enemy of culture. The Soviet Union, by contrast, represented the promise of culture under socialism. Not only were writers, artists and their work valued by the Soviet state and people, and new forms of cultural expression such as 'proletarian literature' emerging, but the cultural heritage of the west received due respect and support. The left-wing media followed cultural development in the Soviet Union with reports of cultural events and statistics documenting the sale of books and the
Workers' Weekly and its successor the People's Voice, Tomorrow, and the Soviet News, organ of the New Zealand branch of the Friends of the Soviet Union.
The atmosphere and the cultural politics of the Popular Front period received their clearest expression in the International Brigade. Intellectuals and writers were among those who made the pilgrimage to Spain and fought (or drove ambulances and made radio broadcasts) for the Republican forces. This personal political commitment was the ultimate expression of the imperative of political engagement which, for the literary fellow traveller, became a defining principle of art itself: 'art must be purposive if it is to be art', wrote Winston Rhodes in Tomorrow. Not all those writers who went to Spain, or who in greater numbers aligned themselves with the Republican cause in the celebrated 'Writers Take Sides' manifesto published by the English
Rhodes, 'The Left Theatre', ibid., 15 Jan. 1936 (v.2, n.10), p.13
See V. Cunningham, 'Neutral?: 1930s Writers and Taking Sides', in F. Gloversmith (ed.), Class Culture and Social Change. A New View of the 1930s. Sussex: Harvester Press, 1980, pp.45-69. Winston Rhodes gave a different interpretation of this manifesto in 'Spain and the Writer', Tomorrow, 16 Feb. 1938 (v.4, n.8), pp.241-2
I am not one of those who believe that poetry need or even should be direcdy political, but in a critical period such as ours, I do believe that the poet must have direct knowledge of the major political events. ... I feel I can speak with authority about la condition humaine of only a small clan of English intellectuals and professional people and that the time has come to gamble on something bigger.
Quoted in E. Mendelson (ed.),
The English Auden. Poems, Essays and Dramatic Writings 1927-1939.London: Faber and Faber, 1977, p.xviii
The International Brigade was symbolic in another sense. Just as the political struggle against fascism was world-wide, so political action by artists must transcend national boundaries, as it traversed the boundary between politics and art. Andre Gide stated in June 1935: 'this culture is one common heritage, is common to all of us and is international'. Quoted in Rhodes, The Paris Congress', Tomorrow, 9 Oct. 1935 (v.1, n.50), p.12The Left Bank. Writers, Artists, and Politics from the Popular Front to the Cold War. London: Heinemann, 1982, p.107
Smaller counterparts of the International Writers' Association were formed in a number of countries. No such organisation was formed in New Zealand, but in Australia the literary community followed the international trend. There the catalyst was the government's bungled attempt to ban Czechoslovak writer Egon Kisch, along with New Zealand communist Gerald Griffin, from entering Australia to attend a conference of the Movement Against War and Fascism (a Communist Party 'fraternal' organisation) in 1934. Kisch appeared on lecture platforms with his leg in plaster after a spectacular leap from his ship onto the wharf at Port Melbourne, an unplanned publicity coup which was followed by further official ineptitude as both Kisch and Griffin were forced to sit immigration tests in foreign languages (Kisch, renowned for his command of European languages, in Gaelic, Griffin in Dutch). The incident served to mobilise the Australian literary community against fascism by bringing the issue of freedom of speech and cultural expression directly into the Australian context. In early 1935 expatriate New Zealand writer and communist Jean Devanny, with fellow Communist Party member and novelist Katharine Susannah Prichard and the support of Kisch, was instrumental in forming the Sydney-based Writers' League (later renamed the Writers' Association), an organisation modelled on the Comintern-allied Writers' International. The Kisch affair also prompted a split within the Fellowship of Australian Writers, a normally staid organisation which until this time had concerned itself mainly with the question of cultural nationalism and the professional interests of writers. The Fellowship now attracted an increasingly influential left-wing membership, and in 1938 merged with the Writers' Association. The reconstituted FAW became the focus of Popular Front activity by Australian writers, although there was a degree of ongoing tension between its more and less politically-inclined factions. See D. Modjeska, Exiles at Home. Australian Women Writers 1925-1945. London, Sydney: Sirius Books, 1981, ch.5; J. Devanny, Point of Departure. The Autobiography of Jean Devanny. Ed. C. Ferrier. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1986, pp.205-7, 215-19
New Zealand did not support a professional writers' body, let alone a Popular Frontist writers' organisation of this kind. But the Kisch affair, and
Tomorrow with lengthy quotations from the conference proceedings.
In New Zealand general public awareness of international political events in the 1930s was to some degree muted by distance, and by the distraction of internal politics, as the Labour government pulled the country at last out of the depression, introduced major legislative and social changes in its first term of office and was re-elected to a second. However, intellectual, liberal and left-wing circles reflected the course of international left politics and the development of a progressive alliance against fascism.
The Communist Party of New Zealand adopted the united front policy belatedly, due to the opposition of certain of the local Party leaders, in December 1936. A disastrous showing in the 1935 general election, in which it put up candidates for four seats, and pressure from the Communist Party of Australia, were two of the factors which prompted its delayed acceptance of the Comintern line." The main thrust of the CPNZ's united front strategy was its continuing, and unsuccessful, effort to gain affiliation with the New Zealand Labour Party. It put up no candidates in the 1938 election, and lent its public support to the reelection of the Labour government. The new strategy also involved the Party in Traction' work in organisations such as trade unions and the Workers' Educational Association, and in more closely-linked 'fraternal' organisations such as the Friends of the Soviet Union and the Spanish Medical Aid Committees. Through these channels it sought to further the immediate object of the Popular Front and its own long-term political goals. The Party newspaper, the Workers' Weekly, became the People's Voice in July 1939 (a year after a conference decision to this effect; promptness was clearly not a Party virtue). The change of name showed the development of the Party's self-image and an effort to broaden its appeal.
Party membership in New Zealand remained comparatively tiny, but it followed the pattern of other communist parties in experiencing a steady increase over the 1930s. In 1932 the CPNZ had about 80 members. In 1939 its membership was estimated at 300; in 1941, at 690. N.M.Taylor, J. Klugmann, 'The Crisis of the Thirties: A View from the Left', in J. Clark et al (eds.), The New Zealand People at War: The Home Front. Wellington: Historical Publications Branch, Department of Internal Affairs/Government Printer, 1986, p.211; Hasler, 'New Zealand Communists', p.55Culture and Crisis in Britain in the Thirties. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1979, p.27
The Friends of the Soviet Union was one of several 'extra-political' organisations that were established in New Zealand in the 1930s as part of the international anti-fascist movement. Although its establishment pre-dated the Popular Front, the FSU provided a medium for the conjunction of political and cultural activism, and for the intercourse of Communist Party members and fellow travellers, intellectuals and political activists, liberals and socialists, which became the basis of the united front policy. An international organisation based in Berlin, it was established in New Zealand in 1932, with 26 branches in existence by the end of the first year. Rhodes, Objects of the Friends of the Soviet Union (New Zealand), quoted in ibid., p.4 The manifesto was printed in New Zealand and the Soviet Union. An Historical Account of the NZ-USSR Society. Auckland: New Zealand-USSR Society, 1979, p.3Soviet News, as a counter to the 'slander campaigns'Soviet News, Mar. 1935 (v.3, n.10), p.2Soviet News was Soviet News to become editor of the Workers' Weekly, and visited Russia and England in the late 30s. He was to make a greater sacrifice when he enlisted in 1942, for he was killed in action in Italy in the last year of the war.Gordon Watson, New Zea-lander: 1912-45. His Life and Writings. Ed. and with an introduction by E. Locke. Auckland: New Zealand Communist Party, 1949
The New Zealand section of the FSU was active for only four years, and was not a large organisation, although its membership was considerably higher than that of the Communist Party at the same time. By mid 1933 it had by its own account about 1100 members, but in May 1935 its estimate was 800. Ibid., Oct. 1935 (v.4, n.5 & 6), p.20, Feb. 1935 (v.3, n.9), p.14Soviet News, June 1933 (v.1, n.12), p.[2], June 1935 (v.4, n.2), p. [2]Soviet News of two poems about Russia: 'The Plan' by Denis Glover and Tor the Litde Ones' by Frank Sargeson.Soviet News in March 1935.
In the later 1930s the Spanish Medical Aid Committee performed a similar role to the Friends of the Soviet Union as a vehicle for establishing a Popular Front alliance between the Communist Party, intellectuals and the labour movement in New Zealand. The organisation was founded in Dunedin in November 1936, and over the next two years seven more branches were formed. (One of its founders was Otago University student Alex McClure, who was one of two New Zealand students killed in Spain.) Its purpose was to coordinate material support for the Republican cause in Spain, or as its motto stated, Tor Spain and Humanity'. SMAC branches held public meetings, radio appeals and film screenings ( Skudder, '"Bringing It Home"', ch.6 & 7; Taylor, The Last Train from Madrid, Love Under Fire and Blockade) and distributed posters and leaflets. Aid for Spain was also collected in New Zealand by non-partisan organisations such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, the National Relief Fund for Spanish Refugee Children, and through international fundraising efforts such as the Quaker Spanish Relief Fund. But the Spanish Medical Aid Committee was the most active and the most broadly-based of the relief organisations. Despite its being strongly supported by the Communist Party and quickly labelled a 'Communist front', trade union officials, academics and professionals were active members, and in contrast with the FSU it enjoyed the public support of a handful of Labour MPs (although not the official endorsement of the Labour Party, which set up its own relief fund in competition). Its national president until June 1938 was Dunedin Labour MP The Home Front, pp.10-11
The Spanish Civil War had generated enthusiasm and political optimism within the left, inspiring the hope of the imminent triumph of socialism over fascism throughout Europe. But by the end of 1938 the atmosphere was rapidly changing. As the civil war dragged on, and the liberal democratic governments seemed unable, or unwilling, to check the encroachments of Hitler in Europe, the political fervour was counterbalanced by a growing pessimism. Franco's official victory in March 1939 only confirmed what had for some time been apparent. The mobilisation of international socialist forces, in the form of the International Brigade and the material support provided by organisations like the New Zealand Spanish Medical Aid Committees, had been unable to counter the power of international fascism. It was now becoming clear that, in terms of its immediate political objectives—intervention by the western democratic powers in Spain and a collective security agreement between Britain, France and the Soviet Union—the Popular Front had failed. In Europe, first Austria and then Czechoslovakia were sacrificed for the wishful but misguided policy of appeasement.
Disillusionment on the left was compounded by the non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union which was signed in August 1939. After its initial bewilderment the Communist Party explained away the pact on tactical grounds: with the failure of collective security, Russia had been forced into an alliance with Hitler in the interests of self-preservation. The argument of justified self-protection was later advanced in defence of the Soviet Union's actions in eastern Poland and Finland. A more reasoned explanation was that the pact was consistent with the Soviet Union's policy of collective security and its opposition to the war plans of the imperialist powers. Despite this retrospective rationalisation, however, the German-Soviet pact had had its effect in undermining the political certainties of the Popular Front period and the breadth of support for the Soviet Union within the wider progressive movement.
The Popular Front strategy lost further ground with the communist movement's conftised reaction to the war when it finally came. This time the New Zealand Communist Party faithfully followed the policy directive of the Comintern. At first it declared its support for the war, but only a month later, in October, did an about-face and came out in opposition, reverting to the earlier 'imperialist war' analysis. This position was maintained until mid 1941. Among
Carter, 'The Attitude of the New Zealand Communist Party to Foreign Affairs 1930-41'. MPhil research essay, University of Auckland, 1981; '"History was on our side"', p.116
The actual membership of the Communist Party in New Zealand was not
adversely affected by these vacillations in policy, and sales of the Hasler, 'New Zealand Communists', p.64; Taylor, People's Voice
took a dramatic leap in the first months of the war: from 6760 in July 1939 to 8300
at the beginning of November, and to over 10,000 in February 1940. The Home Front, p.212
The communists did not remain in the political wilderness for long, however. In Australia the Communist Party's opposition to the war had led to its being banned between June 1940 and December 1942. In New Zealand an order declaring the Party a subversive organisation was drafted in early 1941, but was not immediately put into effect. In July 1941 the Attorney General advised the Commissioner of Police that the proposed banning order would be deferred, in the expectation that with Russia's recent entry into the war the communists would begin to behave themselves. Ibid Hasler,'New Zealand Communists', p.55., p.223
Russia's entry into the war had brought Communist Party policy into line with the war aims of the allied governments, and the Party now became, if not quite respectable, tolerated to a greater degree than it had ever been before. (This tolerance did not, however, extend to the People's Voice which was suppressed from July 1941 to July 1943, to be replaced by RAK. Mason's 'non-Party' In Print and several underground, mimeographed editions of the People's Voice) Within the labour movement and in the public mind generally, hatred or fear of communism was modified, for the time being, by respectful gratitude to the Russian people for their heroic effort in turning back the armies of fascism, and relieving the military pressure from the British and French forces in western Europe.
The Society for Closer Relations with Russia, formed in July 1941, provides a measure of the change in the political climate in the years 1941-4. The New Zealand Friends of the Soviet Union had to all effects collapsed as a national organisation at the end of 1936 (although some branches continued to be active). A combination of factors had brought about its demise, including Gordon Watson's resignation as editor of the New Zealand Society for Closer Relations with the USSR. Constitution. New Zealand Society for Closer Relations with the USSR. Lower Hutt Branch. Records, 1945-1946. Ms Papers 3826. Alexander Turnbull LibrarySoviet News, the diversion of Labour's success in the 1935 election, and the impact of the Trotsky trials which prompted some resignations from the national executive. The Society for Closer Relations with Russia was formed only a month after the Soviet Union's entry into the war, following a private meeting in Wellington called by Labour MP Horace Herring and an inaugural public meeting on 21 July which was chaired by the member for Dunedin and speaker of the House, W.E. Barnard, and addressed by the MP for Nelson, Harry Atmore. By September 1944 it had 35 branches (some replacing existing Aid for Russia Committees). Although, like the FSU, it was supported by the Communist Party, the SCR emphatically declared itself to be non-sectarian and non-partisan, organisationally and ideologically: 'The S.C.R. ... is not committed to Marxianism, and consequendy is not called upon to justify the existence of the Soviet system.'New Zealand Soviet Bulletin, Jan.-Feb. 1946 (v.1, n.1), p.4{Mission to Moscow, Moscow Strikes Back, The Battle for Russia, Soviet Women at War and the like) both at its own meetings and through commercial cinemas, and through its journal the New Zealand Soviet Bulletin, and it lobbied the government for the opening of diplomatic relations between New Zealand and the Soviet Union. It organised a Seeds for Russia campaign and supported other relief efforts such as 'Mrs Churchill's "Aid to Russia" Fund' and a clothing appeal organised by the National Patriotic Fund
You and the Soviet Union. 'Scrim' became an executive member of the society.
A few years earlier the Labour Party had banned its members from joining the FSU; the president and vice presidents of the national executive of the SCR were one ex-Labour and two Labour Members of Parliament: Barnard (who had followed John A. Lee out of the Labour Party in 1940), Harry Atmore and Clyde Carr. At the first public meeting of the society held in Wellington in August 1941 the Internationale was played alongside the New Zealand national anthem and speeches were made by Reverend Percy Paris, a Methodist clergyman, and
By mid 1944 the end of the war seemed at last to be in sight, and attention focused on the coming peace. The subject of post-war reconstruction was widely debated in the left-wing press in New Zealand as elsewhere, and confidence in the possibilities of a social reorganisation on socialist lines was high. These hopes were not to be met. In the immediate post-war years reconstruction of a more immediate kind occupied both governments and people. War shortages lingered to the end of the decade and also hindered any prospect of major social changes. Within the left, the widespread radicalism of the 1930s and early 1940s quickly receded, and the progressive alliance forged in the interests of anti-fascist unity did not hold. By November 1948, 23 branches of the SCR (which had now
NZSCR, Wellington branch. Newsletter, 3 Mar. 1948; Christchurch branch annual report, 1947-8. NZSCR. Christchurch Branch. Executive minutes and other papers. Cecil Holmes was a PSA delegate at the National Film Unit. When a satchel containing a membership card and other papers identifying him, and implicating PSA president Jack Lewin, as Communist Party members was uplifted from his car by a senior public servant in the Prime Minister's department, the papers found their way into the hands of Why I Fight Communism pamphlet. SCR conferences and reports made frequent comment on the 'hysterical' and 'carefully organised campaign against the U.S.S.R'.Remedy for Present Evils. A History of the New Zealand Public Service Association from 1890. Wellington: NZPSA, 1987, pp.124-5
Some of the cultural activities which were generated in New Zealand by the heightened atmosphere of the Popular Front and Stalingrad years did not survive the war and its aftermath. Others survived throughout the 1940s and beyond. They were to reflect in their development these changing political conditions, as well as post-war social and cultural changes in New Zealand.
The late 30s had seen an upsurge of political activity on the left and heightened political consciousness among writers, intellectuals, professionals and other groups; the appearance of the 'fellow traveller'; and rising Communist Party membership. It also generated a significant left-wing cultural movement, as international political events created an awareness of the relationship between art and politics (or, between the cause of socialism and the fate of culture) and the Popular Front brought professional cultural workers into contact with political and working class organisations. But in terms of the development of cultural form—that is, of integrating aesthetic and political radicalism—the rise of the Popular Front can also be seen as a conservative influence.
The theory and practice of left-wing culture in this period was based upon three central ideas: the principle of political commitment, the aesthetic of
The adoption of socialist realism as the official cultural policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the 1930s brought to an end in that country an extremely fertile period of modernist experimentation in literature, theatre and cinema. A similar analysis can be made of the history of left-wing cultural movements in western countries. In recent studies of left-wing film and theatre in the 1930s, it has been argued that the prevailing realist aesthetic, and the relatively simplistic understanding of the relationship between art and ideology on which this was premised, precluded the development of an alternative, genuinely radical cultural practice. In the workers' film movements in Britain and America in the 20s and 30s there was some experimentation with non-realist cinematic forms, drawing on the montage techniques developed by Russian filmmakers of the 1920s such as Vertov and Eisenstein. These dispensed with conventional narrative structure, and can be compared with Brecht's 'alienation effect' in the theatre in their intention to disrupt temporal and spacial unity and the illusion of naturalism. The New York-based Nykino Group, formed in the mid 30s, produced experimental work of this kind. Within the British documentary film movement, an experimental approach occasionally emerged in the work of Alberto Cavalcanti, Basil Wright and Len Lye. Overall, however, partly because of its analysis of 'bourgeois' cinema as distortion and escapism, and because of its lack of a more sophisticated theory of ideology, left film in the 1930s retained its basis in documentary realism, with its predominant forms remaining the newsreel and simple documentary reportage, arguably at the expense of the development of a radical aesthetic. See R.A. Armes, A Critical History of British Cinema. London: Seeker and Warburg, 1978, ch.8, pp.127-41; S. Hood, 'John Grierson and the Documentary Film Movement', and T. Ryan, "The New Road to Progress": The Use and Production of Films by the Labour Movement, 1929-39', in J. Curranand V. Porter (eds.), British Cinema History. London: WeidenfeldandNicolson, 1983, pp.99-128; R. Bond, 'Cinema in the Thirties: Documentary Film and the Labour Movement', and B. Hogenkamp, '"Making Films with a Purpose": Film-making and the Working Class', in Clark et al, Culture and Crisis, pp.241-69; R. Campbell, Cinema Strikes Back. Radical Filmmaking in the United States, 1930-1942. Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1982
In the left theatre the ascendancy of socialist realism and its conservative implications are more clearly seen. The workers' theatre movements in Britain and America in the late 20s and early 30s, which were influenced by the Russian Proletkult movement of the 1920s and by post-war German expressionism and agitprop theatre, rejected the conventional proscenium arch stage and naturalistic theatre as 'bourgeois' cultural forms. They developed instead a mobile, agitprop theatre, of which sketches, cabaret and revue were the principal forms. These incorporated non-realist techniques from the cinema, and also drew upon working class cultural traditions such as vaudeville and the music hall in Britain and the International Workers of the World or 'Wobbly' culture in America. In the early 1930s 'naturalism versus agitprop' was a hody argued topic of debate within the workers' theatre movement.
In the mid 1930s these workers' theatres, and the period of experimentation
See R. Samuel, 'Theatre and socialism in Britain (1880-1935)', in R. Samuel et al (eds.), Theatres of the Left 1880-1935. Workers' Theatre Movements in Britain and America. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985, pp.3-73; A. van Gyseghem, 'British Theatre in the Thirties: An Autobiographical Record', and Clark, 'Agitprop and Unity Theatre: Socialist Theatre in the Thirties', in Clark et al, Culture and Crisis, pp.209-239
Living Newspaper was in a number of ways the characteristic form of the left theatre of the 1930s. It originated in the Russian Proletkult movement and was being performed by workers' theatre groups in Britain as early as 1926, but became a more prominent part of the repertoire of the Unity Theatre movement. Living Newspaper productions used stylised movement, rapidly juxtaposed images, and newspaper headlines presented by placard or voice-over to dramatise topical events. They were directly political, and in some respects avant-garde, theatre, but also expressed the prevailing documentary realist aesthetic of the 1930s.
In America the left theatre movement followed the same broad pattern.
There too a New Theatre League was formed to coordinate the work of progressive theatres, and the S. Cosgrove, 'From Shock Troupe to Group Theatre', in Samuel et al, Ibid., p.269. See also H. Flanagan, Workers' Theatre magazine was renamed New Theatre and adopted a Popular Frontist policy in late 1934. In New York, the mid 1930s saw increasing collaboration between the Group Theatre, a professional, collective theatre of left-wing politics and social realist aesthetics, and the more political, exclusively agitprop workers' theatre groups. The Group Theatre gained international attention in 1935 with the first production of the classic strike play Waiting for Lefty, written by Clifford Odets and directed by Elia Kazan, both members of the theatre's communist 'cell'. Lefty quickly became an indispensable part of the repertoire of left theatre groups in England, America, Europe, and in Australasia: it was performed several times in New Zealand. In New York it ran for 78 performances on Broadway. It represented 'the most mature outcome of the collaboration of Workers Theatre and professional sympathizers and the most potent result of the fusion of Agit-Prop and social realism.'Theatres of the Left, p.264Arena. A History of the Federal Theatre. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1965 [1940]
It was in the theatre that the international left cultural movement of the 1930s had its greatest influence in New Zealand. Much of the material of the British and American left theatre was unpublished sketches and one-act plays, but these were made available to groups in New Zealand and Australia through mail-order playscript services. Although American drama dominated the repertoire of the left theatre in New Zealand, it was London's Unity Theatre which provided the most direct model in terms of the groups' organisation and ethos, and in giving the name of Wellington's Unity Theatre. Unity also had a more direct influence in New Zealand: several former members of the London theatre were involved in left-wing theatre groups here. By contrast, the American left theatre appears to have provided a more direct model in Australia, as it did for the Sydney New Theatre League. Jean Devanny had been a founding member of this group which began life as the drama section of the Communist Party-based Workers' Art Club in 1932. It changed its name from the Workers' Art Theatre to the New Theatre League in 1936, following the American example, and broadened its performances beyond the monotonously politically-correct agitprop material which (despite Devanny's intentions) had dominated its repertoire. P. Herlinger, 'A new direction for "the New"?', Australasian Drama Studies, 8, Apr. 1986, pp.97-H2; Devanny, Point of Departure, pp. 151,160-4
In literature, the term 'reportage' loosely defined a genre which ranged from documentary journalism, of which probably the best-known example is George Orwell's See S. Laing, 'Presenting "Things as They Are": John Somerfield's The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) to the more conventionally-styled realist novel. 'Authenticity' was the essential criterion by which left-wing literature was critically assessed. 'Field work', exemplified by Orwell's pilgrimage to Wigan, enabled the writer to reflect society accurately (according to the theory), and brought him or her into direct contact with 'the people'. Novels such as Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Grey Granite (1935) and Walter Greenwood's Love on the Dole (1933) (the film version of which was banned briefly in New Zealand in 1943Speaking Candidly. Hamilton: Paul's Book Arcade, 1945, pp.83-6May Day and Mass Observation', in Gloversmith, Class Culture and Social Change, pp.142-60; C. Snee, 'Working-Class Literature or Proletarian Writing?', in Clark et al, Culture and Crisis, pp.165-91
Socialist realism demanded that literature give a faithful portrayal of an objective reality and that it simultaneously provide a predetermined political message. It contains, in fact, a central theoretical problem in that it is based on a reflectionist model of cultural production while at the same time implying that art, and of course the artist, have an active role to play in the political struggle and in the course of history. In an article in Rhodes, 'Documentary and Reportage', 'From Jaegars to Films', ibid., 30 Jan. 1935 (v.i, n.28), p.n 'Documentary and Reportage', p.18Tomorrow on 'Documentary and Reportage', Winston Rhodes described documentary film as 'films which deal with current social struggle, events, scenes, and people, photographed without distortion', and reportage as 'that branch of journalism which also deals with current social struggle, events, scenes, and people, carefully investigated and faithfully recorded and documented'.Tomorrow, 23 Oct. 1935 (v.i, n.52), p.18
This was not just a theoretical problem. In the left cultural movement of the 1930s, the nature of political commitment on the part of the left-wing artist or writer, and the relationship between the politically-committed artist and 'the people', who are perceived as both the source and recipient of true culture, were problems of a very practical nature, as we shall see. The essential problem was the role of an intellectual avant-garde in the creation of a socialist or popular culture.
D. Glover, Tomorrow was the principal forum in New Zealand for the discussion of issues and international developments of left-wing culture in the 1930s. Founded in 1934 and closed down by the government in May 1940 under wartime emergency regulations, it was published, at first weekly and later fortnightly, from the tiny office of its founder, Kennaway Henderson, in Hereford Street, Christchurch, an office it shared with a baby grand piano on the top of which 'many a proof was read'.Hot Water Sailor 1912-1962; & Landlubber Ho! 1963-1980. Auckland: Collins, 1981, p.103. For a comprehensive study of Tomorrow magazine see A. Cutler, 'Intellectual Sprouts. Tomorrow magazine 1934-1940: a cultural, intellectual and political history'. MA thesis, University of Canterbury, 1989
Quoted in Parliament, reduced to rags in public libraries in spite of its strong format, lent and re-lent, and discussed everywhere, this paper has a coverage out of all proportion to its printer's bill.
Tomorrow,2 Aug. 1939 (v.5, n.20), p.611
This was undoubtedly an exaggeration, but Ibid., 18 Mar. 1936 (v.2, n.18), p.1Tomorrow was justified in describing itself as being, throughout the 1930s, 'the only paper in New Zealand in which vital issues may be freely discussed'.Tomorrow but its production was a cooperative effort. The three principal players involved in its establishment were: Henderson; Frederick Sinclaire, Professor of English at Canterbury University College; and
Winston Rhodes has a central part in this story; in his regular column in Tomorrow he gave the most systematic exposition in New Zealand of left-wing cultural thought in the Popular Front period, and in his active involvement in a range of left-wing cultural activities he sought to put his ideas into practice. Tomorrowis itself a major character; the intellectual focus of the Popular Front in New Zealand, it was also, in a broader sense, a cultural statement and an indicator of the intellectual and cultural climate of New Zealand in the 1930s, which was the immediate background of the activities with which this book deals.
Rhodes taught in the Department of English Language and Literature at Canterbury College from 1933 until his retirement in 1970. He was an active member of the FSU, the Workers' Defence League, the SCR (and its later manifestation, the NZ-USSR Society), the Left Book Club and the cooperative book movement, conducted lecture courses for the Workers' Educational Association and held regular discussion evenings at his home for the college's more radically-minded students. He also produced an article for almost every issue of Tomorrow before mid 1938 (with the exception only of a three month break in 1937), and thereafter for every second issue, along with book reviews and occasional pieces of satirical verse. He wrote in Tomorrow on a wide range of subjects, from the state of the cultural environment in New Zealand to series on Victorian and modern novelists, the latest developments in literature in the Soviet Union, China and Australia, Milton, the International Brigade and modern cinema. But he brought to his diverse subject matter a consistent political analysis—a political and cultural philosophy which can best be described as humanist Marxism.
Australian by birth, he had come to New Zealand in his 30s, at the height of the depression. Like many others he had been introduced to socialist politics as a student. He was secretary of the university Labor Club in Melbourne, and in the early 1930s was active in the Melbourne Workers' Art Club and the FSU. After graduating he also lectured at Melbourne's Labour College, before accepting an appointment as assistant lecturer in English at Canterbury College, under his personal friend and the newly-appointed Professor, Frederick Sinclaire. On his arrival in Christchurch early in 1933 Rhodes found that his reputation had preceded him. He arrived just after the tramways strike of 1932; the country was still in the firm grip of the depression and, although Christchurch had been spared the unemployed 'riots' which occurred in Auckland and Wellington the previous year, the political atmosphere was just as tense. He was quickly drawn into political activity in the city, joining the FSU and the Workers' Defence League (an organisation which provided financial and legal support for workers arrested during strikes), speaking at public meetings, and establishing lasting contacts within the Christchurch labour movement. He was also drawn into informal discussions with Henderson and Sinclaire, which led to the establishment of Tomorrow.
The paper was Henderson's brainchild. For the duration of its short but notable life he was its 'sole editor, business manager, correspondence secretary, canvasser and cartoonist'. As Winston Rhodes has written:
His was the voice, his was the energy and his was the vision that moulded the journal which had been his brain-child into the significant instrument of expression for the radicals, the left-wing socialists of the thirties.
H. W. Rhodes , 'The Beginning of Tomorrow' (2),New Zealand Monthly Review,Sept. 1979 (v.21, n.214), p.18; Rhodes,Kennaway Henderson. Artist, Editor and Radical.University of Canterbury Publications, 39. Christchurch: University of Canterbury Publications Committee, 1988, p.64
An artist by profession, Henderson had worked as an illustrator for the Ibid., pp.15-16 Rhodes, 'Kennaway Henderson: artist and radical', Rhodes, Weekly Press and the New Zealand Illustrated'annual in Christchurch between 1903 and 1918, supplementing his income with commission work and occasionally exhibiting at the Canterbury Society of Arts. The next two years he spent in prison as a conscientious objector. In 1925 he moved to Sydney where he worked as a freelance illustrator, before returning to Christchurch in 1931 with a plan to start his own paper, inspired by the example of the liberal English journal The New Age under the editorship of The New Age was distinguished for the quality of its political comment and its editorial independence. Henderson's founding vision of Tomorrow reflected both his admiration for Orage and the essential elements of his own character. In Winston Rhodes' assessment, 'he might be described vaguely as a humanitarian with a radical bias;... If he was influenced by socialist ideas, it was rather as an armchair socialist'.Comment, Feb. 1978 (v.1,n.2),p.21Kennaway Henderson, p.17Tomorrow.
Frederick Sinclaire, like Henderson, was a New Zealander who had spent several years in Australia. In contrast with Henderson, Sinclaire brought to Rhodes, Tomorrow a long history of political involvement, although his socialist convictions had considerably mellowed by the time he arrived back in New Zealand in 1932. Educated at Oxford, he joined the Unitarian ministry there and in 1908 was appointed minister to the Eastern Hill Unitarian Church in Melbourne, where he served for three years before his outspoken political views finally exhausted the tolerance of his congregation. This was his last ministry. In 1908 he had joined the newly-formed Victorian Socialist Party and was editor of its journal The Socialist from 1911 to 1913, He belonged to the Fabian Society, and in 1911 became a founding member of the Melbourne Free Religious Fellowship, a non-denominational organisation which had as strong an interest in the arts as it did in religion. Sinclaire edited Fellowship from 1914 to 1922 and gave public lectures on literary, religious and social topics. He mixed in Melbourne's progressive literary circles, counting among his friends the playwright Louis Esson, whom he helped to found the Pioneer Players, and Vance Palmer, Bernard O'Dowd, Furnley Maurice and other members of Melbourne's literary avant-garde, which was centred on the Literary Club and the Y Club of which Sinclaire was a member.Frederick Sinclaire. A Memoir. University of Canterbury Publications, 33. Christchurch: University of Canterbury Publications Committee, 1984; D. Walker, Dream and Disillusion. Canberra: ANU Press, 1976, ch.5
These three, Henderson, Sinclaire and Rhodes, along with Bruce Souter, an official with the Public Trust Office who acted as the paper's business manager, and the young poet and printer Denis Glover, who was at the same time busy establishing the Caxton Press, formed the editorial group responsible for the
Rhodes, 'The Beginning of Tomorrow' (2), p.18 Ibid., p.16 P.K., 'The Disbeliever's Dictionary', Rhodes, Rhodes. Interview with author, 4 june 1985Tomorrow. It was a group characterised more by its diversity of temperaments than by a commonality of political views, as Winston Rhodes recalls: with Glover 'punctuating the periods of silence with preposterous suggestions, guffaws of laughter and outrageous witticisms', and Souter 'dourly trying to steer any desultory conversation into serious political discussion, but unable to make headway against Sinclaire's deliberate deafness and Glover's persistent hilarity.'Tomorrow, 19 Feb. 1936 (v.2, n.15), p.10Tomorrow was produced on a very tight budget. Henderson himself had no regular employment at this time and no independent source of income. These economic constraints were compounded by the logistical difficulties of distribution created by the country's geography. Nor was the fledgling paper helped by a £140 libel suit brought by the Seamen's Union in 1935 over a misquotation, and from March to July 1935 it was forced to cease publication temporarily. That it survived in the long term, despite having been launched 'with such woefully insufficient capital, without a solid organisational base or even a sub-committee to ensure distribution and obtain subscribers, with no well-defined policy that might appeal to substantial sections of the community', was apparendy due to a
Kennaway Henderson, p.43; Tomorrow, 24 July 1935 (v.1, n.39), p.7
Tomorrow was sold principally by subscription, at £1/1 per year or 6/6 per quarter, rather than through casual sales. Unfortunately, Henderson destroyed all of the paper's records shordy after it was closed down (to protect the identity both of contributors, many of whom wrote under pseudonyms, and of subscribers) so that one can only guess at the size or nature of its readership. Rhodes estimated that Tomorrow had about 300 subscribers when the first regular issue appeared in July 1934, and perhaps 1000 at the end of its life. Undoubtedly its actual readership, taking into account library copies and those which were 'lent and re-lent', was considerably larger. The paper's circulation was not inconsiderable, especially as it received little active promotion. Henderson was painfully shy and it was only infrequendy and reluctantly that he took to the streets or the platform to canvass for subscriptions.
The cover price of sixpence was, readers were reminded, only 'the price of one beer'.Tomorrow, 22 Jan. 1936 (v.2, n.11), p.22Tomorrows readership was of much the same background as its contributors, then it would have been made up largely of public servants, professionals, educationalists and academics—of a relatively small, progressive intelligentsia, in other words. The list of contributors to the specimen issue conveyed a distincdy academic character, an impression which was to be reinforced by Sinclaire's erudite 'Notes By The Way' column which opened this and subsequent issues, and by an emphasis on the subject of academic freedom in the early numbers. The list included five professors: Tomorrow was to have less of an academic character than its first number suggested. But it was by no means a popular publication in terms of either the size of its audience or the background of its writers, or by intent. Tone and subject matter clearly indicate that it was written for an informed, educated audience. Sport was a significant absence from the large number of subjects it covered.
Among the regular contributors to Tomorrow, in addition to the editorial group, were: Tomorrow over the Moscow trials); Wellington lawyer Alan Free; Labour MP Martyn Finlay; Ian Milner, then a student, later an official at the United Nations and more recendy university lecturer in Prague; and poet and Douglas Social Credit advocate Tomorrows influence in its own time is difficult to assess not only because of the absence of records, but also because its subsequent reputation has been enhanced by the calibre of its contributors, and in many cases their later, very prominent careers. But certainly for the politically-minded professional, academic or public servant in the 1930s, Tomorrow was required reading.
Needless to say, not everyone felt the need to be informed by a paper of Tomorrows political character. At the end of its first year of publication the paper printed a number of readers' opinions which included, from Dunedin: The only amusement I derive from it is its utter fatuity, and I consider it is easily the emptiest and most imbecile periodical I have ever had to read'; and from Auckland:
I deplore the fact that anyone that should be self-respecting and an idealist should lower himself to the publication of such vile biased literature with its continual innuendos and calumnious statements. May the truth and honest purpose prevail over you soon and terminate your existence.
Quoted in Rhodes,
Kennaway Henderson,P.47
The purpose of the paper was 'to encourage free expression of opinion on any subject of social importance'. Rhodes, The Beginning of Tomorrow (2), p.15Tomorrow, 24 July 1935 (v.1, 11.39), P.7Tomorrows intention than other tides initially considered: "Tree Comment", "The Critic", and more facetiously "The Wasp", "The Microbe" and the rest'.Tomorrow was a journal of serious, critical comment on current issues, ranging from broadcasting and education to farming and science but with a primary focus on politics, both international and national, and political economics. It carried lengthy articles on the major international political events of the decade, much more informative and analytical than the news that appeared in the daily newspapers. Its principal writers on international affairs were Bruce Souter, Tomorrow maintained a critical commentary on the progress of the Labour government. One of its more influential features was the chatty 'News and Views' column put together by Sutch, Innes and Finlay, which provided a running commentary on developments in Labour government policy and the daily goings-on of Parliament. Debate over the Labour government's commitment to socialism underlay much of the magazine's discussion of political economics, in which Sutch, Pharazyn and Innes were major contributors, while the Douglas Social Credit movement was also a major topic of interest in the early years-Rhodes' regular column made up by far the most significant part of the cultural content of Tomorrow, but the paper also contained items on cultural subjects from a variety of other sources. There was at least one book review in every issue, and a regular film column ('Sound Films and Silly Ones' by 'Observing Ernest') in the second half of 1935. Occasionally material was reprinted from progressive overseas journals, and articles on cultural subjects were also contributed by some of the paper's international correspondents. These included Freda and Eric Cook in London, and Ian Milner, who wrote as 'A Rhodes Scholar in Russia' while en route to Oxford to take up a Rhodes scholarship in 1934, sent back several articles from England, and contributed a regular 'American Newsletter' between December 1937 and August 1939, while doing post-graduate study in America.
Tomorrow was primarily a journal of political comment, but it also played, by circumstance rather than by design, an important role as a publisher of New Zealand literature. (It printed little literary material from overseas, an exception being several poems on Spain in 1937 and 1938.) Although it advanced no literary manifesto, its importance as an oudet for new writing in the 1930s has been hugely overshadowed by the slighter, shorter-lived Phoenix, which has given its name to a literary generation and been accorded a place in literary history out of proportion to the briefness of its life and, almost certainly, the size of its readership. In the pages of Tomorrow can be found work by most of the major writers of this period, among them Allen Curnow, Tomorrows pages with dozens of squibs, of which the following, from Glover, is one of the better examples:
In Edward Albert Homework Hawks a martyr we can boast: he'll read Tomorrow walking home, and walk into a post.
Tomorrow,16 Aug. 1939 (v.5, n.21), back cover, quoted in Cutler, 'Intellectual Sprouts', p.86
Glover also published several satirical sketches in the magazine. Fairburn, Rhodes remarks, 'used to send down stuff by the barrel-load'. Rhodes interviewTomorrow performed as a literary patron, however, was in publishing the stories of Frank Sargeson, which appeared regularly from September 1935. Sargeson later acknowledged the importance of Tomorrow in his autobiographical work More Than Enough.
Whether it was chance or influence or both I do not know, but about the time of my meeting with Fairburn I saw a copy of
Tomorrowfor the first time, and almost immediately wrote something which I could very surely recognise as quite different from anything I had written previously . . .F. Sargeson,
Sargeson.Auckland: Penguin, 1981, p.180
It was, Sargeson wrote, the tone of Ibid., pp.177-8Tomorrow and especially the quality and the 'readiness and fluency' of
Rhodes interviewTomorrow also printed work by many lesser-known and aspiring writers, work which was of varying quality. Says Rhodes: 'We received a lot of material, a lot of it not very good.'Tomorrow, such as Curnow's 'Unemployed' and Glover's '"Scab-Loaded!"', 'These Are The Men', 'War Over ' Spain' and 'Bringing It Home' (the latter about the prospect of fascism in New Zealand).Tomorrow, 13 Oct. 1937 (v.3, n.25), p.778, 27 Nov. 1935 (v.2, n.5), p.8, 31 Oct. 1934 (v.i, n.16), p.13,10 Nov. 1937 (v.4, n.1), p.18Tomorrow. A larger proportion of the poems were, like many of Glover and Fairburn's contributions, condemnations of 'bourgeois' culture, which described or satirised the daily manifestations of materialism, individualism and social pretence. Predictably, war was strongly represented as a literary subject, particularly towards the end of publication. Of the literary prose in
Ibid., 31 July 1935 (v.1, n.40), p.19, 4 Sept. 1935 (v.1, n.45), p.23
Despite some degree of political content, the literary material published in Rhodes interviewTomorrow was selected on the criterion of literary quality, not political virtue. The paper did not assume a deliberate role of fostering a left-wing, nor a distinctively 'New Zealand', literature. Nor did it actively solicit material. It became a de facto home for New Zealand writing simply because in Tomorrow writers 'found they had a place to publish',
There were very few journals at this time publishing original literary material. Rhodes,'On Swearing', R. Hyde, 'Woman Today', Art in New Zealand, founded in 1928, was a dull, conservative quarterly which, commented Rhodes, 'coos placidly and worthily enough'.Tomorrow, 1 Aug. 1934 (v.1, n.4), p.12Yearbook of the Arts in New Zealand in 1945. Marris's annual New Zealand Best Poems (1932-43) and the monthly New Zealand Mercury (1933-6) published some weak Georgian verse. The clutch of little magazines which had emerged from the universities in the early 1930s—Phoenix, Canterbury's Oriflamme and Sirocco, and the more political Student 2X Victoria—had not survived. As a journal of serious political comment Tomorrow was again a lone voice in a wilderness. Its nearest antecedent was the Auckland-based New Zealand Fortnightly Review which had made a brief appearance in 1933. The Fortnightly Review described itself as an 'independent. . . sanely controversial' paper.New Zealand Fortnightly Review, 1 June 1933 (v.1, n.1), p.1, quoted in Cutler, 'Intellectual Sprouts', p.20Tomorrow. The appearance in 1937 of the weekly Woman Today, a broadly feminist and socialist paper which took over from the Communist Party-affiliated Working Woman, and was to survive for two years (before folding largely through financial difficulty), partly explains the lack of attention given to women's issues in Tomorrow, and the concentration of what there was in the earlier numbers. Writers such as Robin Hyde, who criticised the 'little anti-feminist excerpts'Tomorrow, 14 Apr. 1937 (v.3, n.12), p.376Tomorrow, had somewhere else to express their views (though Hyde also contributed occasionally to Tomorrow—poetry and some prose fiction rather than journalism). As a journal of general political, social, economic and cultural comment, however, Tomorrow was at its inception, and remained at its demise, the only publication of its kind in New Zealand.
Tomorrow described itself as 'a paper concerned with the social and cultural life of the people'.Tomorrow, 23 Nov. 1938 (v.5, n.2), pp.37-8
The overriding editorial principle on which Ibid., 17 Oct. 1934 (v.i, n.14), p.10Tomorrow was founded was independence. It described itself as 'an honest and disinterested attempt to provide a medium for the unfettered discussion of vital topics ... free from the dictation of money-power and sectional interests.'
Tomorrow runs no comic supplement, no free insurance scheme, no guide to the turf, no advice to investors. It is free alike from the policy dictated by interest (self-interest), from the pomposities of the Chambers of Commerce and the choice journalism that promotes the sales of pills and potions.
Ibid., 10 Nov. 1937 (v.4, n.1), p.6
Its editors would not have missed the irony in its being published from a room on the top floor of a sharebroker's building. There would be no editorial column; Frederick Sinclaire's 'Notes By The Way' which opened each issue 'express[ed] no collective opinions or official policy.' F.S., 'Notes By The Way', ibid., 11 July 1934 (v.1, n.1), p.1 F.S., 'Notes By The Way', ibid., specimen issue [Jan. 1934], p.3, 'Notes By The Way', 7 Nov. 1934 (v.1, n.17), p.2
It was an innocent ideal. It was easy enough to defend the paper against the view, probably widely held, that it was affiliated to either the Communist or Labour parties. A National MP, for example, referred to it during a debate in the House as 'a Labour journal'.New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, v. 248, 1937, p.63Otago Daily Times the editors of Tomorrow replied, in real or feigned indignation: 'Tomorrow is not issued by the Christ-church branch of the official Labour Party . . . .——Our cover notice reads: A journal
free from party or interest. This is in large enough type and should strike even a moron.' Ibid., 24 July 1935 (v.1, n.39), p.7 Ibid., 14 Apr. 1937 (v.3, n.12), p.356 Rhodes, Tomorrow, 25 May 1938 (v.4, n.15), p.450Tomorrows increasingly firm and outspoken left-wing position, particularly over the Spanish Civil War, which led Frederick Sinclaire, who was in Rhodes' assessment 'an uncompromising liberal',Frederick Sinclaire, p.117
Nevertheless, Tomorrow continued to espouse its open forum policy of
Tomorrows pages as space fillers and indications of the paper's philosophical outlook.
On the domestic political scene it established itself early on as a left-wing critic of the Labour government (once it had adapted after the 1935 election to being no longer in the role of 'a slinger against Goliath' Ibid., 23 Nov. 1938 (v.5, n.2), p.37Tomorrow, 4 Dec. 1935 (v.2, n.6), p.1Tomorrow became increasingly outspoken in its criticism of Labour's lack of commitment to socialism and of its undemocratic party organisation and practice of government. (It was, as we shall see, this critical stance in relation to the Labour government which led finally to the paper's demise.)
More pragmatic considerations forced the abandonment of There may have been the odd exception in the latter case. Cutler suggests that Labour MP Ormond Wilson gave occasional support to Tomorrows financial independence when it began accepting advertising. It could still rightfully claim to be independent from 'moneyed interests', as it received no patronage from businesses or individuals.Tomorrow. Cutler, 'Intellectual Sprouts', p.32, citing D. Trussell, Fairburn. Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1984, p.176Tomorrow, along with New Zealand Railways and the State Fire Insurance Office, and Ballantyne's department store. The dilemma faced by Tomorrow, of reconciling its political ideals with economic reality, was an experience common to all of the left-wing cultural organisations discussed in this book.
Although the ideal which Tomorrow so fervendy espoused was illusory, nevertheless it is the ideal which is important. The aim of providing an
New Age, but it was also a reflection and a critique of Tomorrows own immediate cultural context. It was inspired in the first instance by a strongly-held contempt for the New Zealand daily press, which was seen by the founders of Tomorrow as a servant of international capitalism and a deadening influence on New Zealand culture. Henderson's vision of the press depicted in his cartoon 'The Great Katipo' in the specimen issue, and redrawn in many
Tomorrow and the dominant theme of the introductory issue. In his 'Notes By The Way' Frederick Sinclaire complained of the newspaper industry:
Pretending to be free and disinterested, it is in fact controlled in the interests of propaganda which is anti-social in its aim and unscrupulous in its methods. It has monopolised the main highways of publicity, and guards them for the exclusive use of its owners and their satellites . . .
'Inevitably', continued Henderson, 'the press works against thought and individuality, towards a foolish dead level of acceptance with its cheap mouth to mouth expression. Even more than other institutions, it justifies the charge that our culture has failed.' F.S., 'Notes By The Way', Tomorrow, specimen issue, p.1; K. Henderson, 'The Press', ibid., p.6Tomorrow in more moderate tone in an article entitled 'Do We Get The Truth About World Affairs?':
Many feel there is a tremendous need for free critical reviews of world affairs, written in New Zealand from the New Zealand point of view. Tomorrow' aims to give one such review. It will not claim to speak with divine omniscience. But it will speak with freedom.
Ibid., pp.10, 12
Henderson's disparaging view of the nature and function of the capitalist press was extended by other writers in F.S., 'Notes By The Way', ibid., 11 July 1934 (v.1, n.1), p.2, specimen issue, p.2 Ibid. K.Jensen, 'Let's Be Dull', ibid., 2 Aug. 1939 (v.5, n.20), p.618Tomorrow into a wider criticism of the conservatism and provincialism of New Zealand culture, made most insistently by Sinclaire and Rhodes. Along with the monopolising influence of the newspaper industry Sinclaire identified the harshness of censorship and the 'extremely nervous' attitude of the New Zealand Broadcasting Board towards anything even faintly controversial (in this instance a talk on Marxism, the text of which was printed in Tomorrow) as responsible for 'what may be called the New Zealand mind—so morbidly sensitive to hostile criticism, so nervously respectable, so deferential to outside opinion, so lacking in independence—in a word, so provincial.'Tomorrow, and most of it was critical. An article entitled 'Let's Be Dull' characterised the tone of the YA stations as 'Solidity and Dullness' and described the recently-established New Zealand Listeners 'the perfect instrument for giving a deaf mute a picture of what the YA stations are really like.'
Like Sinclaire, Rhodes perceived the absence of a single 'serious critical journal in this country' as symptomatic of a deeper cultural malaise: a 'lack of mental and aesthetic vitality'. Rhodes, 'On Swearing', p.12; 'The Cult ofCulture', ibid., 25 July 1934 (v.1, n.3), p.12 'On Swearing', p.12 'On Learning to Read', ibid., 19 Sept. 1934 (v.1, n.11), p.13
It was for practising what it preached that Rhodes to N. Palmer, 17 Dec. [1939]. H. Winston Rhodes Papers, ca.1939-October 1964. Ms Papers 888. Alexander Turnbull Library Censorship and Publicity Emergency Regulations, 1939. Amendment No.2. Quoted in Cutler, 'Intellectual Sprouts', pp.278, 275Tomorrow was eventually forced to cease publication in May 1940, after its printer was warned by the Superintendent of Police that the paper's continued appearance could be in breach of war regulations. The Censorship and Publicity Emergency Regulations 1939 and subsequent amendments were the legal justification for this act of suppression. Tomorrows publication of material expressing opposition to conscription and a sympathetic attitude towards conscientious objectors clearly could be seen to transgress the law. The Public Safety Emergency Regulations brought into force in February 1940, some months before conscription was introduced but in the midst of widespread public debate on the issue, amended the definition of subversive under the 1939 regulations to include any statement 'intended or likely to cause unlawful resistance to or interference with the enforcement or administration of any law . . . relating to military training or service'.Statutory Regulations, 1940, p. 64Tomorrow were well aware of the dangers they faced, and prepared to impose their own censorship even at the expense of the 'open forum' ideal, as is indicated by their rejection of articles on conscription by Australian writer Nettie Palmer and Ormond Wilson in 1939.Tomorrow had raised the government's ire well before the May 1940 amendment which gave it the legal power to close the paper down on these grounds. (By this amendment the Attorney General was empowered to seize not only 'any printing press that has been used for printing any subversive statements' but any press which he 'has reason to suspect... is likely to be used for printing further subversive statements'.Statutory Regulations, 1940, p.333Tomorrows 'insidious manner' and 'semi-subversive criticisms of national policy', and several contributors were warned not to remain associated with the paper.Tomorrow's printer from views expressed in the paper. This was now included in every issue, indicating some nervousness on the printer's part. In March 1939 it was announced that Tomorrow was changing its printing arrangements (although no reason was given).
Conscription was only one of a number of issues on which Tomorrow had differed with the Labour government, although it was one to which the government was particularly sensitive (critics were not slow to point out that several of Labour's leaders had been imprisoned as conscientious objectors during the first world war). The paper had consistently attacked the government's socialist credentials in terms of both its policy and its conduct. The politics of personality may have played an even larger part in its suppression.
Tomorrow did not refrain from criticism of individual government ministers, in its columns and in Kennaway Henderson's uncompromising caricatures of Peter Fraser and Robert Semple. Fraser, particularly, had gained a reputation for being almost paranoically sensitive to personal or political criticism, and Henderson's 'Bobadolf cartoons would hardly have endeared him to the Minister of Public Works. Tomorrows relationship with the Labour government undoubtedly reached its nadir with the publication of rebel MP John A. Lee's vitriolic attacks on the party hierarchy, culminating in the infamous 'Psycho-pathology in Politics' article in the 3 December 1939 issue and Lee's subsequent expulsion from the cabinet and Labour Party.
Tomorrow fell victim to heightened wartime sensitivities and to the political sensitivities of the Labour government and its leaders. Its fate would hardly have surprised the paper itself, which saw its role as 'this fight for freedom of thought and expression' and as a challenge to a culture 'morbidly sensitive to hostile criticism'.Tomorrow, 31 Aug, 1938 (v.4, n.22), p.675; F.S., 'Notes By The Way', ibid., specimen issue, p.2Tomorrow had also attacked more specific expressions of the conservatism of New Zealand cultural and political life.
Academic freedom of speech was the predominant subject of its first several issues. Contributors on this subject included a number of prominent academics:
At each of the four colleges student publications overstepped the limits of public propriety and official tolerance in the early 30s, and also paid for their outspokenness. Otago's See K. Sinclair, Quoted in P. Hughes, "'Sneers, Jeers . . . and Red Rantings". Bob Lowry's Early Printing at Auckland University College', Critic was banned after publishing criticism of the university authorities. In Christchurch Oriflamme was effectively banned after its first issue for printing an article on 'free love'. The Auckland literary review Kiwi was censured in 1930 for printing a poem by Phoenix printed blank pages in the place of a censored article on sex. At Victoria, a number of articles in the annual review Spike were censored; in 1933 the Free Discussions Club's Student was banned by the student executive and the Professorial Board imposed a ban on discussion of sex, politics or religion in university debates.A History of the University of Auckland, 1883-1983. Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1983, ch.9; Victoria University College. An Essay Towards a History. Wellington: New Zealand University Press, 1949, pp.215-19Student editor Bart Fortune complained in a letter to Denis Glover the following year, 'students write letters to the papers defending free labour in the strike — and the whole place seems still to be away up in the clouds where students are apparendy the Lords anointed.'Truth wrote of 'Hotbeds of Revolution' and 'sneers, jeers, bellicose blasphemies, red rantings and say-saturated sophistries', while the New Zealand Herald accused Auckland's newly-appointed Professor of English, W.A. Sewell, of holding views which denounced 'loyalty, patriotism, religious belief, moral standards, marriage and the family.'Turnbull Library Record, May 1989 (v.22, n.1), p.18; Sinclair, A History of the University of Auckland, p.161
The conservatism of the country's educational authorities was one manifestation of the timid, insular, repressive intellectual culture described by Rhodes. Censorship was another. Censorship in broadcasting and film received regular comment in List of prohibited literature, appended to 'Question of the prohibition of the importation of certain literature into NZ'. Memorandum from Comptroller of Customs to Minister of Customs, 27 Jan. 1936. C1 36/959: box 152. National ArchivesTomorrow. But equally significant as a measure of the prevailing cultural and political climate was the censorship of literature. The legislation governing the importation of political literature into New Zealand at this time dated from the first world war and the 'Red scare' which followed the Russian revolution. The War Regulations Continuance Act 1920, and an Order-in-Council of May 1921, prohibited the importation of 'any document which incites, encourages, advises, or advocates violence, lawlessness, or disorder, or expresses any seditious intention.'Statutory Regulations, 1940, p. 58The War and the Second International by Lenin, for example, was in the opinion of the committee 'addressed to the Russian people twenty years ago, and does not call
That the subject of literary censorship received little direct comment in the pages of W. Nash, Minister of Customs to Comptroller of Customs, 8 Oct. 1936. Ibid. Hyde, 'Jack Basham's Bookshop. Land of the Free—Since When?', Tomorrow is probably due in part to the degree of secrecy which surrounded it. The list of banned and restricted books was not a public document. Individual tides deemed to be 'subversive' were from time to time published in the New Zealand Gazette, information on indecent literature was not made public, although after much lobbying the list of proscribed tides was made available confidentially to the Associated Booksellers of New Zealand in 1935. But censorship both contributed to and was a measure of the intellectual and political climate described by Rhodes and Sinclaire. Censorship would also be an issue of particular concern to the cooperative bookshops and the Left Book Club in the late 30s and early 40s. The Labour government intended to repeal the War Regulations Continuance Act in 1936, and although legislation to this effect was never passed, the Comptroller of Customs was instructed in October 1936 to 'arrange for the restriction with regard to delivery of books on political, economic and other questions, to be removed'.New Zealand Observer, n June 1936, p.11Tomorrow itself discovered.
The perception of a stagnant, conservative, provincial cultural and intellectual environment was the principal stimulus behind the foundation of Tomorrow and the major theme of its cultural critique of New Zealand. It is this critique which forms the common theme of the cultural analysis of Rhodes and the left-wing cultural activities of the 1930s and 1940s, and the literary nationalist movement of the same time.
The complaint voiced by Rhodes and others of New Zealand's 'lack of mental and aesthetic vitality' has been a constant refrain of New Zealand artists, writers and critics, and a central component of the manifesto of cultural nationalism. In 'Notes', J. Bertram, 'Robin Hyde: A Reassessment', ibid., 27, Sept. 1953 (v.7, n.3), p.181 Trussell, T. Woollaston, "'Life: Art" and the Bourgeois Manifesto', Landfall in 1953 Charles Brasch, reflecting on the previous two decades, described New Zealand society as 'inimical to the arts and to any freedom of life and spirit'.Landfall, 25, Mar. 1953 (v.7, n.1), p.5The Beggar, into the Waitemata harbour. Fairburn's 1944 essay We New Zealanders was 'a sustained attack on the moral cowardice and aesthetic dullness of his countrymen'—'We have enshrined dullness as a national idol', he charged.Fairburn, p.221; We New Zealanders. Wellington: Progressive Publishing Society, 1944, p.13. Fairburn's comment on Mason was made in the New Zealand Artists Annual, 1929, p.69, quoted in Trussell, Fairburn, p.64Tomorrow the artist Toss Woollaston, writing of the art society establishment, described 'the implacable enmity which exists between an artist who retains the intensity of his calling, and the bourgeoisie'.Tomorrow, 29 Apr. 1936 (v.2, n.21), p.22
McCormick, Holcroft and Chapman in their major studies of New Zealand literature have taken up this same theme. The charge is also made explicitly, as well as implicidy, in the poetry of this period. In the 1939 verse series Not in Narrow Seas Allen Curnow wrote: 'Poets, painters, musicians, scientists will suffer agonies in a country serving under gross masters', while Denis Glover, in characteristically lighter tone, contributed to Tomorrow four lines entitled 'NZ Author':
Lame pigeons struggling home across the sea, My manuscripts come back to roost with me. The only ones that reached the public eye My friends contrived to read, but not to buy.
Elsewhere in A. Curnow, Tomorrow Glover bluntly observed: 'this country doesn't want poets. Only profits.'Selected Poems. Auckland: Penguin, 1982, p.24; Glover, 'NZ Author', Tomorrow, 24June 1936 (v.2, n.26), p.19; 'Pointers to Parnassus', ibid., 30 Oct. 1935 (v.2, n.1), p.17
This charge levelled at what Frank Sargeson later termed 'the weighty and deadening forces of philistinism' Sargeson, Sargeson, p.351Tomorrow. Materialism, philistinism, conformity are terms which are also central to the analysis made by the left of culture in western capitalist societies in this period. Here, however, these terms are not based on a political analysis but are rather an expression of social and cultural alienation. A fundamental antipathy to the cultural effects of capitalism, or 'The Money Measure'—the title of a
'A NZ Artist', 'Art in New Zealand', Tomorrow, 26 Feb. 1936 (v.2, n.16), p.8
F.S., 'Notes By The Way, ibid., 3 Aug. 1938 (v.4, n.20), p.625; Fairburn, correspondence, ibid., 25 Sept. 1935 (v.i, n.48), p.22
It is also the case that the intellectual swing to the left in Britain in the 1930s, from its basis in a widespread apprehension of the economic and political crisis of capitalism, was accompanied by a broader moral radicalism, or questioning: 'a dawning challenge to accepted sex morality, a challenge to widely taught standards of behaviour, and a broad challenge to the religious oudook.' J. Klugmann, 'The Crisis of the Thirties: A View from the Left', in J. Clark et al, (eds.), Culture and Crisis in Britain in the Thirties. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1979, pp.12-16Phoenix laid down a challenge to the shallow materialism which its authors saw as the defining characteristic of New Zealand society, stating its belief in 'the potency of culture as a spiritualising agency' and acknowledging its literary and philosophical mentors in Phoenix, March 1932 (v.1, n.1), p. [2]Phoenix was censored because of an article about sex, not because of its Marxism. And it was Bertram's first version of Phoenix, not the second edited by Mason, that came to serve as the manifesto of the Phoenix literary movement. The distaste for the materialist ethos of capitalism expressed by Glover, Sargeson and Fairburn expressed the same cultural rather than political 'rebellion' that was the motivating idea of Phoenix.
This cultural protest rather than a political consciousness is also expressed in the satirical poetry of Fairburn, Glover and Curnow of this period, much of which was printed in Sargeson, 'Sherwood Anderson', Tomorrow. This is the common theme of their 'political' and 'literary' writing: of Glover's four line satires on capitalists and 'middle classism' and Curnow's Not in Narrow Seas with its complaint about New Zealand's 'gross masters'. Both of these poets published satirical writing under pseudonyms—'P.K.' and 'D.G.', which Glover used in Tomorrow, and 'Whim Wham', under which Curnow published satirical verse in the Christchurch Press and the New Zealand Listener. This device could be seen, perhaps, to denote a dissociation on the part of the writer between two separately defined activities, as a strategy by which each writer accommodated the conflicting demands which the 1930s presented. By this means they sought an accommodation of literary and political activity, of the private and public voice, of nationalist and left-wing interests. Yet one can identify across both 'spheres' of their work a common theme in their protest against a society that is inherendy hostile to the artist— against the 'raw, aesthetically hostile' environment which Sargeson described.Tomorrow, 6 Nov. 1935 (v.2, n.2), p.15
This idea also informs what has become one of the central icons of New Zealand literary historiography: the 'man alone'. The solitary, itinerant, socially-
Curnow, 'The Poetry of R. Seymour, 'A Present Tendency in New Zealand Literature', Man Alone, and in the stories of Frank Sargeson, has been seen as a defining motif for the nationalist literature of the 1930s and 1940s, if perhaps to a greater extent than its actual presence warrants. It has been interpreted either as a distinctively New Zealand cultural theme, or as a literary by-product of the depression. The latter argument sees here a concern for the social underdog, a democratic impulse which reflects the influence upon these writers of social realism and the left-wing sympathies of the younger British poets of the 1930s. But alternatively, the prominence of the social outcast in this literature (and the critical focus on this theme) can be read as a projection of the writer's own feeling of cultural isolation and of alienation from a materialist, narrow-minded, indifferent society. This is the 'essential character' which Curnow found in Mason's poetry, that quality that identified it as distinctively New Zealand writing: The image of isolation, the raw edge, the unformed, the strong man in the wilderness'.Book, 2, May 1941New Zealand New Writing in 1945, complaining of the preoccupation of writers like Curnow and Holcroft with distance, isolation and cultural dislocation, astutely observed that it was the writers and intellectuals themselves who were 'self-conscious and affected, sapless, rootless and unhappy'.New Zealand New Writing, 4, March 1945, p.32
Nothing about this is original, of course. It is not a discourse peculiar to New Zealand. The charge of anti-intellectualism, and the underlying experience of alienation from the dominant culture, are also important themes in Australian and American cultural criticism. Australian writers have also found their culture 'derivative, dependent and closed', and have made 'a perpetual complaint of philistinism [which] implicidy places the "detached" critic apart from the masses'. B. Head and J. Walter (eds.), L. Esson to D. Cusack, July 1943, quoted in Walker, Intellectual Movements and Australian Society. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1988, pp.9, 241Dream and Disillusion, p.155
For both Winston Rhodes and Frederick Sinclaire, however, the experience of New Zealand as an isolated, conservative culture was undoubtedly sharpened by the contrast it made with Australia, where both had been active in progressive literary and political circles. When Rhodes returned from a trip home in 1935 he described the intellectual atmosphere in Melbourne, which he termed 'the buried life of Australia', in an article entitled 'Mid-Melbourne Madness':
in the studios and at cultural gatherings the conversation eddies to and fro. Art with a capital. Freudian rehash. Always the psychology of sex. And proper names all in a row. Marx, Huxley, Sholohov [
sic], Eliot. Fixations, inhibitions. Education, morals, economics, literature stirred into the vortex of unceasing argument.Rhodes, 'Mid-Melbourne Madness',
Tomorrow,20 Feb. 1935 (v.1, n.31), pp.10-11
In other articles he compared contemporary New Zealand and Australian literature and found the former lacking the 'virile ... militant' tone of Furnley Maurice or the 'angry note of true sincerity' which characterised the novels of Katharine Susannah Prichard, and noted the existence in Australia of cultural organisations such as the League Against Censorship, the League of Writers in Defence of Culture and the left-wing Melbourne Writers' League. 'On Swearing', pp.12-13; 'Writers in Australia', ibid., 17 Mar. 1937 (v.3, n.10), pp.307-10
Rhodes' impression of a more lively climate of cultural debate in Australia was not simply a product of homesickness or patriotic bias. The dramatic growth in the production of avant-garde little magazines in Australia in the 1930s, paralleling a similar development in America, contrasts sharply with the absence of a single progressive literary or arts periodical in New Zealand, and testifies to a greater receptiveness to current international trends in art and literature, such as modernism and socialist realism. These influences were also felt in the visual arts more strongly in Australia than in New Zealand. The work of a handful of New Zealand artists in this period, notably Toss Woollaston, Colin McCahon and Rita Angus, broke away from the conservative tradition maintained by the art society establishment, a tradition based on naturalism in form, the genres of landscape and still life, and the search for national identity through a faithful rendering of mountains, lakes, rivers and streams. McCahon, particularly, challenged this orthodoxy with the development of a distinctive style. There were a number of minor artists in these years producing dull imitations of impressionism for the art society exhibitions. Yet this did not compare either in scale or in its aesthetic radicalism with the work of the young, radical Australian artists who emerged in the 1930s and 1940s, such as Sidney
R. Haese, Angry Penguins also provided a forum for the modernist debate. The work of Nolan, Boyd, Drysdale and others brought together modernist aesthetic influences and a developing Australian consciousness to produce what has been described as 'a distinctive Australian modernism'Rebels and Precursors. The Revolutionary Years of Australian Art. Ringwood, Victoria: Allen Lane, 1985, p.184
Frederick Sinclaire suggested that the 'uncanny and ill-boding silence' F.S., 'Notes By The Way', Tomorrow, specimen issue, p.3
Discussion of New Zealand culture in fact occupied only a very small proportion of the 118 articles (excluding reviews) that Rhodes wrote for 'Writers in Australia', p.308. Unless otherwise stated, articles by Winston Rhodes cited subsequently in these notes are from The Left Theatre', p.13Tomorrow. These articles expounded the central themes of the cultural politics of the Popular Front. Rhodes explicidy rejected the self-conscious concern with national identity which seemed to preoccupy many New Zealand writers, comparing them with their Australian counterparts who had already learned 'that if they were to contribute anything worthwhile to Australian culture it would be necessary to defend world culture.'Tomorrow.
In Rhodes' opinion Curnow's gross masters were 'not confined to New Zealand'. Nor were the 'Scores of hole-in-the-corner societies [which] provide lectures and entertainment for the few, giving their members any amount of
'These Two Islands', 19 July 1939 (v.5, n.19),p.601; 'The Cult of Culture', 25 July 1934 (v.1, n.3), p.12 Ibid., p.12 'Fifteen Years of Soviet Film Making', 'Fifteen Years of Soviet Film Making', Tomorrow and another in the Soviet News. The cinema was not, he acknowledged, an inherently commercial art form, and here he cited the work of Eisenstein as evidence of the potential of cinema as an 'art of sociological, interpretative and aesthetic value'. But in the western world it had been 'born in an age of commercialism' and consequendy 'has been largely instrumental in standardising and debasing the taste of the people.'Soviet News, July 1935 (v.4, n.3), p.11; 'From Jaegars to Films', p.11p.11
It is not surprising that Rhodes drew heavily upon the work of English literary critics Q.D. and See L. McDiarmid, Scrutiny magazine, and American 'New Critic' Tomorrow printed a Scrutiny reading list as well as the programme for radio broadcasts from Moscow. (The 'annotated list' of Scrutiny publications was to introduce a series of articles on the Scrutiny movement, but these did not appear.) Rhodes cites specifically Fiction and the Reading Public (1932) and Culture and Environment (1933) by Scrutiny and writers such as Saving Civilisation. Yeats, Eliot and Auden Between the Wars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984; D. Modjeska, Exiles at Home. Australian Women Writers 1925-1945. London, Sydney: Sirius Books, 1981; Walker, Dream and Disillusion
Varying responses to these cultural developments were also present in F.S., 'A Constructive Proposal', Rhodes, Tomorrow. Frederick Sinclaire's condemnations of the 'cant', 'humbug' and hypocrisy of bourgeois culture, his frequent comment on the 'insanity' of the modern world and lament that modernity was 'the cross which God has appointed for the modem man to carry', and his resigned response to this state of affairs—'I propose Sack-cloth and Ashes'Tomorrow, 4 Mar. 1936 (v.2, n.17), p.23Tomorrow] group',Frederick Sinclaire, p.116
Just as Rhodes did not share Frederick Sinclaire's fatalistic approach to the problems of the 'modern world', nor did he share the political views of the Leavisites. As a socialist Rhodes held 'the people' to be the source of true cultural values, and would not countenance the passive 'watch and pray' attitude with which 'Tarzan of the Apes', 3 Aug. 1938 (v.4, n.20), p.630 'The Cult of Culture', p.13Scrutiny approached the coming crisis.
In this contest of cultures and ideologies, the commercialised culture of capitalism and the 'enemy of culture', fascism, were ranged on one side of the battlefield, against the promise of socialism and the example of the Soviet Union on the other. The Soviet Union, as model and inspiration, was as important to the Popular Front left in cultural terms as it was politically and economically. The largely uncritical appraisal of cultural development in the Soviet Union can be understood in the context of the belief that western culture had reached a state of'mental and spiritual stagnation', Rhodes, 'A Post-script on Leisure', 7 Aug. 1935 (v.1, n.41), p.14
The statistical bulletins which appeared in the left-wing press, documenting the numbers of performances of Shakespeare in Moscow (471 in 1938; none in New Zealand) or the proportion of the Soviet Union's budget which was spent
I have scarcely had a free hour,—there is so much doing. The theatre every night, and factories, schools, museums, reformatory communes, parks of culture, studios of cinema art, and so much else day by day. The theatrical and artistic enthusiasm and talent is tremendous—a renaissance of cultural energy.
Quoted in
Workers'Weekly,10 Nov. 1934, p.3
Not only were the arts flourishing in the Soviet Union, but there the artist was held in respect by both the people and the state. The value of literature was duly recognised because it bore direct relevance to the lives and struggle of the people. The life and work of Maxim Gorki, a popular and official hero ('the father of Soviet literature, the guide and friend of writers, and idol of the masses', read an obituary notice in Tomorrow, exemplified for Rhodes the marriage of art and action, of cultural and political activity, which also characterised the new 'proletarian' literature emerging in the Soviet Union, and, in a different context, was epitomised by the participation of writers, artists and intellectuals in the International Brigade. "While in the west the literature of the 1920s had turned away from society to dwell on the mental torments of the individual, and writers such as
Tomorrow, 24 June 1936 (v.2, n.25), p.25. See also Rhodes, 'Maxim Gorki', 8 July 1936 (v.2, n.26), pp.12-14
'So That's That', 19 Dec. 1934 (v.1, n.23), p.14; The Progress of Pessimism',31 Mar. 1937 (v.3, n.n), p.338; 'Where Music is Polities', 25 Nov. 1936 (v.3, n.2), p.49
'Fame and Funerals', 2 Sept. 1936 (v.2, n.30), p.19
The vision of the writer as a popular hero is encapsulated by an image Rhodes finds in a passage from Katharine Susannah Prichard's 'So That's That', 19 Dec. 1934 (v.1, n.23), p.15 See J. Coombes, 'British Intellectuals and the Popular Front', in F. Gloversmith (ed.), The Real Russia (1934), an account of her travels in the Soviet Union in the early 30s. Twice he quotes: 'It was the first time in my life I had heard a poet applauded like a primadonna. Over and over again I was present when the poets of a factory or collective farm recited their verses.'Class Culture and Social Change. A New View of the 1930s. Sussex: Harvester Press, 1980, pp.70-100Tomorrow by Gordon Watson succincdy summed up the nature of Russia's attraction as a cultural mecca for left-wing intellectuals. Entitled 'Moscow—New Centre of World Culture', it takes its cue from the presence of British conductor Albert Coates at the funeral of Sergei Kirov in 1934 and describes 'the moving of the very best elements of capitalist culture to the side of Socialism, to the side of the Soviet Union. The tormented individualism of Andre Gide finds hope and the living fulfilment of dreams in the young people of the Soviet Union. Albert Coates finds the rapt attention and musical appreciation among the workers of a Leningrad factory that he never experienced among all the stiff shirts and sleek furs of London.' And thus the Soviet Union is 'becoming increasingly regarded as the custodian of world cultural values.'Tomorrow, 6 Mar. 1935 (v.1,n.33),p.12
Rhodes himself offers a more detailed and critical account of the interaction between western and Soviet culture, but one which also interprets this interaction as the major cultural event of the decade:
It is more than probable that the literary historians of the future will look back to the thirties of this century to find evidence of the first great impact between the communism of the east and the literature of the west.
'Revolution and Literature', 1 Apr. 1936 (v.2, n.19), p.24
Similarly, he expresses a central theme of Popular Front cultural theory, as he seeks to claim for socialism the role of heir to and guardian of a western cultural heritage that capitalism has betrayed. In his articles and in reviews of Soviet fiction the terms of his argument betray his concern to legitimise the new culture within a liberal-humanist cultural tradition. In a review of Darkness and Dawn by Alexei Tolstoi, for example, he emphasises the humanist aspect of this story of revolutionary Russia:
Tolstoi is not writing a novel about the Five Year Plan or the collectivisation of the farms, he is not even writing a novel about the Revolution. But the success of Darkness and Dawn is due to the fact that the writer is talking about human beings, and the story of the revolution is told through their story.
'Books. Views and Reviews', 4 Mar. 1936 (v.2, n.17), p.14
His account of cultural development in the Soviet Union emphasises a healthy climate of free cultural expression and critical debate. In 'Revolution and Literature' he counters the argument that Soviet culture is marked by mediocrity and uniformity, that its content is dictated from above and its purpose narrowly political, and challenges left-wing writers and critics to 'prove by their writings that philistinism and Marxism are not synonymous terms.' 'Revolution and Literature', p.25 'Literature in the Land of the Soviets II: Fellow-Travellers', 6 Mar. 1935 (v.1, n.33), pp.15,17
Here Rhodes implicitly draws a distinction between 'true' and 'false' individualism, a distinction which was stated explicitly by Ian Milner writing in the Canterbury College Canterbury College 'A Spectre and a Faith' (2), 11 Nov. 1936 (v.3, n.1), pp.13-15Review in 1933, in an article ('On Reading Dickens Again') which was also about literature and the current crisis.Review, 85, Oct. 1933, pp.16-17
This is Rhodes' most explicit defence and definition of communism. Despite several deputations of Party officials he did not join the Communist Party. This was partly a response to the comparatively meagre serious attention given to cultural matters by the Party in New Zealand: 'I thought... an issue would come up which I would tend to make a big issue, some literary matter, which I knew at the same time wasn't important to other people. I didn't want to be in the position of fighting a battle over what would seem non-essentials to others.' But while his love of literature stopped him from joining the Party, it was also the foundation of his socialist beliefs. He later explained:
There is always a contradiction, you see, in my mind. Literature has always been an important thing to me ....I think I annoyed a lot of them [the communists] by writing an article ... on how I became left, and I put the responsibility on
T. S. Eliot and various others, not on Lenin and the usual people. That was partly a joke, but partly true too.'Rhodes interview
It was true to the extent that the humanism which was the essential value of literature was for Rhodes also the significance and promise of socialism.
Rhodes also saw the new socialist culture as the inheritor of a 'revolutionary tradition' within western literature, a tradition based upon the maxim that 'All
when I look down the long line of great English writers, I know that with very few exceptions they have fought for the poor against the rich, they have exposed cant'and hypocrisy, they have not been inclined to mistake the shadow of a thing for its substance, they have struggled for liberty, for intellectual honesty, for justice.
'These Men Are Dangerous', 22 July 1936 (v.2, n.27), p.20; 'Heroes in Fiction' (3), 7 July 1937 (v.3, n.18), p.561;
Writers Between Two Wars. AEWSdiscussion course, 1943, p.63
Rhodes' 'Great Tradition', which is not to be confused with the Leavisite Great Tradition whose heroes are different entirely, extends from Dante and Milton, through Shaw and Wells, down to the politically-conscious writers of the present. His radical genealogy reinstates within the literary canon the writers of 'post-war disillusion', such as 'Not in the Text-Books', 29 Aug. 1934 (v.1, n.8), p.14. (See also 'Revolution and Literature'; 'Post-war Paralysis', 5 Feb. 1936 (v.2, n.13), p.8) 'More about the Puritans', 8 Dec. 1937 (v.4, n.3), pp.81-2
The tradition of Miltonism is also defined by a 'reverence for life and the true values of life'.Writers Between Two Wars, p.69Scrutiny) term. Rhodes' articles are infused with 'life', 'vigour' and Vitality', a literary joie de vivre which not only expresses his enthusiasm for his subject, but which is also part of a central metaphor.
The novels of Maxim Gorki, who for Rhodes symbolises more than any other writer the new culture being born in the Soviet Union, are infused with an 'instinctive love of life'; here is a writer who is 'frankly and honestly in love with life', 'who responds naturally and eagerly to vigorous and active living.' 'Maxim Gorki', pp.12-13 The DanceofLife', 10 Apr. 1935 (v.1, n.38), p.11 Ibid., p.1 'The Progress of Pessimism', p.339; 'Tarzan of the Apes', p.630; 'Worms', 3 Oct. 1934 (v.1, n.13), p.10 'On Keeping Up', 9 Jan. 1935 (v.1, n.25), p.8; 'The Dance of Life', p.12Writers Between Two Wars, p.57; 'Revolution and Literature', p.24
The overriding metaphor here is the phoenix, an idea of rebirth and renewal.
Rhodes writes:
But it was no accident that the complete collapse of capitalist stability followed by the wave of European fascism coincided with the spectacular reconstruction of Soviet Russia, and out of the ruins of the one arose writers with their eyes turned to the other.
'Revolution and Literature', p.24
This brings us back to the theme of literary nationalism, and its connection with the contemporaneous left-wing cultural movement, of which Rhodes was the principal theorist and propagandist. For the phoenix is also the central metaphor which has defined the 1930S-1940s in New Zealand cultural history.
The nationalist literary manifesto also saw this as a period of cultural renaissance, and wrote in a language based on images of 'life', 'vigour' and renewal. Rhodes accounted for the failure of western culture by its detachment from social and economic reality, its lack of relevance to the lives of the people, and its consequent loss of social purpose. It had become divorced from its immediate context, had lost any connection with 'the raw material of everyday life'. 'Literature in the Land of the Soviets II', p.13 D. Glover and I. Milner (eds.), New Poems. Christchurch: The Caxton Club Press, 1934, foreword; Curnow, A Book of New Zealand Verse1923-45. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1945, pp.17, 22
The main quotations above are taken from Allen Curnow's introduction to A Book of New Zealand Verse (1945). One could find as many statements of the complementary themes of finding one's ground and of new life, images of actuality and insubstantiality, in Discovered Isles and Creative Problems in New Zealand or in the poems of Charles Brasch—in which:
Everywhere in light and calm the murmuring shadow of departure; distance looks our way. C. Brasch, 'The Islands', in
Collected Poems.Ed. A. Roddick. Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1984, p.17
Two anthologies of poetry published by the Caxton Press in the 1930s also illustrate the common theme. Glover and Rhodes (eds.), Verse Alive-, a selection of poetry from Tomorrow edited by Winston Rhodes and Denis Glover, was published in 1936 and
Verse Alive its editors argued that poetry 'has failed because it has become too detached, too remote from the interests of the people', and that New Zealand literature must show 'some measure of lively independence' in place of a colonial tradition that merely 'substitute[s] "tui" for "nightingale"'. The poet must 'concern himself with the raw material of life,... he should have a sense of human and aesthetic values'. He must 'communicate living experience, trivial and otherwise, in the language of today.'Verse Alive. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1936, foreword; Verse Alive, 2, 1937, prefaceNew Poems (1934), a collection edited by Denis Glover and Ian Milner which included work by Curnow, Fairburn, Glover and Brasch. New Poems, in contrast to Verse Alive, defined the poet's responsibility as being firstly to 'his creative impulse':
It has been termed 'new' because we think its general tone marks a departure from that unfortunate tradition in which any sentimental rhapsodising over love, flowers or sunsets seems to pass for poetry. A predilection for decorative lyricising and emotional embroidery, weakly reminiscent of pre-war Georgian verse, has produced in this country a lifeless growth which, though not necessarily insincere, is in no sense creative.
New Poems editors went on to acknowledge, but also qualify, the impact of 'a revolutionary age' upon many of the writers represented in the volume:
We certainly note their sensitiveness to veering social forces, their willingness to face unpleasant issues, their implied faith in a more creative way of living; but above all we are struck by the renewed poetic vigour and pliancy which springs from these qualities of social affinity. A new awareness, shaping itself in a freshening of imagery and a more impassioned recording of experience, gives these poems what significance they have. And this quickened vitality, appearing at a time when poetry is alleged to be both ineffectual and exhausted, has led us to make this selection.
Glover and Milner,
New Poems,foreword
The phoenix is a metaphor of death and rebirth, of cyclical change; it implies continuity rather than a radical break. In Rhodes' cultural history, the humanist tradition defined as Miltonism was being reborn in the 'proletarian literature' of the Soviet Union and in the political commitment of the progressive writers of the west, who were 'concerned with building a new civilisation and saving some of the wreckage of the old'. 'Squirts and Squibs', 2 Feb. 1938 (v.4, n.7), p.213 'Literature in the Land of the Soviets III: Proletarian Writers', 13 Mar. 1935 (v.1, n.34), p.14; 'Literature in the Land of the Soviets I', 27 Feb. 1935 (v.1, n.32), p.10 'The Roof of the World', 15 Apr. 1936 (v.2, n.20), p.18; also 'Literature in the Land of the Soviets III', p.13 Canterbury College Carter, '"History was on our side"', p.109 'The Writers' International', 24 July 1935 (v.1, n.39), p.13Review, 84, Oct. 1932, p.84
The historical construction of literary nationalism also identifies this period as a radical juncture, as a beginning. It has emphasised the awakening rather than what went before. The programme of literary nationalism was concerned to establish the origins, and authorship, of New Zealand's cultural awakening in the 1930s and the Curnow, 'Phoenix generation' (notwithstanding that the first Phoenix took its model and motif from a British literary movement of the 1920s). So Allen Curnow wrote in the preface to A Book of New Zealand Verse, 'here, where we are beginning', and 'My intention has been to cut our losses'.A Book of New Zealand Verse 1923-45, pp.16,15
Along with their similarly styled complaint against 'the weighty and deadening forces of philistinism', their apprehension of society's 'mental and spiritual stagnation', and their conception of this as a time of cultural renaissance or beginning, both left and nationalist cultural critiques make, correspondingly, a claim for the value of literature. It has been argued that for the New Zealand writers of the 1930s and 1940s the impact of the depression, the prevailing ethos of political commitment among the English literary left, and the impetus towards the creation of a national culture converged in an emphasis on the public role of the artist.Phoenix defined its task as "'the redeeming of the times'". Its purpose was an aesthetic and moral one: '"It is the poet's task not to save a man's soul but to make it worth saving.'" It addressed itself to 'a small but intelligent minority' and cast the poets and their audience in the role of a cultural vanguard. Their self-appointed task was 'the creation of cultural antennae, the communication of definite standards of taste' and 'the integration of national consciousness'.Phoenix, Mar. 1932 (v.1, n.1), pp.[1-3]
For Rhodes and the literary left, on the other hand, the future, which it was their task to help create, was a socialist or people's culture. Rhodes' vision of a popular culture drew in part from the example of the Soviet Union, and also from the nineteenth-century tradition of English craft socialism. In an early issue of 'The Cult of Culture', p.12 'Tarzan of the Apes', p.631 'A Spectre and a Faith' (2), pp.13-14; 'Writers in Australia', p.309 'Training in Film Criticism—From School to University', 18 Mar. 1936 (v.2, n.18), p.23Tomorrow he quoted the familiar words of William Morris: 'an art which is produced by the people and for the people as a joy to the maker and the user.'
"When Rhodes turned his attention to New Zealand it was to argue for a popular culture of this kind. New Zealand writers must learn to deal with 'the realities and not with the shadows of life' if they are to produce 'a popular and socially significant form of art.' 'On Swearing', p.12; 'Squirts and Squibs', p.213
We have had homesick writers, disgrunded writers, and guide-book writers. We need militant writers. ... we have not yet discovered the New Zealand scene. We have only discovered the scenery. Isolation will help no one to discover that scene, ever changing as it is.
The beginnings of a national literature are to be found when writers turn to deal with the normal activities of ordinary men.... It would be a sign of increasing nationhood and evidence that writers were ceasing to create literature out of geographical accident and were using human material instead.
'The Writers' International', p.13; 'On Swearing', p.13
The sort of cultural activity he envisaged was not that represented by the
Workers' Art Clubs are wanted to unite those who are capable of producing stories, articles, or drawings dealing with New Zealand social themes. Workers' Film Clubs are wanted to devise ways and means of producing New Zealand Documentary.
If the cultural life of New Zealand is in a healdiy state, we should expect to find that our innumerable [cultural] societies are connected with shop, factory and educational centres, we should expect men and women on all sides of us to be engaged in creative work of some sort, we should expect that the works produced would be not only available for all to see but eagerly sought for and enjoyed by the people from town and country, from shop, factory and farm.
'Keeping it Dark', 20 Nov. 1935 (v.2, n.4), p.16; 'The Cult of Culture', p.12
Others shared this vision. The cultural activities discussed in the following chapters, the Left Book Club and the cooperative book societies, the Progressive Publishing Society and the left theatres, were all in different ways attempts to realise a popular or socialist cultural ideal.
The influence of the Left Book Club in the political culture of the left in the 1930s has been summed up by one historian:
In the Britain of the nineteen-thirties it was easy to identify a left-wing, antifascist, pro-Soviet, anti-war, popular-front intellectual. The sign of identification was not necessarily a party card, a lapel button, or a signature at the bottom of a revolutionary manifesto, but the colour of the bindings on his bookshelves.
S. Samuels, 'The Left Book Club', in W. Laqueur and G. Mosse (eds.),
The Left-wing Intellectuals Between the Wars, 1919-1939.New York: Harper and Row, 1966, p.65
The Left Book Club maintained a similar profile in New Zealand. Among the left and liberal-left, 'everyone' was a member of the Left Book Club at least to the extent of reading the distinctive orange cloth-bound books.
In New Zealand the Left Book Club had its own National Association, with Winston Rhodes as its president and a former Presbyterian minister and well-known Wellington pacifist,
A 'pacifist schoolmaster turned successful publisher', B. Pimlott, V. Gollancz, quoted in S. Hodges, Labour and the Left in the 1930s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977, p.155Gollancz. The Story of a Publishing House 1928-1978. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1978, p.118
The Left Book Club was in many ways a unique phenomenon, as an organisation and as a political movement. Book club schemes were already known in America, but in England this was a first (although it recalled earlier extra-political organisations such as Cobbett's Hampden Clubs and the Chartists). Founded on the eve of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, it was a peculiar expression of the political climate of the late 1930s. By the end of the decade it had been followed by a Right Book Club, a Liberal Book Club and several religious book schemes, but none of these were to have anything like the Left Book Club's success in terms of size and political influence.
The basic idea was 'to produce a series of books dealing with the three closely related questions of fascism, the threat of war, and poverty, aiming at effective resistance to the first, prevention of the second, and socialism as a cure for the third', J. Lewis, Left Book Club. 'Please' leaflet, 1936. The Left Book Club. An Historical Record. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1970, pp.13-14Left Book News (soon renamed the Left News), which contained information about the books, an editorial by Gollancz, a review of the monthly choice, news of Left Book Club activities from around the world (including reports from New Zealand) and articles on current political issues. By the end of 1937 the scheme had expanded to include Additional, Topical, Supplementary and Educational books ('a sort of Left "Home University Library"'
The majority of the Left Book Club tides were works of social, political and economic critique, focusing on the subjects of fascism, the threat of war and the horror of poverty and unemployment. They included such titles as: The Coming Struggle for Power and Theory and Practice of Socialism by John Strachey; World Politics, 118-36 by The Road to Wigan Pier, one of the most popular choices; Spain in Revolt by H. Gannes and T. Repard; The Problem of the Distressed Areas by W. Hannington; and Beatrice and Sidney Webb's mammoth, 1200-page Soviet Communism. A New Civilisation? as an
Modern Marriage and Birth Control, Freud and Marx. A Dialectical Study, An Introduction to Economic Botany and Literature in Society. There were only a few works of fiction, poetry or drama, including the Poems of Freedom anthology edited by New Zealander John Mulgan (then studying at Oxford), Clifford Odets' classic 1935 strike play, Waiting for Lefty, Joseph Freeman's novel, An American Testament, a Left Song Book, and one children's book, The Adventures of Little Pig, and Other Stories.
Within a month of its inauguration the club had over 6000 members; by the end of its first year, 39,400; and by April 1939, 57,000. At its height there were 1200 local discussion groups in existence, including groups in Australia, South Africa, France, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, India, China and other countries as well as New Zealand. (The United States was excluded by copyright laws, Italy, Germany and Japan for political reasons.) The context for its sudden and quite phenomenal success was a political climate of disillusionment and uncertainty: a widespread feeling of political atrophy generated by the lack of constructive policies from established political parties to deal with the depression; an inactive Labour Party; the refusal of the Chamberlain government to enter into an alliance with the Soviet Union against Germany; the failure of the League of Nations and of the non-intervention policy of the western democratic powers over the Spanish Civil War. The Left Book Club was not intended to engage in direct political activity, nor to supersede existing political or labour organisations such as the Labour Party, the trade union movement or the Communist Party, but rather to operate outside and to supplement those structures. It embodied an ideal of enlightened public opinion as an effective political force, an essentially humanist faith in the power of rational debate. A Left Book Club badge (orange, of course) was inscribed with the words 'Knowledge, Unity, Responsibility', The club's constitution defined its aim as one of political education:
to help in the terribly urgent struggle
forworld peace and a better social and economic order andagainstFascism, by giving (to all who are determined to play their part in this struggle) suchknowledgeas will immensely increase their efficiency.LBC leaflets. Roth collection
To Gollancz himself, whose politics owed more to nineteenth-century guild socialism and Fabian ideology than to revolutionary socialism, the venture was based on an Enlightenment belief that 'thought is the most revolutionary thing in the world'. Gollancz, editorial, Left News, Nov. 1938
The spectacular growth of the club was above all a product of the heightened political atmosphere of the years 1936-9, as the Spanish Civil War escalated and Hitler began his march into Europe. Spain was the focus of a major club campaign: public meetings, rallies, film shows and 'knit-ins' were held; Left
Tomorrow of the 1938 rally at Queen's Hall, written in the heat of the moment, evidently—'while the fervour induced by that spontaneous singing of The Internationale still inspires me'— conveyed something of the earnestness and almost religious fervour (the metaphor is the Left Book Club's) with which the organisation approached its task. The report concluded:
Perhaps even now the world can be saved, perhaps we ourselves, as well as our children, will enjoy the first World Socialist Commonwealth. But in any case there is work to do. And fifty thousand missionaries, fifty thousand prophets of the new Social Order, fifty thousand members of the Left Book Club, will do their share.
P.B.F., The Queen's Hall Meeting',
Tomorrow,2 Mar. 1938 (v.4, n.9), pp.283, 285
Left Book Club publicity carried the same tone: 'In the desperately urgent political situation at home & abroad we believe that a doubling of the membership of the Left Book Club (every member being a LBC leaflet, 1938. Roth collectioncentre of influence) can save our country & perhaps the world'.
Although implicitly socialist, the club's political goal was broadly defined by the phrase 'a better social and economic order'. Its emphasis, on the other hand, was on the immediate struggle 'against Fascism'. The appeal of the club to 'all those who hope for a survival of democracy, whatever their precise opinions' was designed to mobilise all sections of progressive opinion in support of this struggle: in Gollancz's words, 'to win the maximum number of members and frighten the minimum'. LBC leaflet, [nd]. Roth collection; Pimlott, Labour and the Left p.159
It has been argued that, given the failure of the Popular Front in immediate political terms, the most important aspect of the Left Book Club was its role in introducing to political theory and activity a large number of people who were previously apolitical. It developed 'a new level of political consciousness [rather than an awakening of class consciousness]'. Samuels, 'The Left Book Club', p.76 Ibid.,p.76;Lewis, Quoted in ibid., p.78 F. Cook, 'National Rally of Left Book Club', TheLeftBookClub,p.27
Left Song Book. The Poets Group, in addition to publishing the Poems of Freedom anthology edited by John Mulgan, produced illustrated broadsheets and a journal entitled Poetry and the People, and recited at meetings of Left Book Club groups, Co-operative Guilds and trade unions with the aim of 'trying to restore the traditional link between poetry and the people'.Tomorrows London correspondent, Freda Cook, it was hoped to be able to counter the influence of 'mass' culture with 'a serious effort... to produce light and cheap romances, coloured with the anti-fascist atmosphere instead of the usual snobbish capitalist background which is taken for granted.'Tomorrow, 2 Mar. 1938 (v.4, n.9), p.283
The diversity of activities engaged in by the Left Book Club, and its important social dimension, have led one historian to describe it as 'not so much a book club, more a way of life'. Samuels, 'The Left Book Club', p.86Tomorrow, 21 June 1939 (v.5, n.17), p.529
The principal agent for the Left Book Club publications in New Zealand initially was Hamilton bookseller Blackwood Paul. As a student at Auckland University College in the early 30s, Paul had been a member of the committee
J. Paul. Interview with author, 23 Aug. 1985; Phoenix and an editor of the literary review Kiwi. After graduating that year in arts and law he returned to Hamilton to work in, and soon become manager of, the family bookselling business, Paul's Book Arcade. In 1936 he travelled to England where he met Victor Gollancz and secured distribution rights for the Left Book Club in New Zealand.Comment, 23, May 1965, pp.10-11Tomorrow as a Left Book Club agent in August 1936. Thereafter the club was advertised regularly in Tomorrow and in the Communist Party's Workers' Weekly, and in Woman Today but, unsurprisingly, not in the daily press.
The extent of the Left Book Club's influence in New Zealand in terms of membership can only be guessed at. There are no membership records, and it is thus impossible to estimate how many people belonged to the club, let alone how many read the books in libraries or borrowed from friends. There is, however, some indication of the numbers who were actively involved in Left Book Club groups. Twenty-six groups were established in New Zealand between 1937 and 1940. The first was formed in Christchurch in July 1937, followed by Auckland in August. By the end of that year there were eight groups established; by April 1939, 14. Membership of the groups ranged from a few hundred in places like Wellington and Auckland, down to 12 in Te Kuiti and 10 in Dargaville. The significant numbers were in the main centres. The first annual general meeting of the Wellington group noted that the group's membership had jumped from 50 to over 500 in six months; a report of April 1939 gave its total membership that year as 350, many of whom, however, were only 'loosely connected' with the group; its 1940 annual report recorded a total of 450, again including 'a great number of "dead" (or at any rate dormant) members'. The Left Book Club. Conference Decisions', Tomorrow, 26 Apr. 1939 (v.5, n.13), p.412; Left BookClub (Wellington group). Second annual report, 21 Feb. 1940. C.F. Saunders Papers. Jack Locke Deposit: item 10. University of Canterbury Library. Membership figures of LBC groups have also been derived from Tomorrow, 15 Mar. 1939 (v.5, n.10), p.316; reports in the Left News; Report of National Committee New Zealand Left Book Club Association fortheyear 1939-40. Locke Deposit: 10. See Appendix 1 for membership figures of other LBC groups in New Zealand.
If numerically the club could hardly be described as a mass-based political movement, what is perhaps surprising is the geographical spread of the groups. The books and left sympathies were not confined to the main centres. Left Book Club groups were established in provincial centres and rural communities ranging from Dargaville, Te Kuiti and Te Awamutu in the North Island, to Hororata, Coalgate and Blackball in the South.
The national conference held in Wellington in April 1939, initiated by Christchurch members and attended by representatives of 14 groups, led to the formation of a New Zealand Left Book Club Association which was to be based in Christchurch. The draft constitution before the conference stated as the association's object:
To work for a better social and economic order for the maintenance and extension of civil liberties, and for world peace, by the study and discussion of social, economic, political and cultural problems.
Proposed Rules of the New Zealand Association ofLeft Book Clubs, [1939]. Roth collection
Curiously, the association dropped the direct reference to fascism contained in the original Left Book Club statement of intent, despite the requested amendment from the Dunedin group which would have included the phrases: 'By educational activity to promote awareness of and resistance to fascism with special reference to its relation to New Zealand' and 'To promote understanding of and support for socialism and its advancement in N.Z.' Amendments to Original Draft Constitution submitted by the Dunedin Left Book Club Group, [1939]. Roth collection
The conference elected Winston Rhodes and Tomorrow and for a regular column in the Labour Party newspaper, the Standard The reasons for the failure of negotiations with Tomorrow are not recorded; one can only speculate that the editors of the magazine—determinedly 'non-partisan' as we have seen—were reluctant to associate themselves formally with an organisation which was, despite its protestations to the contrary, a political (and to some people communist) organisation. The Standard, which would most likely have agreed with the latter assessment, would only offer the club regular advertising rates.
In the absence of any membership records, and given the diversity of the groups, it is also impossible to determine the composition of the Left Book Club in New Zealand in social or occupational terms. And it is difficult therefore to assess the extent to which its influence extended to 'even the humblest worker', V. Christensen, secretary, Manawatu LBC group, correspondence, Samuels, 'The Left Book Club', p.65Manawatu Evening Standard 5 Dec. 1939, p.6
In New Zealand there were some efforts made to reach a working class audience: the Manawatu group in Palmerston North held fortnightly study groups 'mainly for railwaymen', Report of National Committee . . . 1939-40: Summary of Group Reports, p.2
The geographical spread of the groups appears to have been matched by the diversity of functions they fulfilled. Some operated simply as discussion groups focused on the Left Book Club publications only; those in rural areas appear to have functioned effectively as mutual support groups for liberals and progressives; a few approached more closely Victor Gollancz's vision of the Left Book Club groups as active left cultural and social centres. One member who shared the latter vision of the club's potential was Charlie Saunders, a member of the Christchurch group and the national executive. Saunders was widely active in the left-wing movement in Christchurch, as a Communist Party member, an activist in the National Unemployed Workers' Movement from its inception, a trade unionist, the Christchurch secretary of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee and later literary secretary of the Society for Closer Relations with Russia. He lost his job as a journalist because of his political beliefs. As a member of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee he advocated the establishment of a national organisation which would coordinate material support for the socialist cause in Spain and China, and for every other Victim of oppression'. S.M.Skudder, "'Bringing It Home". New Zealand Responses to the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939'. DPhil thesis, Waikato University, 1986, p.381. Information about Saunders is also derived from Saunders Papers. Locke Deposit: 10; New Zealand Society for Closer Relations with the USSR. Christchurch Branch. Executive minutes and other papers. Tomorrow in June 1939 he commented on the failure of the club:
It has not developed the technique for catering for all the social and cultural needs of its members. . . . What has not been fully realised . . . is that the Left has within itself all the potentialities for covering the activities of life in every sphere outside the hours of service to the employer.
He further defined the object of the club as: '[to] bring together all elements on the Left [with specific reference to the Labour Party, Federation of Labour, trade unions and left bookshops] for study, discussion, and other communion.' The aim of the delegates to the first national conference was, in Saunders' view:
to cover the whole Dominion with a network of groups not only for the study of Left literature and the development of a social and cultural life of the Left, but for coupling sound practice in appropriate spheres with the sound theory developed in group lectures and discussions.
Saunders, The Left Book Club', p.529
Such a vision of the wider potential of the Left Book Club is also suggested by the proposed activities outlined in the annual reports of the groups and in remits put to the national conference. Suggested activities included youth groups, esperanto classes, drama groups (one function of which would be 'to produce plays suitable for performance in rural areas'), an effort to 'foster the writing of plays of social significance to the movement', tours of overseas speakers, writers and artists, and importing left films. 'The Left Book Club. Conference Decisions', p.412; remits for first LBC national conference, April 1939. Roth collection Report of National Committee . . . 1939-40: Remits, p.[4]
The last remit was lost, but other ambitions were realised. Inquiries were made with the Progressive Film Institute in London about importing films but this was found to be too expensive and complicated by exchange restrictions. However, several groups held film screenings, sometimes in cooperation with the local Spanish Medical Aid Committee, or with Australian communist and trade unionist Tony McGillick who made a lecture tour of New Zealand in 1939. For example, the Wellington group screened two short films entitled Nutrition and Children at Play to an audience of over 200. A screening of Defence ofMadrid was held by the Dunedin group and Spanish Medical Aid Committee. The Hamilton group sponsored screenings of Modern Russiass and Ten Days That Shook the World, and Modern Russia was also screened along with A Day in a Soviet Kindergarten to an audience of 125 by the Left Book Club in Ruawai, in Northland. The Ruawai group, one of the more enterprising despite being one of the smallest, also involved itself in youth activity, holding classes in motor-engineering, art, dancing, boxing and first aid. Several of the larger groups held socials and dances. The Manawatu group, for example, celebrated its first birthday with community singing, supper and a dance, while the Dunedin group also held a 'community sing' on May Day 1939. Fund raising for particular political campaigns also provided opportunities for social events. The club's major fundraising effort was for a nationwide China Appeal launched in 1939, and an Auckland rally for China reportedly attracted an attendance of 700, the club's largest public meeting. In all over £600 was collected by the Left Book
Workers' Weekly, 25 Nov. 1938, p.8; Left News, Oct. 1938, p.1019; Report of National Committee . . . 1939-40; People's Voice, 18 Aug. 1939, p.8; The Left Book Club. Conference Decisions'; People's Voice, 8 Dec. 1939, p.8
Although the Left Book Club does not appear to have produced any local playwrights, several of the groups organised drama productions. The first Wellington annual report records that a drama evening and play readings were held in 1939. These appear to have been performed for members only and were not reported in the local papers. In Palmerston North, however, a performance of See below, pp. 83-4Waiting for Lefty in December 1939 attracted an audience of about 300 and provoked considerable local controversy.Squaring the Circle and Odets' antifascist play Till the Day I Die, and the Women's Group gave readings of Press Cuttings and Village Wooing (George Bernard Shaw).Tomorrow, 21 Dec. 1938 (v.5, n.4), p.115; Workers' Weekly, 5 Nov. 1937, p.3; Left News, Dec. 1938, p.1100; programme, Till the Day I Die, Dec. 1937. Locke Deposit: 10; Left Book Club (Christchurch group). Notice of annual general meeting, 8 Dec. 193?. Ibid.The Insect Play by the Capek brothers in 1938, and the following year Professor Mambcky an anti-fascist play, and gave readings of The Ascent of F6 by Masses and Man by Toller, RUR by Karel Capek, Squire Speaks, and a one-act anti-fascist play entitled 'Blood of the Martyrs' which was performed at the Hillside workshops. Its major productions were on the whole favourably received by the city's two newspapers. This is somewhat surprising, although the Evening Stars reviewer of The Insect Play wondered whether some of the audience might have not appreciated the play's satire on modern warfare, having passed a recruiting demonstration on their way to the theatre. The incongruity of a Left Book Club group performing in the RSA hall (the following year) attracted no comment.EveningStar, 3 Sept. 1938, p.13; Otago Daily Times, 3 Sept. 1938, p.19,17 July 1939, p.11. The Dunedin group's dramatic productions were also reported in Tomorrow, 1 Feb. 1939 (v.5, n.7), p.210; People's Voice, 18 Aug. 1939, p.8; Left News, Oct. 1938, p.1018
Saunders' Christchurch group was one which succeeded to some extent in providing a unifying focus for the labour movement and fostering the 'social and cultural life of the Left' he envisaged. The Christchurch group was formed following a public meeting held in July 1937 on the initiative of, among others, Winston Rhodes and Bruce Souter, and chaired by Rhodes interview. The inaugural meeting of the Christchurch group was reported in Workers' Weekly, 30 July 1937, p.4Left News, Dec. 1938, p.uoo; Workers' Weekly, 5 Nov. 1937, p.3
A youth section was also formed. The club's drama group was fortunate in the talents of George Worthington, who was in charge of WEA drama for the Canterbury district, and Owen Simmance, an actor working in radio drama.
In Rhodes' recollection the Christchurch clubrooms did function as a social and intellectual meeting place: 'We got in touch with all sorts of people. So we had school teachers, workers, we had everything. . . .—We had a library, a reading room where people could read periodicals. We wanted to organise luncheons'. Rhodes interview
a cafe in Regent Street. George Lawn and I were the only academics who attended. The others were trade unionists mostly. A group of about 15 or so would meet for lunch once a week and have a paper read or a discussion. That was the kind of thing we wanted to do with the Left Book Club.
Ibid.
The availability of clubrooms obviously facilitated the wider social function and higher profile the groups might maintain. The Palmerston North and Dunedin groups also established their own rooms. In Dunedin premises were rented in Carroll Street for use as a library, for group and public meetings and for social activities (a piano was also purchased). The Dunedin Left Book Club rooms were patronised by Communist Party members and some trade unionists and labour activists, such as Sam Ikin, secretary of the carpenters' union and a Party member, and Bill Richards, a tramwayman and secretary of the Labour Representation Committee, along with 'university types', includingJ.N. Findlay, Professor of Philosophy at Otago University and president of the group; Otago University Librarian John Harris; Hunter Boyes, a student who was president of the club's drama group; and Ron O'Reilly, later Canterbury Public Librarian. The Dunedin Public Librarian, Archie Dunningham, was also a member. Art students Rodney Kennedy and Colin McCahon designed and constructed the stage sets for the drama group productions of The Insect Play and Professor Mambck.
Left News, Oct. 1938, p.1018; Colin McCahotr. Artist. Wellington: A.H. and A History ofOtago. Dunedin: John McIndoe, 1984, p.192; R. Kennedy. Interview with author, 26 Jan. 1987; P. and W. Powell. Interview with author, 22 Oct. 1989
Libraries appear to have provided an important focal point: 'the real centre of the Club', wrote a Dunedin member in the Ibid., Feb. 1939, p.1171; Report of National Committee . . . 1939-40: Summary of Group Reports, p.4Left News.Left News, Oct. 1938, p.1019
In the smaller towns and rural areas the groups operated on a more informal basis than in the larger centres. In some cases, group meetings were held in the rooms of other political organisations, such as the Labour Party, or, in Oamaru, the Douglas Social Credit Society. Often they were held in private homes, as in Coalgate in Canterbury. The organisational difficulties and the informal character which the Coalgate convenor described in a letter to the Left News were probably typical of the experience of Left Book Club groups in rural districts:
Our chief difficulty is the distance people have to come to our meetings; in consequence we make the meetings as attractive as possible. They are held in my house, where we have a good sized sitting room. Easy chairs, a good fire and tea and cakes help considerably to make the meetings go well. . . . We usually have 12 to 15 at our meetings, and we meet once a fortnight except in the harvesting season.
Left News,Sept. 1938, p.980
A comment from a member of the Ruawai group suggests that in such areas the club to some extent provided a focus for social as well as political intercourse between otherwise disparate elements of the rural community; here the group included 'a good mixture, farmers, tradesmen, schoolteachers, ministers of religion & labourers, workers all.' AJ. Redfern to
Rent increases forced the Christchurch group to abandon their clubrooms in August 1939 (enabling them to reduce their membership fee from 15/- to 2/6), and
J. Locke. Interview with author, 6 June 1985
House meetings of the kind described here appear, by contrast, to have been the predominant form of Left Book Club activity in the capital. In Wellington the Left Book Club was unable to procure permanent rooms. The group was organised into 10 suburban-based discussion circles, having a total membership of 106 in February 1940. A monthly bulletin produced by the central committee outlined the topics for discussion. The group's secretary, LBC (Wellington group), second annual report; LBC (Wellington group). Bulletin No.1, 31 May 1939. Locke Deposit: 10;
The kind of political discussion evening described by Left Book Club members in Wellington and Christchurch, combining politics and social intercourse, was a regular feature of social and intellectual life among such left-wing
The Wellington group's major activity besides discussion circles was a weekly Friday evening current affairs session known as the 'News-Behind-The-News'. At these meetings, started in 1940 and held in the NZEI rooms in Willis Street, 'current items of news [were] analysed and discussed by a panel of competent speaker-interpreters', such as LBC (Wellington group), second annual report, p.2 Finlay interview
The 10 public meetings held by the Wellington group in the 1939-40 year (which attracted a combined attendance of 1150) indicate the range of topics covered: 'Spain', 'Literature and Fascism', 'The British Empire', 'Defence', 'China', 'The USA', 'The Second World War', 'War Aims', 'The Centennial', 'The Workers' Centennial' and 'India Today'. The first three public meetings organised by the Christchurch group were a lecture given by J. Kerridge on 'Religion in Russia and Germany', 'The Political Situation in England' by Ian Milner, and a lantern lecture on 'China Today' presented by Left News and the Workers' Weekly, 70-100 people turned out to hear Gordon Watson speak on 'What is Socialism?', while in Gisborne 200-300 listened to a talk by returned International Brigade member Tom Spiller. Debates with the local Labour Party branch on propositions such as 'That the Labour Government at the present time is tending towards State Capitalism rather than socialism' were held by several of the groups.Workers' Weekly, 5 Nov. 1937, p.3, 9 Dec. 1938, p.4; LBC (Wellington group), second annual report; Left News, Aug. 1939
While most of these meetings focused on political events in the international sphere, deriving their material in the first place from the Left Book Club publications, New Zealand itself also formed a significant subject of Left Book
drew up a programme for the detailed study of the New Zealand economic system, preparatory to the working-out of a provisional plan for a socialist New Zealand. Members of the Group are engaged in personal investigation of separate branches of industry.
Left News,Oct. 1938, p.1019
The Rangiora group, focusing its interest still closer to home, held a group meeting on 'The History and Establishment of Rangiora'. (Blackball, on the other hand, preferred the broader perspective, hosting 'a series of meetings giving [an] oudine of man's knowledge and position in the universe'. Report of National Committee . . . 1939-40: Summary of Group Reports, pp.3-4A Programme for Progress directed members to supplementary reading on New Zealand economic history. In its focus on New Zealand, the Left Book Club shared with Tomorrow the object of providing a forum for much-needed debate on local political, social and economic issues.
This objective was pursued further with the publication of pamphlets. The Wellington group first raised the idea of publishing with a suggestion to the national association for a series of 'short pamphlets ... on the condition of people in New Zealand, farmers, doctors, housewives', a centennial pamphlet by Report of National Committee . . . 1939-40, p.5Why You Should Be a Socialist to be written by British Foreign Policy and the Second World War by The Soviet Union and Finland by New Zealand Farming. What of the Future? by The War Behind the War by British Foreign Policy and the Second World War, 1000 of the 1500 printed had been sold by April 1940. Other titles proposed were: 'A Socialist Programme for New Zealand' by
The national committee also appointed Tomorrow. The club's interest in this area reflected a wider movement in the 1930s. While sociology is now established as an academic discipline, and social research an integral part of marketing and industry, it was in the 1930s a new and exciting idea, and expressed the same concern with truth and reality and with social rather than individual experience that underlay the documentary-realist movement in literature and art. The Left Book Club in Britain sent its members on tours of working class areas to witness the reality of 'poverty amidst plenty', a collective version of the search for authenticity which took George Orwell to Wigan Pier and which produced the reportage novel. This interest in social documentation was epitomised by the Mass Observation Movement founded in England by anthropologist Tom Harrisson in 1937. Mass Observation engaged large numbers of volunteers in observing and recording the 'collective habits and social behaviour' of the people. The results of this activity were collated, 'without unduly prejudging or selecting', and published in book form.Mass Observation (1937), quoted in S. Laing, 'Presenting "Things as They Are": John Somerfield's May Day and Mass Observation', in F. Gloversmith (ed.), Class Culture and Social Change. A New View of the 1930s. Sussex: Harvester Press, 1980, pp.153, 156
Despite the hope that 'with the co-operation of other Groups future surveys can be extended to cover the whole country', LBC (Wellington group), second annual report, pp.2-3
to enlist voluntary observers in all walks of life, to record systematically their observations of the behaviour and opinions of their fellows in the community. These records are to be analysed by the central organisations and used for scientifically drawn conclusions about the life of New Zealanders.
'Mass Observation. NZ Organisation Formed',
Workers'Weekly,5 May 1939, p.4
It is not known how many people were involved in the Fellowship or volunteered to 'observe', although a report on its activities in June 1939 lamented that 76 per cent of the members belonged to 'the Administrative and Professional groups'. 'Group Observation', Salient, 21 June 1939 (v.2, n.11), p.3
Survey of Personal Contacts—being a research into (1) the interests of New Zealand; (2) the sociological mechanisms governing the formation and interchange of opinion; and (3) Anzac Day.
Ibid.
For the first survey 37 people were questioned and for the second operation 332 'conversations' were held and 222 people 'observed', but no results were published.
Possibly it was the war which spelled this organisation's premature demise. The Group Observation Fellowship had not been the only experiment of its kind, however. Some years earlier a Social Research Society had been formed in Christchurch. This group undertook some work on broadcasting, but reports of its progress in Tomorrow in November 1935 and April 1936 reveal no further information about its activities. A more significant development in this area was the ill-fated experiment in government-funded social research, the Social Science Research Bureau. Established in 1937, the Bureau was directed by Left Book Club author A Survey of the Standards of Life of New Zealand Dairy farmers (1940).Tomorrow, 20 Nov. 1935 (v.2, n.4), p.16, 15 Apr. 1936 (v.2, n.20), p.26; The Life and Death of Official Social Research in New Zealand 1956-1940. Occasional Papers in Sociology and Social Work, 7. Wellington: Department of Sociology, Victoria University of Wellington, 1987
In its primary task of political education the Left Book Club in New Zealand was following the model of its parent organisation. In Britain, the Left Book Club aimed to expose the truth behind the media and government versions of political events as a means of mobilising public opinion behind the Popular Front. It also played an important role in the publishing industry, producing cheap, informative books for a large readership in a market dominated by expensive books with a small circulation and paperbacks of the 'pulp fiction' variety.
In New Zealand the Left Book Club also responded to specifically local conditions. In part it expressed the same mistrust of a conservative press dominated by the British media and conservative political interests which was a major stimulus behind the establishment of Tomorrow. Martyn Finlay assessed the intellectual atmosphere among left and liberal circles in the late 1930s which was the context of the Left Book Club meetings and 'News-Behind-The-News' sessions:
[there was] a prevailing suspicion that there were forces at work which were not revealed generally or that could be ascertained only by literary or other detective work. So it was not so much a belief in something as a belief against something—the suspicion that there was more to British foreign policy than met the eye. It was more doubt than certainty about anything.
Finlay interview
To the absence of a provocative or progressive news media as the context in which the Left Book Club developed must also be added the paucity of political literature. Tomorrow welcomed the establishment of the Left Book Club in New Zealand with the comment that it 'provides us with one of the few methods of gaining reliable political information . . . where Left literature is difficult to
Left News.Tomorrow, 26 May 1937 (v.3, n.15), p.452
A more serious impediment to the availability of political literature in these years was the existence of very stringent censorship. While restrictions on the importation of political literature under the 1920 War Regulations Continuance Act had been eased by the Labour government in 1936, another war brought renewed sensitivities and legislative measures. The Censorship and Publicity Emergency Regulations, brought into force on 1 September 1939, imposed even tighter restrictions, including within the definition of 'subversive' anything 'intended or likely to cause disaffection to His Majesty' or 'to interfere with the national effort by disruption of the morale of the civil population or armed forces'. Ibid., 1940, p.63Statutory Regulations, 1939, p.569Tomorrow was closed down four months later) added the clause 'likely or intended to cause undue alarm to the public ... in relation to the public safety or to the war'.Karl Marx by Trotsky and Karl Marx in his Earlier Writings, India Today, a biography of Rosa Luxembourg, and periodicals the New Statesman and Nation and New Republic. Faced with the difficulty of distinguishing between academic or educational works on Marxism and material of propagandist intent, it referred a number of titles on to the Censorship and Publicity Board.
These included works such as The Communist Manifesto, The Poverty of Philosophy and Lenin's State and Revolution, The Post-war History of the British Working Class by Allen Hutt, and the Webbs' Soviet Communism.
The principal source for this discussion of wartime censorship is The New Zealand People at War: The Home Front. Wellington: Historical Publications Branch, Department of Internal Affairs/ Government Printer, 1986, pp.997-1013
By May 1941, 91 titles had been released from suspension, but there were still 109 books and periodicals on the banned list. The Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, had declared in January 1941 that no literature deemed to be against the war effort, including communist literature, would be allowed into the country. Over time the list of proscribed books became shorter and booksellers became increasingly cautious, but the controls on literature remained both stringent and secretive throughout the war. The Censorship and Publicity Board had been established under the 1939 regulations as the supreme authority on censorship, but in reality, as historian Nancy Taylor has commented, censorship effectively passed to the Prime Minister (who chaired the board) after April 1940. In January 1941, on the same day as Fraser's declaration on communist and pacifist literature, the journal of the carpenters' union remarked that not only the British Communist Party paper the 'Censorship!', Quoted in Taylor, Tribune and the 'economic and political works of all Marxist classical writers', but, 'All literature originating in the Soviet Union, even a magazine dealing with the technique of fruit growing in the Arctic, has been stopped.'Union Record 15 Jan. 1941 (v.1, n.19), p.5Co-operative Book News, May 1942 (v.1, n.5), p.5 The Home Front, p.1007
Censorship restrictions were only one manifestation of the political climate of the war years, when the People's Voice was suspended for two years and numerous charges of making, publishing or distributing 'subversive' statements were heard in the courts. Many of these were against communists but they were not the only people who found themselves on the receiving end of the government's and society's sensitivity. Conscientious objectors, and European refugees deemed 'aliens' (that is, of German nationality), suffered detention and other infringements of their liberties more extreme than were imposed in Britain. In this climate freedom of speech, not surprisingly, was a major issue of concern to the Left Book Club. The majority of remits to the club's 1940 conference, aside from those dealing with constitutional and organisational matters, focused on the issues of 'free speech and civil liberties' and 'censorship and broadcasting'. The only other issue-based remits were two against conscription, while a remit to the 1939 conference urged the government to relax its policy on acceptance of European refugees. The 1940 conference also passed a resolution stating:
That this Conference of the N.Z. Left Book Club Association views with grave concern the existence in New Zealand of infringements of free speech and assembly, and of threats to undermine other civil liberties. It emphatically expresses its determination to maintain the Left Book Club Association as a forum for the widest possible expression of opinion.
'What is the Left Book Club?',
Tomorrow,3 Apr. 1940 (v.6, n.11), p.351
The Left Book Club's identification of the need for a critical literature on New Zealand, which prompted its experiments in publishing and social research, was sharpened by the restrictive conditions imposed by war.
The Left Book Club in New Zealand, as in England, combined an insistence on the non-partisan nature of its policy and membership, and the stated aim of providing an 'open forum' for debate, with a commitment to socialism. There was some contradiction between its publicly stated role as a medium of education and its function as a political organisation.
The majority of its members would have perceived the club as a socialist organisation, while probably a greater number of the public would have labelled it communist. An invitation to join the Christchurch study group on political economy, for example, was clearly addressed to those who were already of left persuasion: In that argument yesterday, did you misquote, maim and otherwise mangle Marx? Do you really know anything about Socialist theory?'; and left one in no doubt about the group's political purpose: 'Yes, we said the correct theoretical knowledge—meaning Political Economy based on the teachings of Marx and Lenin.' 'An Invitation', [nd]. Locke Deposit: 10Left News: 'We have a little group , in the country here which started around the Left Book Club and endeavour to spread the doctrine of socialism'.
Occasionally the club adopted a more direct political role: during the 1938 general election Christchurch members spoke on Labour Party platforms. The Communist Party, of course, saw the Left Book Club as one of several progressive organisations in which it should maintain an influence through the participation of individual Party members, but in keeping with the united front strategy was mindful not to dominate. The Left Book Club was appreciated by the Workers' Weekly as 'a real factor in the drive to the Left', while a club member and Workers' Weekly reader saw it as a means of 'forging the necessary
Workers'Weekly, 5 Nov. 1937, p.3, 9 Dec. 1938, p.4
Publicly, however, the Left Book Club maintained a non-threatening, Popular Front line, and particularly sought to distance itself from Communist Party association. In an article published in 'What is the Left Book Club?'Tomorrow in April 1940 the club sought to clarify the 'confusion'
it perceived in the public mind as to its function and aims. It was emphatically stated that, The "Left Book Club" is strictly a publishing organisation run by Victor Gollancz of London', and that, The activities of the Left Book Club Groups are not political; they are educational.' The article also reprinted a conference resolution that 'affirms that the Left Book Club organisations of New Zealand as such have no political associations in New Zealand or elsewhere, and do not enter upon organised political activities, or collective expression of opinion on political issues.'Workers' Weekly, 28 Apr. 1939, p.4; 'Report of National Committee . . . 1939-40', p.5
Such assurances did not satisfy all of the club's critics, needless to say. A hostile reaction to the Palmerston North group's performance of Waiting for Lefty in December 1939 sparked an acrimonious debate in the correspondence columns of the Manawatu Evening Standard, a debate which quickly focused on the club's suspected political affiliation rather than on the play itself. A correspondent signing himself 'Gladiator' and a member of the Right Book Club, for example, accused the club of being 'a branch of the Communist International, existing for the specific purpose of propagating Marxist ideals in the British Empire.'Manawatu Evening Standard, 12 Dec. 1939, p.6
Broadly speaking the Left Book Club exists to propagate the truth about capitalism, Socialism, Fascism, war, peace, and anything else that complicates, hinders, or may help in the progress of humanity.
Saunders, 'The Left Book Club';
Manawatu Evening Standard,13 Dec. 1939, p.2
The club's secretary,
come along to the club's meeting some time and tell us what you know; we are out to seek knowledge,... we will guarantee to give you a fair but good 'go' in debate. We wind up and cap the debate by having a nice cup of tea and biscuits and [are] waited on by the lady members.
Ibid., 7 Dec. 1939, p.8, 14 Dec. 1939, p.10, 8 Dec. 1939, p.2
One can only speculate on the likelihood of 'Gladiator' having accepted this invitation from the Palmerston North group to attend its next meeting; that is, on the extent to which the Left Book Club attracted a membership representative of 'all shades of political opinion', and fulfilled its primary purpose of political education by appealing to an unpoliticised audience. Saunders, 'The Left Book Club' LBC (Wellington group). Bulletin No.1 'What is the Left Book Club?' Report of National Committee . . . 1939-40: Summary of Group Reports, p.2Tomorrow in soliciting contributions from people on the political right. The impression one gains of the central Wellington group is that it appealed to an educated, left and liberal-left audience, one composed primarily of academics, civil servants and professional people. The convenor of one Wellington study group complained of 'the difficulty of all those attending having substantially the same viewpoint.'Tomorrow quoted above, which described how 'at Group meetings one may hear violently conflicting views put forward with energy and earnestness.'
Certainly the active membership of the club was not large. But how wide the Left Book Club's influence was, in terms of the numbers who read the books, and who attended the public meetings, is impossible to determine. A Ruawai member writing in the Workers' Weekly congratulated the club on the attendance at a public meeting 'considering that the district is purely rural and in Gordon Coates's backyard so to speak'.Workers' Weekly, 9 Dec. 1938, p.4
Membership of the Left Book Club in England reached its peak in April 1939, at 57,000. From the early 1940s sales, membership and activity declined sharply. The organisation of discussion groups ceased in mid 1940; membership had already plummeted to around 25,000 by this time, and in the post-war years did not rise much above 15,000. The publishing programme was finally wound up in 1948.
The political energy and unity of the late 30s which had created and sustained the Left Book Club was dissipated both by the practical disruption of war and by the ideological confusion of the left in the years 1939-41. With the German-Soviet Pact and the outbreak of war, the selection committee of the club was for the first time divided on basic philosophical grounds. The club's strained relationship with the Communist Party during this period undermined the strategy of Popular Front unity (it had never in fact had the support of the British Labour Party). The changing political climate saw a change in the nature of the publications and in the content of the journal. Articles in the Samuels, 'The Left Book Club', p.83 Ibid., p.81Left News now discussed in abstract terms the principles of socialism and democracy and presented debates on the political issues. The publications covered more general subjects, and sometimes represented contrasting views, as did the November and December 1939 choices on the Soviet Union, for example. Ironically, the Left Book Club became less effective precisely when it genuinely became the open forum for discussion it had always claimed to be: it 'had come to resemble more a debating society than an experiment in political education.'
The New Zealand branch of the club suffered a similar fate, although there was some time lag. The national association had been formed only some four to five months before the outbreak of war, and the president's annual report in April 1940 was optimistic about the club's ability to overcome the potentially disruptive effects of the war, looking forward even to a post-war Left Book Club:
There was so much confusion and uncertainty, and sheer fright, that it was even feared that the groups might go out of existence. . . . But we are gratified that differences of opinion on the war have not led to any disruption. The Association remained solid and has continued to function throughout as an organisation for political education. The downright editorials in the Bulletins . . . had considerable influence in keeping all groups on the original line.
Although a conference remit from the Wellington group alluded to the possible difficulties caused by 'the political line of the Selection Committee of the English Left Book Club', it appears that, within the national committee itself, support for the war prevailed, while the immediate issues confronting the left in New Zealand provided an independent focus of attention. The 1940 report also commented on the club's 'immunity from some at least, of the restrictions that war has imposed on the Club in England.' Report of National Committee . . . 1939-40, p.6
Despite these apparent advantages, however, the New Zealand groups also appear to have fallen victim to the war. No reference has been found to the association continuing to function far beyond its 1940 conference- Individual members in New Zealand continued to receive the Left Book Club books through the 1940s, and a few groups, Dunedin, Wellington and Auckland for example, continued for some time, but with a lower profile. Wellington's 'News-Behind-The-News' sessions lasted at least through 1942. But, in effect, the Left Book Club ceased to exist as a political organisation after 1940-1. In 1941 the Auckland Progressive Bookshop was selling Left Book Club tides at sale price because a number of members had resigned without notice.
When the Gollancz enterprise folded in 1948 there were still some 130-140 readers registered with the Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton distributors, and in the wake of the demise of the Left Book Club scheme an attempt was made to reconstitute the remaining New Zealand membership into a new 'New Zealand Left Book Club'. The scheme was the initiative of Arthur Jackson-Thomas, who had been president of the Auckland group and managed the city's Progressive Bookshop. The new club would retain the same basic system as the original, with the addition of a £2 annual subscription. Negotiations had been initiated with Current Book Distributors in Sydney for material to be imported and distributed by the Progressive Bookshop. But in the opinion that a 'considerable factor' in the 'waning of local interest in the Left Book Club' in recent years was the fact that the books 'were chosen in England with English readers in mind', it was also intended to have as far as possible books and pamphlets published in New Zealand. It would retain its left-wing character of course:
The object of the Club will be to supply books which every socialist and forward-thinking person should read. The selections will cover current affairs, the theory and practice of socialism, an occasional novel, books of central interest and, by no means least important, books and pamphlets on New Zealand affairs.
'Announcing the New Left Book Club', 1949. Roth collection
The first selection was 'dictated by what is immediately available': Equality by Edward Bellamy, M. Sayers and A. Kahn's The Great Conspiracy and Engels' The Origin of the Family as the January, February and March choices.Fool's Carnival, cartoons by Kennaway Henderson (published by the Christchurch Cooperative Book Society) and Katharine Susannah Prichard's novel Black Opal were being considered for future choices and negotiations were underway for a Left Book Club edition of the forthcoming memorial volume of writings by Gordon Watson (published by the New Zealand Communist Party in 1949).
Reaction to the proposal from the other distributors was not enthusiastic. Blackwood Paul expressed no interest at all. He was now expanding into publishing, and probably felt that this was risk enough without expending additional resources on founding a book club. No doubt he also appreciated that in the late 1940s a left book club scheme on the original model was something of an anachronism, as did the Wellington Co-operative Book Society. They also replied frankly to Jackson-Thomas that
'the prospect doesn't appear to be too bright'. In their opinion 'it is . . . doubtful whether there would be much interest in books of the type of looking backwards, equality and origin of the family etc. when you recall that the L.B.C. grew on topical publications', and that most potential members were likely already to have or at least have read these tides. WCBS secretary to so the revived New Zealand Left Book Club died a natural death, the last reference to it appearing in the minutes of the Christchurch Co-operative Book Society in February 1952.
The failure of Gollancz's Left Book Club to survive in the 1940s has been accounted for partly by changes in the British publishing industry in the post-war years. Production costs rose dramatically, making it no longer feasible to publish books on a large scale for sale at hugely discounted prices. The burgeoning paperback market, which began with the introduction of Penguins in 1935, brought significant competition at this end of the market, as did the expansion of public libraries. But the primary reason the Left Book Club failed to regain its former glory after the war, in New Zealand as in England, was the radical shift in the political climate. The club was uniquely a phenomenon of the 1930s, its success based on the urgency of political events in the Popular Front years, the topicality of its material, and its exploitation of the gap in the literary market for reasonably-priced, informative, left-wing literature.
The cooperative book movement was born of the same heightened political atmosphere as the Left Book Club, the sense of urgency and political will created by the Spanish Civil War and impending political crisis in Europe. Like the Left Book Club it was founded on a conception of the cultural as well as political dimension of that crisis, and on a belief in the power of informed public opinion as an effective political force. Wrote the Wellington Co-operative Book Society in a 1939 publicity leaflet: 'We believe that the present time, when over great parts of the world liberty of thought and conscience is being extinguished, calls more than ever before for the development of every possible agency to promote thought and discussion'. Wellington Co-operative Book Society Ltd. 'A Readers* Bookshop', 1939. Tomorrow.
There will be no literature and little life for the mass of mankind for many a weary day if the fascists win.. .. There is, all seeming levity notwithstanding, a close connection between being red-hot and being well read.Tomorrow, 21 July 1937 (v.3, n.19), p.593
Although they were also a direct development of the Popular Front politics of the late 30s, the cooperative book societies proved a more enduring presence in the New Zealand book trade than the Left Book Club. In Auckland and Christchurch the co-op book societies survived until the 1980s; the Wellington society was wound up in 1970; the Dunedin society, a briefer venture, in 1954. This chapter, however, takes their history only to the end of the 1940s. Their subsequent development is described in a short postscript.
In parallel developments in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch (Dunedin lagged some years behind) the co-op book societies evolved in the late 1930s out
Auckland's Progressive Bookshop held both the honour of being the first of the cooperative bookshops to be established and the reputation for being the most radical. Opened in 1936 by Jack and Doris Basham, it was known affectionately by those who worked there as 'Basham's Bomb Shop'. (The name is attributed to Robin Hyde, and probably refers to the celebrated 'Bomb Shop' in London's Charing Cross Road which was the first of the Collett's chain of left-wing bookshops. R. Hyde, 'Jack Basham's Bookshop. Land of the Free—Since When?', Gollancz. The Story of a Publishing House 1928-1978. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1978, p.134Labour Monthly to an Auckland undercover policeman.New Zealand Observer, 11 June 1936, p.11
The shop was able to stock a wider range of literature than just FSU leaflets and the Letterhead on letter from D. Basham to D. Lyon, 27 July 1936. C1 36/959: box 152. National Archives Hyde, 'Jack Basham's Bookshop'Workers' Weekly. Its letterhead read: Tor all radical literature, anti-fascist, socialist & rationalist publications, realist novels, agents for USSR in Construction, Sovietland, Moscow News, Economic Summary of the USSR.'New Zealand Observer, 'The catalogue looked to me, at first glance, like one rush to Russia, but these tomes are followed up by books on Marxism, Fascism, Rationalism, War, Revolutionary Novels, and the publications of Bishop Brown', as well as an extensive list of left-wing periodicals.
The shop's monthly turnover increased from £30 to £100 in the first 10
Progressive Books Ltd. Prospectus, 1937. Robert Lowry Papers. Ms Papers A-194: box 1, folder 4. University of Auckland Library Ibid.
The prospectus issued by the society made a special appeal to trade unionists, who 'have unique opportunities for furthering the work of the Company, and they should also have a unique sympathy with its objective', and at the same time the observation that, among Progressive Books' current shortcomings, 'Its contacts with the professional classes are limited and it attracts few casual customers . . . nor has it been able to work the country districts at all systematically/ Ibid. 'BigNewsfor Progressive Books', InPrint, 10 Feb. 1943, p.2
While Auckland was the first city to have a cooperative book society, it had been the last to have a radical bookshop in the 1930s. In Christchurch left-wing literature had been available in at least the early 1930s from the Communist Party's International Bookshop in Manchester Street. The International Bookshop sold 'a very narrow range of books, mostly Marxist pamphlets and the like', and by the mid 1930s was 'slowly dying'. Communist Party of New Zealand (Christchurch branch). LPC minutes, 24 Apr. 1937; ms notes on bookshop, [nd]; circular, [nd] .Jack Locke Deposit: item 7. University of Canterbury Library CPNZ (Christchurch branch). Executive minutes, 16 Mar. 1937; ms notes on bookshop, [nd]. Locke Deposit: 12, 7not working class', a report to the LPC sternly advised; the shop was no longer to be regarded as a Party drop-in centre but as a business.
A further Party memorandum early in 1938 commented on the need for a Bookshop Committee to be established 'on a broad basis—intellectuals etc.', and for the shop to extend its stock so as to become 'not a narrow Party bookshop but [sell] all classes of progressive literature'. 'Organisational proposals', [1938?]. Locke Deposit: 12
Although not as representative in Popular Front terms as the Auckland society, the board of management of the Christchurch Co-operative Book Society comprised a similar range of backgrounds. About half the board were active members of the Left Book Club: Bruce Souter, Hubert Henderson,
N.M.Taylor, People's Voice, in a case which also involved the son of a Supreme Court judge and allegations of official bribery. The New Zealand People at War: The Home Front. Wellington: Historical Publications Branch, Department of Internal Affairs/Government Printer, 1986, pp.218-19
Christchurch Co-operative Book Society Ltd. Minutes of first general meeting, 31 Oct. 1938. Christchurch Co-operative Book Society. Minute books, 1938-1970. Ace 90-259. Alexander Turnbull Library; Workers' Weekly, 25 Nov. 1938, p.4
The sale of left-wing literature in the capital in these years has a history going back to the early 1920s. Walter Nash opened the Clarte Book Room in 1921, firsdy in Dixon Street and later Willis Street. Clarte stocked a wide range of 'socialist and working class literature', from Clarte Book Room. Booklists, [1920s-1930s]. Roth collection; correspondence. Mark Silverstone Papers. Ms Papers 1016: box 1. Hocken Library; K. Sinclair, Studies in Capital and Investmentby The Origin of Species, to 3d pamphlets by Harry-Holland, the Labour Songbook and 'novels by Upton Sinclair and others', and was the New Zealand agency for over a dozen periodicals including the Times Literary Supplement, the New Statesman, Socialist Review, the American Exporter and House Beautiful—a more extensive selection than one would find in Christchurch's International Bookshop. But the market for such literature was evidently too small for the financial and personal resources of one person, however dedicated. Nash sold the shop to the Labour Party in 1924 and it was moved to the party office; the original name was retained until 1934 when it was changed to the more recognisable, and mundane, Labour Bookroom.Walter Nash. Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1976, p.62
The direct precursor of the Wellington Co-operative Book Society was another International Bookshop. This had its origins as an FSU bookshop which opened in 1932 in Vivian Street, also the home of Trades Hall, the Wellington Communist Party offices and the WEA. Its founder was Connie Rawcliffe (later Birchfield), a national executive member of the FSU and Communist Party member. In 1933 it was taken over by a former arts student, Fortune. Letter to author, 10 Oct. 1985Student In Fortune's recollection the International Bookshop in these years attracted only 10-15
Moscow News and USSR in Construction imported directly from Kniga (Moscow). Its Communist Party association was strengthened when it was taken over at the end of 1934 by Party member Ella Stewart (later Ayo).
The initiative behind the formation of the Wellington Co-operative Book Society came partly from Fortune. This was not a Party directive but, as he explains, followed direcdy from the united front policy:
the origin of the WCBS arose from the aftermath of the 7th World Congress insofar as I was concerned. The objective was to draw Together people of liberal and leftist persuasion, irrespective of party affiliation, to create a body of opinion in opposition to the trend towards fascism and war. . . . people of all persuasions concerned about the rise of fascist dictatorship and the threat of war and the likely social and cultural consequences.
W. B. Sutch was 'principally instrumental in drawing in the intellectual liberal-left.'Ibid.
The credentials of those who appear as sponsors in the prospectus issued in 1938 (drafted by Fortune), and of those who comprised the society's provisional committee, convey a significantly different impression from its Auckland and Christchurch counterparts, prefiguring the stronger academic-professional base and lesser trade union involvement that marked the Wellington society. A provisional committee of the New Zealand Co-operative Book Society, as it was initially called, was appointed in November 1938 following a public meeting attended by 120 people and addressed by members of the Auckland and Christchurch societies. The committee consisted of: Fortune (who was now working for a radio manufacturing company); Wellington Co-operative Book Society Ltd. Minutes of inaugural meeting, 28 Nov. 1938. Wellington Co-operative Book Society Ltd. Papers, 1938-1970. Ms Papers 1122: box 5/1. Alexander Turnbull LibrarySalient;
Although Dunedin was slow to establish a cooperative book society, that city's radicals and bibliophiles had not wanted for political literature in the 30s. A Progressive Bookshop selling 'Latest Literature on all Phases of the Class Struggle' was opened in Moray Place in 1935. It was staffed by a Communist Party member but it is not clear whether it was an official Party concern. In May 1937 the shop was closed and a Central Labour Bookshop, apparendy under the same management, opened in George Street (later moving to High Street). Along with 'Political, Industrial, Economic, Anti-War, Rationalist, [and] Social Credit' literature it advertised novels by Jack London, Upton Sinclair and John A. Lee, and '"Free Lance" and other popular periodicals'.Workers' Weekly, 16 Nov. 1935, p.4,7 May 1937, p.-4Otago Daily Times, 13 Mar. 1940, p.6; P. and W. Powell. Interview with author, 22 Oct. 1989
The Dunedin Co-operative Book Society did not get underway until 1942, with financial support from the newly-formed Progressive Publishing Society and on the initiative of Left Book Club members. Plans were commenced in 1941, but it was not until November 1942 that 80 'progressives' attended a meeting addressed by publishing society representatives. 'Preliminary steps [were] taken to secure the support of the Trade Union and Labour Movements.' Revising Barrister to Registrar of Industrial and Provident Societies, 26 Mar. 1945; Co-operative Book News, Nov.-Dec. 1942 (v.1, n.11), p.1Co-op Books (Dunedin ed.), Apr. 1945 (v.2, n.4), p.[1]
Dunedin's Modern Books opened in Moray Place in December 1943. The seven signatories to the application were: Otago University Librarian John Harris (president); Dunedin Co-operative Book Society Ltd. Application for incorporation, 28 Aug. 1944. Dunedin Modern Books Papers
The establishment of management committees reflected not only the aim of bringing together a range of progressive opinion in the spirit of Popular Front unity, but also the socialist principles on which the cooperative book movement was founded. Each society was to be run democratically in accordance with its written constitution. Executive committees were elected annually by the shareholders. The manager was responsible to the committee or board of management and the committee in turn to the membership. Labour in the shops, however, was not voluntary. The manager was paid a full-time salary and assistants paid union wage rates. Unlike most consumer cooperatives the book societies did not pay out dividends to members. All profits were to go back into the society. In the familiar phraseology of William Morris, they were to be 'progressive, democratic bookshop[s] run by readers for readers'. New Zealand Co-operative Book Society, Ltd. 'Meeting Books on New Terms', 1938. Roth collection
As an experiment in a cooperative business venture the cooperative book societies can be placed within the context of a broader 'consumers' cooperative movement'. This was a theme which received particular emphasis in the 'Editorial Purposes', Cooperative Book News (1941-3), newsletter of the Christchurch society, and its successor Co-op Books (1943-5). In several articles by the newsletter's editor, William Robertson, the cooperative book movement is located historically within a tradition of cooperative activity originating with the Rochdale pioneers of the nineteenth century: That broader purpose [of the Co-operative Book
Co-op Books, 'is the extending of the co-operative ideal to every walk of life. That is a great undertaking, and in accepting it we see ourselves as heirs of a mighty co-operative tradition.'CB, Nov. 1943 (v.1, n.1), p.[1]
While Robertson did not identify the book societies as part of an indigenous cooperative tradition, consumer cooperatives had been established in New Zealand since the 1890s. Most were only short-lived, but the cooperative book societies coincided with a dramatic increase in the registration of cooperatives in the period 1935 to 1950. Most of these organisations were retail cooperatives trading in food and other groceries, and did not necessarily share the political beliefs of many of the cooperative book societies' founders. According to WA. Poole, Borer, journal of the Auckland carpenters' union, there were approximately 60 retail cooperatives of this kind in existence throughout the country in 1937. In April 1947 an article in the carpenters' Union Record entitled 'Like a Bush-fire' listed nine recendy established cooperatives in Auckland alone. There were a number of efforts in the 1930s and 1940s to coordinate this activity on a national basis.Co-operative Retailing in New Zealand [Wellington]: NZ Institute of Economic Research, 1969; 'Consumer Cooperatives in Auckland', Borer, June 1937 (v.1, n.6), p.6; 'Like a Bush-fire', Union t Record, 1 Apr. 1947 (v.7, n.9), p.8,1 May 1947 (v.7, n.10), p.6
The strong emphasis on the cooperative theme in the book society newsletter derived to a large extent from the personal interest of its editor, whom Winston Rhodes describes as 'a freelance enthusiast for Co-operatives, from the West Coast and elsewhere' whose enthusiasm earned him the name 'Co-op Robby'. Rhodes. Letter to author, Oct. 1985Co-operative Onekaka. A Challenge to the Labour Movement. [1941]; Final Statement. Wellington: the author, 1950. See also C. Moore, 'Paradise Ignored', Evening Post, 9 Feb. 1991, pp.27-8
The Progressive Publishing Society was to send Robertson as its representative to a Co-operative Conference held in Palmerston North in January 1945, and the Manawatu Co-operative Alliance, one of the largest and the longest surviving of the cooperatives formed in these years, was a shareholder in the Wellington book society. But for the most part the co-op book societies did not have any practical involvement with other consumer cooperatives. They declined to join the New Zealand Federation of Co-operatives which was formed in the 1940s. This, however, was due to the financial outlay involved rather than to any disagreement over the importance of cooperative activity. When one reader
'Co-op Books and the Co-operative Movement', Co-op Books 'overdid the co-operative theme' in its early issues the journal's editorial board endorsed the principle of cooperation and the identity of the book movement as part of the Rochdale tradition.CB, Jan. 1944 (v.1, n.3), p.3
Although the book societies did not identify themselves actively, or with quite the degree of missionary fervour shown by 'Co-op Robby', with a broader cooperative movement, they were nevertheless inspired by the same socialist ideals and antipathy to commercial business practices. They expressed a socialist cultural ideal not only by virtue of their own democratic organisation, but as an alternative to a capitalist cultural infrastructure.
In an article printed in Tomorrow on the newly-formed WCBS,
To see how bad the position is in Wellington in the literary field, we have only to look around us. In the city and suburbs there are at least 150 shops, possibly 200, selling popular magazines. . . . One such shop (of the popular news stand type), for which subscription figures were obtained, sold in one month two copies of a group of fourteen serious and responsible periodicals like The New Statesman and The Spectator, 150 of a group of ten magazines of the more 'entertaining type' like Punch, John O'London's, Man, Strand, etc., and at least 700 of the True Story-Western Story group. ... In addition to the 150-200 shops selling popular magazines, there must be upwards of 50 profit-seeking lending libraries. . . . These libraries stock mainly contemporary fiction. It is not the best fiction, nor is it the worst. It is mediocre fiction, based on one or both of two staple elements—sex and violence, romance and detection. To get profits, the policy of the libraries is to buy cheaply, to limit the range to books that change hands quickly, and to keep such information about good books as is given in the better periodicals away from their subscribers. The effect is to decrease the sales of good books, lower the level at which the majority of people read and make them less fit to read and understand more serious books dealing realistically or imaginatively with the lives of men.
W. J. Scott , 'Books and Readers',Tomorrow,26 Apr. 1939 (v.5, n.13), pp.405-6
In the cooperative book societies the mutual interest of the left and the more culturally-minded intellectual came together in a movement which was inspired
The impending wartime restrictions, both practical and political, were to be a major factor contributing to the paucity of 'good' books in this period. But the immediate context for the development of the cooperative book movement was simply that 'there was little opportunity to get political material, and few bookshops'.Craccum, 15 Mar. 1976, p.7Tomorrow observed in 1935.Tomorrow, 30 Oct. 1953 (v.2, n.1), p.20People's Voice, to sporting annuals and New Zealand Truth. It was an agent for the Left Book Club and advertised its left-wing tides in the Industrial Worker, the Workers' Weekly and in Salient, thus catering to some extent for the politically-minded. But Carman's was primarily a newsagent rather than a bookshop, and its largest section was on cricket.
Christchurch bibliophiles were probably the best served with the headquarters there of Whitcombe and Tombs, but while substantially better than its branches in other centres this still did not stock left-wing material. Aucklanders with literary interests patronised two or three general shops in the central city which were similar in content to Whitcombe's, such as Kealy's in Shortland Street, and there was Swallow's in Remuera which sold a small amount of modern literature (its owner was prosecuted in 1934 for selling a copy of Balzac's Droll Stories). In Dunedin, a sympathetically-minded bookseller-stationer, C. Mann, sold the People's Voice and Working Woman, and leased rooms above his High Street shop to the Communist Party in the early 1940s. Otherwise, the principal bookshops in Dunedin at this time were Newbolds and Hyndmann's, both in George Street, and the ubiquitous Whitcombe and Tombs which a manager of Dunedin Modern Books has described as 'violently reactionary'.
University bookshops had not yet been established; students bought their textbooks mainly from Whitcombe's who offered a 10 per cent student discount. Organisations such as the Communist Party, the Friends of the Soviet
All people who read progressive literature have always encountered difficulties in satisfying their needs from the stocks of local commercial booksellers. And what is more, the position is growing steadily worse. During the last twelve months there has been a noticeable tendency to curtail the very meagre range of titles we have been used to, and retail prices, which were always excessive for this class of book, have been further advanced.'
'Meeting Books on New Terms'
The socialist ethos of the cooperative book movement was also reflected in the policy of keeping prices low and by the establishment of lending libraries by the Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch shops, as a means of making literature available to all sections of the community. The aim of the movement, in the view of one member, was 'the growth of an intimate relationship between bookseller, books and "people"—let "people" be a wharfie, a university lecturer, a clerk or a carpenter.' Jackson-Thomas, 'The Wellington Cooperative Book Society', Tomorrow, 19 July 1939 (v.5, n.19), p.588
The societies also envisaged a more active social and cultural role than just selling books. Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch each produced a newsletter which was intended to keep shareholders informed of the progress of the shop and to encourage participation in their society. The most substantial of these was Christchurch's 'A Readers' Bookshop'Co-operative Book News, which appeared monthly from December 1941 to June 1943. It was superseded by Co-op Books, a joint newsletter of the four societies which was produced by the Progressive Publishing Society until June 1945. The Co-operative Book News contained book society news, reviews, articles on relevant political and cultural issues, occasional verse and cartoons by Christchurch artist and printer Leo Bensemann (a member of the CCBS management board from 1942 to 1946). The Christchurch society established a social committee, headed by Elsa Flavell, a graduate of English and the university Radical Club. Its proposed activities included play readings, film screenings and a political discussion group. The Co-op Bookshop also hosted exhibitions of art work by Kennaway Henderson and art teacher Len Booth. The Wellington society too had a social committee, organised by Elizabeth McGowan. Modern Books was the venue for meetings and lectures on political and literary topics, such as, 'That worthwhile literature should have a social purpose', 'New Zealand literature', 'Text-books in New Zealand schools', 'Escape literature' and 'America today'. A performance of Waiting for Lefty was
To hold meetings, picnics, camps, parades, displays, concerts, stage performances and the like for the purpose of advertising and/or discussing any literature sold by the Society;
To arrange for addresses whether private or public to be delivered, and to conduct classes, study groups or schools for the study of any subject which the Society or the Board of Management may consider desirable;
and the opening of reading and refreshment rooms. Rules of the Progressive Book Society Ltd, [1937]. Roth collection
The parades, camps and stage performances never eventuated, although Progressive Books did hold dances to help pay the rent. Nevertheless, simply by virtue of being the only outlets for most progressive literature the cooperative bookshops functioned as focal points of a loosely-defined progressive intellectual circle. 'All the left and all the liberals of course paraded through the shop', 'people would stand around talking until pushed out the door'. Jackson-Thomas. Interview with author, 8 Sept. 1985; E. Coyne. Interview with author, 10 Sept. 1985Tomorrow and was for a time distribution agent for the Labour Party Standard, and Wellington's Modern Books took the bookings for Unity Theatre. The Cooperative Book News defined the function of the cooperative bookshops in this sense in its description of the Co-op Bookshop as 'our spiritual centre'.CBN, June 1942 (v.1, n.6), p.1
Just whose 'spiritual centre' the cooperative book movement should be was a matter of some debate. The composition of committees representative of the spectrum of progressive opinion enacted the strategic alliance of liberal and left opinion, middle class and working class radicalism, political left and labour movements which constituted the Popular Front. It also brought together a range of literary interests, and very different conceptions of the wider purpose of the cooperative book movement. This accommodation of interests was the basis of an ongoing debate, and at times conflict, over the question of who the co-op bookshops should cater to and the kinds of literature they should sell. The alternative visions by which the movement was inspired are summed up by two
We look. . . to the Bookshop to provide us, and the public generally, first, with those books, pamphlets, and periodicals that give us the information about what is going on in the world, now inadequately given or kept from us by the press; secondly, with the best fiction, poetry, and drama; thirdly, with the important scientific, philosophic, and religious literature of the day; and, finally, with the books of criticism and critical journals maintaining standards that deserve respect. We realise that we are faced with a political and cultural problem, at bottom the same problem, and desperately urgent.
the Christchurch Co-operative Book Society, if it has any ambition to extend its activities on a significant scale and to become more than a convenient device for supplying its own members with certain particular books which they may want and which they may have had difficulty in procuring elsewhere, must... recognise its identity of purpose with and develop its solidarity with the organised Labour Movement of this country. . . . [or] the Society will remain what it is to-day, a valuable and forward-looking but nevertheless small and self-confined group with no particularly significant impact upon the forces which are shaping history.
Scott, 'Books and Readers'; Robertson, 'Co-operation and the Labour Movement',
CBN,Feb. 1942 (v.1, n.3), p.8
Each of the societies represented a balance between these two ideals: a left-wing, working class cultural movement, or a more broadly-based progressive bookshop which would cater to all those interested in serious literature of whatever kind. Ideals were also compromised by the harsh reality of economics. The shops all followed the same broad pattern of development over the following decade, reflecting political, social and cultural changes in this period as well as the internal dynamics of the movement itself. However, there were at the same time significant differences in the way the interests were balanced, and in the characters of the shops themselves.
The basic issue was addressed directly by members of the Christchurch society at their annual general meeting in 1941, in a debate over the semantics of the president's annual report. Rhodes congratulated the society on its success in the distribution of progressive literature, adding the qualification and challenge that, 'There are still tremendous obstacles to be overcome before the Society can play the part that its members desire and expect it to play in the intellectual life of the community.' Chairman's report, Oct. 1941. CCBS minutes Rhodes interview
who do not like our Bookshop . . . because they want a bookshop which is able to provide them with unlimited quantities of novels, modern essays and verse . . . to satisfy a very discriminating taste in literature and art.
At the same time, Rhodes reaffirmed that
the first important task of the bookshop is to circulate as widely as possible cheaply priced but informative and competently written pamphlets and books on social themes.
'An Objection to the Bookshop',
CBN,Feb. 1942 (v.1, n.3), p.3
In his report the following year he again focused on the need to maintain a balance between these two 'classes' of literature. Here the emphasis shifted back to the theme of closer relations with the labour movement, which he saw as essential if the society was to achieve its immediate political goal, the building of an effective movement against fascism. He expressed the hope that, 'The time should not be far distant when all workers and their representatives in Christ-church will turn naturally to the Bookshop as a centre for the distribution of radical thought.' Chairman's report, Oct. 1941-Oct. 1942. CCBS minutes
To the extent that this was an issue within the management board it was one of balance rather than mutually exclusive interests. The intention stated at the society's inaugural meeting was 'to sell all progressive literature as well as most ordinary bookseller lines' (only Douglas Social Credit literature was expressly excluded). Minutes of first general meeting, 31 Oct. 1938
those with literary interests had also political interests; and those with political interests were reasonably content as long as the Shop didn't forget what its original aim had been—namely, to stock material of a political nature unobtainable elsewhere.
Rhodes correspondence
And Rhodes' annual reports continued to stress the need to maintain a 'proper balance' between the cheaper political and more expensive cultural and scientific literature. Yet the emphasis, in the early years particularly, was on the society's political objectives and orientation. The Co-operative Book News considered the society to be, first and foremost, a part of the socialist movement, and editorialised on the role it must play in the class struggle:
The Co-op. Book Societies cannot assume any particular political role, but they are playing an increasingly important part in the political awakening of the people. That must surely be the first pre-requisite for the rise of a powerful political organisation that gives expression to the economic, social and cultural needs of the progressively-minded section of the community.
'
H. E. Fenton , 'Why Not Now?',CBN,Oct. 1942 (v.1, n.10o), p.1
The shop's first manager, Harold Fenton, stressed that the society's primary responsibility at this time was to capitalise on a strong demand for left-wing literature: 'it is not until every avenue of extending the sale of progressive literature is exhausted will it be possible to say that we have ample funds to give equal consideration to cultural literature.' Fenton, 'Co-operation—for what?', CBN, June 1942 (v.1, n.6), p.2
Consistent attempts were made to establish links with trade unions and progressive political organisations, and thus to attract a working class clientele. There were plans to institute standing committees within the Communist Party, Trades Council, the Labour Party's Labour Representation Committee (LRC) and the WEA, and to put up a display case in Trades Hall. Unions were encouraged to give financial support to the society and Labour Party branches were circularised. Large orders were placed in 1942 to extend the range of trade union material. It was also proposed that representatives of the Canterbury Trades Council and the LRC sit ex officio on the editorial committee, but the society's determinedly democratic procedures put paid to this idea: it would contravene the constitution to allow non-members a voice in appointments to the committee. Some degree of reciprocal interest, or perhaps suspicion, from the Labour Party is indicated by a motion passed by the LRC in 1938 that it investigate the personnel, management and literature of the society.
Despite its efforts the society did not succeed in establishing an official or working relationship with the trade union movement. It did, however, maintain links of a less formal kind through the support of individual union officials, such as
Those who argued most vociferously for contact with the labour movement, and who identified the distribution of political literature as the society's primary function, did not see it simply as a medium of political education. The larger vision was of a popular culture as defined by Rhodes. Argued William Robertson in the Co-operative Book News:
it must not be thought that the sale of progressive or radical literature is in any
finalsense the main or primary task of such Societies. The ultimate task of Cooperative book distribution ... will be the task of satisfyingalllegitimate needs and desires of the people for the printed word. . . . [The] enduring end is and will remain the enrichment of men's minds with all that is worthwhile in poetry and prose.
In the same issue Selwyn Devereux oudined a more immediate and active cultural programme which envisaged the cooperative book movement as part of a politically-conscious working class culture:
Mass cultural undertakings such as training writers, speakers, critics and artists, are part of the expanding, progressive movement. Popular lectures on literature, art and science could be arranged and would assist the people's struggle and our Society's turnover as well. . . . Radical agitation and propaganda, education and training, cultural organisation as an integral part of a unified people's movement should be the reason for the existence of our Society.
Robertson, 'What is the Purpose of a Cooperative Book Society?',
CBN,Apr. 1942 (v.1, n.4), p.4; S. Devereux, 'The Work of Our Society', ibid., p.6
The Christchurch Co-operative Book Society never attained the 'mass popular appeal' which was 'the wish though scarcely the hope of most of the members'. Rhodes interview In the absence of complete membership records, this occupational analysis is based on lists of new members printed in the society's minutes, 1938-49. Of the 240 names listed, the occupations of 116 have been determined. The categories used in this analysis are derived from the Elley and Irving socio-economic index (CBN, Jan. 1943 (v.1, n.2), p.1New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 7, Nov. 1972, pp.153-67), as used by D. Pearson in Johnsonville. Continuity and Change in a New Zealand Township. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1980. The comparative figure of 46%, being the percentage of the total male working population in manual occupations at 1936, is taken from D. Pearson and D. Thorns, Eclipse of Equality. Social Stratification in New Zealand Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1983, p.46
Much less could the society be described as 'an integral part of a unified people's movement'. Although it never lost its progressive political character, over the 1940s there was a 'considerable broadening' of the literature sold by the shop. Rhodes correspondence International Bookshop. Booklist, 18 Jan. 1937. Roth collection 'Shop Notes', CCBS minutes, 24 Feb. 1949Ten Days That Shook the World and Fascism and Social Revolution, and left-wing periodicals. There were only a few titles of a 'literary' nature: a book on Soviet theatre, children's books by Geoffrey Trease, and Jean Devanny's novel about striking sugar workers in Australia, Sugar Heaven.Co-operative Book News in 1941 retained the emphasis on literature about the Soviet Union and general left tides but included a wider range of non-fiction works, such as HMS Beagle in South America, Great Sons of Greece and Great Sons of Rome, In Search of Wild Flowers and How a Baby is Born, a wider range of periodicals including the New Zealand Woman s Weekly, the New Zealand Listener and Picture Post, more children's books, and a greater number of fiction and poetry tides, although these were still mostly of a 'progressive' nature (Maxim Gorki, Ernest Hemingway and Walt Whitman). In April 1944 the 'cultural' list included Co-operative Book News noted: 'A selection of the best books from Everyman's Library as well as a wide range of the best works of fiction, poetry, etc., should enable us to reach a new public.'CBN, Apr. 1942 (v.1, n.4), p.5
The diversity of interests of the society's membership was recognised with the establishment of a Book Ordering Committee intended to represent both 'sides' of opinion. Ordering had previously been the responsibility of the manager, subject to the direction of the board of management as to the apportioning of funds; now committee members put forward individual recommendations for discussion at a weekly meeting, a more time consuming but suitably democratic process. The expanding range of tides on the Co-op Bookshop's shelves also reflected a wider demand. The shop attracted large and steady orders from schools, the Canterbury Public Library and eventually the university library. The manager from September 1944, Cyril Walter, Fenton had resigned from the management of the Co-op Bookshop at the end of 1942 to become manager of the Progressive Publishing Society in Wellington. Co-op Books was run by A.S. (Nan) Dann (formerly shop assistant), with Eva Munz as assistant, until Walter's appointment in 1944.
Advertisements were placed to reach as wide an audience as possible. The shop advertised in left-wing and labour publications such as the Grey River Argus, the Industrial Worker, In Print, the Standard and John A. Lees Weekly, but also in the Radio Record and New Zealand Listener, New Zealand Truth and student
Co-op Books to its members. Other avenues considered for the distribution of the newsletter were the Society of Arts, a list of teachers supplied by the Education Board, the Addington railway workshops and the Young People's Club (a junior Communist Party organisation).
Just who did comprise the day-to-day clientele of the shop is impossible to assess accurately. In Winston Rhodes' recollection they 'were of all kinds— socialists and workers, university students and academics,- professional men and women, teachers and omnivorous readers.' Rhodes correspondence
Not all members of the management board welcomed the custom of schools and libraries and the change of image this represented. At the annual general meeting in 1947 Selwyn Devereux voiced his concern that the society's initial purpose of selling political literature was becoming submerged beneath the volume of general literature now stocked. But the kinds of literature the shop sold and the demand to which it catered were also influenced by more pragmatic considerations than political principles or cultural ideals. Like all of the cooperative book societies, Co-op Books was always constrained by insufficient capital and the consequent need to maintain a high turnover. Ironically, the co-op book societies were hampered by their own socialist principles and by the very factors—market demand and the need to make profits—in antipathy to which they had been established.
With its major source of capital being shares, which were payable by instalment, and a membership numbering in hundreds not thousands, Co-op Books' opportunity for capital expansion was always limited. Socialist principles precluded the marking up of substantial profits on sales. These constraints, combined with a 10 per cent discount on all purchases by members, meant that the shop required a very high turnover to remain solvent, as it lacked sufficient capital to carry large stocks of slow-selling material. The Co-op Bookshop was spared one major financial burden which was to plague the Auckland and Wellington societies: ever-increasing inner city rents. With the help of a bank overdraft and loans from members it was able to buy premises in New Regent Street, next door to those it already leased, when the entire block was put on the
Within three months of the provisional committee's appointment in 1938 the shop's turnover doubled, but it made a net loss of £16 in its first year of trading, followed by profits of £90 and a modest £43 in the next two years. However, 1942-3 saw a significant growth in sales. February 1942 was 'our best month since the Shop first opened' and in August 1942 receipts again reached 'an all-time high'. Ibid, May 1942 (v.1, n.5), pp.5, 8 Ibid.CBN Apr. 1942 (v.1, n.4), p.5, Oct. 1942 (v.1, n.10), p.1Co-operative Book News were distributed in that year. Urgent cables were sent to Moscow, London, Sydney and Melbourne for supplies of'basic Socialist literature'.The society had also built up a substantial mail-order business, which was 'growing so rapidly that difficulties are now being experienced in meeting the demand for all classes of progressive and cultural literature.'
The dramatic increase in sales in the early 1940s coincided with a rapid growth in the society's membership, and reflected a strong interest in left-wing literature in these years as well as an unusually high demand for books generally. The Associated Booksellers of New Zealand observed at its annual conference in January 1943 that the previous year had been 'a phenomenal one for bookselling'. Associated Booksellers of New Zealand. Minutes of annual conference, 27 Jan. 1943. Associated Booksellers of New Zealand. Minute book, 1939-59. Ms y 1076. Alexander Turnbull Library 'Big News for Progressive Books'Co-operative Book News regularly commented on the 'highly favourable conditions for the rapid development of progressive thought' and 'great demand for books and pamphlets about the Soviet Union'.CBN, May 1942 (v.1, n.5), p.1; chairman's report, Oct. 1941
However, this did not bestow financial security. Sales remained steady but a small net profit in 1941-2 turned to losses of £115 and £276 in the two succeeding years. In the years 1944-6 Co-op Books' financial health was precarious. 'We were in business in a very small way. We even sold toys at one stage' (over Christmas 1944-5, and with the exception of war toys). Walter interview
six detective novels be purchased immediately as an experiment and placed in the window of the shop to determine the possibility of stocking such lines for a catch trade as an additional source of income and as a means of increasing sales.
Walter interview; CCBS minutes, 11 Dec. 1944
Presumably the latter idea met with some success, for when in 1946 the society again found itself in serious financial trouble, measures were taken to broaden the shop's appeal with 'the purchase of certain lines of stock of a popular nature in the realms of periodicals, magazines and cheap weekly and fortnightly fictional lines' (while at the same time a deputation was sent to the LRC, Federation of Labour and Communist Party to discuss the shop's plight). CCBS minutes, 21 May 1946
In other respects too the socialist ethos of cooperative bookselling came into conflict with economic reality. At the end of 1944 the board of management voted to hold a referendum of members on the question of replacing the 10 per cent members' discount with an annual dividend. The proposal was vetoed by the other societies but it was raised twice more in the next two years. The CCBS also considered abandoning the share register and replacing it with an annual subscription but this too was rejected as contrary to the raison d'etre of the movement.
Towards the end of the 1940s the Christchurch Co-operative Book Society experienced a marked downturn in membership and deterioration of its financial situation. By 1947 new members numbered on average one or two a month, indicating a general slackening of interest which by the last years of the decade was also reflected in less frequent and poorly attended management board meetings. The publication of the monthly newsletter was reduced to three times a year in 1948. Free ice-creams were no longer on offer.
The political climate of the late 1930s which had produced the bookshop, and the high demand for left-wing literature experienced in the early 1940s, were not sustained in the post-war years. In these years the substantial sales to schools and libraries carried the less profitable political material (through high turnover rather than through substantial gross profits, however; an agreement between the booksellers' association and the New Zealand Library Association meant that discounts were given to all schools and public libraries). Short-term expedients such as detective novels and other light fiction further testify to a
With a letterhead stating 'for all radical literature; agents for Lawrence & Wishart, Kniga (Moscow) and Left Book Club', Auckland's Progressive Books clearly aimed to live up to its reputation of 'having the best stock of radical literature in New Zealand'. Letterhead on letter from D. Basham to J. Ferguson, 21 Aug. 1941. WCBS Papers: 3; Progressive Books Ltd. Prospectus, 1937CBN Jan. 1942 (v.1, n.2), p.3
In most discussions relating to social and political affairs, the conclusion is reached that there is an urgent need for educational work, to prepare people for great changes imminent in society, to give an understanding of underlying forces, and to increase their political consciousness. This letter is addressed to you on the assumption that you are critical of the present order, that you are convinced of the need for social change, and that you are anxious to contribute something to the task of education in social affairs. . . . The principal business of the society is to make available to the public a wide range of books on questions of the day, at the lowest possible price.
Progressive Book Society Ltd. Open letter, 30 Sept. 1939. Roth collection
But while it clearly defined itself as a political organisation, the Progressive Book Society represented a similar accommodation of interests and literary tastes to the Co-op Bookshop.
Trade union involvement in the cooperative book movement, or rather, the involvement of trade union officials, was most prominent in Auckland. There continued to be union members and officials on the board of directors of Progressive Books throughout the 1940s. The society also advertised regularly in union journals such as the carpenters' union Borer and Union Record, with an emphasis on the theme of political education and the relationship of the society to the labour movement:
Democracy is a sham! unless the masses of the people have knowledge, and ACT upon that knowledge. Progressive Books ... specialises in books that will help you to understand the world and how to change it.
The Progressive Book Society, Ltd. ... is a workers' co-operative bookshop specialising in books, pamphlets and periodicals with a progressive outlook.
Union Record15 Apr. 1940 (v.1, n.10), p.7, 20 Dec. 1944 (v.5, n.6), p.3
Later attempts to secure corporate membership of workshops proved unsuccessful, and unions did not purchase shares in the society (as they did in Wellington).
Nevertheless, the comparatively high profile the society maintained within the union movement may be one reason for the higher percentage of working class shareholders in Auckland. In an analysis of the complete share register for this period, in which the occupations of 70 per cent of shareholders are recorded, 36 per cent were of working class occupation or background, a slighdy greater percentage than in the Christchurch sample, and, as we shall see, significantly greater than in Wellington. Share register, 1937-1980. Progressive Book Society Ltd. Records. L. Parker. Private collection. The share register records the names of 875 shareholders; of these, the occupations of 517 are known. See above, note 56, for details of the method of analysis used.
Working class interest in the shop appears to have been reflected in its clientele in the early years, a custom established initially through the shop's waterfront origins. In the recollection of Eileen Coyne, who worked in the shop as a full-time assistant between 1938 and 1940 and as co-manager during the war years, many of Progressive Books' customers in the late. 1930s were
working class men, activists, possibly members of the Communist Party or Labour Party, who had read, were often very well educated, self-educated men. They were the ones who would come in after work I can remember one watersider who would come in after he'd got his pay and walk out with twenty books under his arm.
E. Coyne, interviewed for 'And Baby Makes Three'. New Zealand Family Planning Association for Radio New Zealand. E. Coyne. Private collection
In these years the shop also had contacts in the public works camps selling its literature. Strong links with the WEA were a distinctive feature of the Auckland society and may have contributed to the shop's apparently stronger working class character. Willis Airey, the society's chairman for some time in the 1940s, was prominent in the WEA;
In Auckland as elsewhere the Communist Party sought to maintain an unobtrusive influence in the bookshop, and Progressive Books advertised regularly in the Party press. George Jackson, who worked at the Otahuhu railway workshops and was Auckland secretary of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee, was one of a number of Party members on the board in this period, and comments that he was there as a Communist Party 'representative'. G. Jackson. Interview with author, 25 Nov. 1986
a war-time staff of four lively young women, headed by Mrs. Eileen Coyne, [who] have set a democratic example by running the Bookshop on 'Production Committee' lines. (Duties range from reasoning with recalcitrant Trotskyists to handling a job of paint-work.)
S. Barton, 'Auckland Progressive Bookshop. Seven Progressive Years',
CB,Feb. 1944 (v.1, n.4), p.[6]
The Progressive Bookshop also catered to the 'progressive intelligentsia'. Writers such as Frank Sargeson and Ewen. Letter to author, 12 Dec. 1986
The range of interests catered for by Progressive Books and the extension outwards from its political and working class origins, following the same pattern as in Christchurch, is indicated by the diverse range of organisations recorded in the shop's cashbook for the 1940s. These included: various branches of the Communist Party; several trade unions (engineers, sugar workers, drivers, labourers, plasterers and laundry workers); the Remuera branch of the Labour Party; public libraries ranging from Kaitaia to Runanga and Hokitika, and including the Auckland Public Library, the university library and the Country Library Service, all of which were regular customers; a large number of schools (including Auckland Grammar); Whitcombe and Tombs; the Family Planning
Cashbook, 1942-9. PBS Records Ewen correspondenceWorkers'Weekly in 1936-7. By the end of the 1940s Progressive Books had 'the reputation as one of the two or three best bookshops in Auckland',
As was the case in Christchurch, economic considerations contributed to the broadening of the range of literature sold by Progressive Books, and at times forced the society to compromise its political principles. The move from Pitt Street to larger premises in Darby Street in 1938 necessitated stocking more general literature to pay the additional rent and wages. Similarly, financial pressure eventually forced the closure of the Progressive Lending Library in 1952, 'a cause of some dispute when it was closed down, as it was seen as one way for lower income folk to get good books.' Ibid. Bi-annual report and financial statement for the half-year ended Sept. 30th, 1946. Johnny Mitchell Papers
Again a high demand for progressive literature in the early 1940s substantially boosted sales. Turnover doubled in a single year, sales jumping from £2595 in 1941—60 per cent higher than the figure for Christchurch for that year—to £5512 in the year ending January 1943, contributing to a net profit that year of £160. Still following the pattern of Christchurch, sales dropped slightly over the next three to four years. During the latter half of the 1940s, however, the shop's income increased steadily. Sales increased from £4343 in the 1946-7 financial year to £9327 in the 12 months ending March 1949, while net profit rose to £989 in 1948-9, and £823 the following year. According to Jack Ewen, who joined the board of directors in 1949, the shop was 'doing reasonably well' at the end of the 1940s. Ewen correspondence
The negative effects of the limitations and fluctuations of the literary market were in part mitigated in Auckland's case by the society's larger capital base. In September 1943 it had 379 members, and by the end of September 1946, 1728 shares had been subscribed. Over the next two years the capital account was reduced by £600 as the society cleared its losses on the Progressive Publishing Society. At the end of 1949 the share capital account stood at £1168, while the
Progressive Books' larger membership and potential market can no doubt largely be accounted for by the greater population of the city. More significant factors may be the society's higher, profile in the trade union movement, and a larger and more politically-inclined academic and student population (Auckland University College's roll numbered 1340 in 1938 compared with Canterbury's 1153; in 1945 the respective figures were 2284 and 1707Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1939, E7, p.2, 1946, E7, p.1
The 'politics versus art' issue was 'always a discussion point' within the management of Progressive Books but there was apparendy little actual conflict. Jack Ewen became involved in the shop in the late 1940s 'as a left-winger student and, at that time, CP member interested primarily in left-wing literature but also
Broadly speaking the two poles in society thinking were along expected lines: a left-wing workers' bookshop with little reference to other material and a general bookshop with some representation of repectable left material. Generally we went down the middle.
Ewen correspondence
However, several members recall suspected takeover attempts by the Communist Party or by certain individuals. One long-serving member of the board expressed the opinion that, without the involvement of workers and trade unionists in the early years, 'we would have lost the bookshop'. B. Read. Conversation with author, 1 Dec. 1986
As Ewen acknowledges, Progressive Books 'never really became a workers' bookshop'. Ewen. Interview with author, 26 Nov. 1986
The specific political purpose stated by the Progressive Book Society in its 1937 prospectus contrasts significantly with the statements of aim of its Wellington counterpart. Whereas Progressive Books identified its constituency as those who are 'critical of the present order . . . [and] convinced of the need for social change', the Wellington Co-operative Book Society addressed itself to 'everyone . . . who is concerned with the affairs of culture and liberty' and who has 'the interests of human and social progress at heart'. 'Meeting Books on New Terms' New Zealand Co-operative Book Society Ltd. Prospectus, [1938]. Roth collection; 'A Readers' Bookshop'
While encompassing in these statements the broad policy of all of the co-op bookshops, the wider frame of reference and less specific political purpose reflect a difference between Modern Books and the Auckland and Christchurch shops in more than just name. This is not to say that the 'politics versus art' debate was not heard in the meetings of the Modern Books' management committee. On the contrary, it was in Wellington that these issues developed into overt conflict.
The most vocal of the society's own critics was R. Parsons to New Zealand and the Soviet Union. An Historical Account of the NZ-USSR Society. Auckland: New Zealand-USSR Society, 1979, p.70
The manager's assessment of the literary interests of the membership of the Wellington society was at least true of most of those involved in its formation. The WCBS prospectus and other publicity material oudined a wide range of literature, encompassed by the term 'progressive', to be sold by the new shop, but without the emphasis on the political, just as it gave a very broad definition of the movement's political/cultural purpose. The shop would 'specialise in progressive political, economic and social literature, as well as in books expressing contemporary trends in art, prose and poetry', with selection to be made by experts in the categories of 'Politics, Economics, Foreign Affairs, Philosophy, Social Topics, General Scientific Works, Prose, Poetry, Art Works and Plates, The Best in Contemporary Fiction'. 'Meeting Books on New Terms' WCBSmanagementcommitteeminutes, 12, 18 July 1939. WCBS Papers: 5/1
But it was literature rather than politics which was the principal interest of the shop's first manager, Roy Parsons. Formerly a bookseller in London, Parsons was recruited for the job of manager of Modern Books after the position was advertised in British newspapers. He was vetted by Victor Gollancz; the New Zealand Deputy High Commissioner in London; and
Within a year of Parsons' appointment Bart Fortune resigned from the management board. For him the balance between 'purely intellectual interests' and the left-wing had begun to tip too far. While Fortune's own interest in taking on the International Bookshop in 1933 had been primarily in Marxist literature it was his intention that the reorganisation of the shop into a cooperative society would broaden the range of material, with the aim of strengthening the anti-fascist movement. This was a balance which required some concession on his part, as he comments:
I was naturally concerned to see that marxist publications held a place among the liberal-cultural stock and this was so for the initial period, although anything that might be considered strident by lesser committed people was, with my goodwill, omitted.
But he found himself increasingly frustrated by the 'softening' influence of this 'liberal-intellectual' element, ironically the very people he himself had invited into the organisation—people such as Fortune correspondence; interview
Parsons himself resigned from Modern Books in February 1946, after three years in the airforce (during which time he was replaced at Modern Books by Communist Party member Jean Ferguson), and that year he started his own bookshop, a move prompted in some part by the conflict of interests identified by Fortune. It is Parsons' opinion that the 'removal' of
In Parsons' view the two sectors of the society, the left and the liberal-intellectual, were 'really at cross-purposes', Parsons. Interview with J. Colosimo, 1980
Evidence of the shift in balance in the early years is provided by a breakdown by category of books ordered in the year 1942-3. 'English Literature & Fiction' constituted 27 per cent of all books ordered, twice the proportion of'Polities', while children's books, an area in which Modern Books was to gain a considerable reputation, were stocked in the same numbers as Marx and the Selection committee report. WCBS Papers: 5; library committee report. WCBS minutes, 20 Jan. 1941 WCBS Papers: 21People's Voice (13 per cent). The library had a similar composition: purchases made for the library in 1941 numbered 131 in the fiction category, 69 political and topical, 58 general and 54 scientific.Co-op Books for the period 1943-5 confirms the greater emphasis on cultural material in Wellington. In the first issue of Co-op Books Modern Books advertised a wide range of poetry, had separate sections on children's books and science, and in the 'general' category an anthology of Romantic literature and Drawings by Augustus John (at 22/6). In the same issue Progressive Books listed titles on British trade unionism, The Real Russia, Soviet Strength, and in its fiction section Proletarian Literature in the United States, Fairy Tales by Karel Capek and works by Michael Gold. The January 1944 Modern Books catalogue had critical works by
A number of extra-curricular activities organised by the Modern Books committee further reinforced the stronger 'liberal-intellectual' character of the Wellington shop. Musical evenings were held. Approaches were made to the New Zealand Society of Artists and 'the Auckland pottery people' in 1941 with a proposal to sell New Zealand art and crafts in the shop. A picture lending library was opened in 1943, although this proved uneconomic and was discontinued after a year. A 1941 Modern Books newsletter includes paragraphs on a discussion evening to be held on New Zealand literature and a suggestion of forming a periodical group for those interested in cooperating in the purchase of
The Studio, Scrutiny, Partisan Review, Poetry Atlantic Monthly, Political Quarterly, Kenyon Review and Architectural Forum. By contrast, the first issue of the Co-operative Book News contained short items on the treatment of writers and artists under fascism, news of progressive happenings in the literary world (libraries in China, the publication of the biography of a Korean revolutionary, and so on) and a column entitled 'In the Soviet Union' citing evidence of cultural progress in the first socialist state.
The more literary image presented by Modern Books can be seen to reflect the proportionately greater influence of the 'intellectual liberal-left' within both the management and the membership of the society. The prominent involvement of academics, civil servants and professional people in the society was maintained throughout the 1940s. Conversely, the WCBS did not maintain the informal links with the trade union movement that its Auckland and Christchurch counterparts did. Although two unions—the printers' and carpenters'—were shareholders in the society there was only one trade union official on the management committee in this period (Ken Baxter of the printers' union, 1938-9). This lack of union input was not entirely for want of trying. An approach was made 'to the industrial movement and other organisations' when the society found itself in financial difficulty in 1939. WCBS minutesof first AGM, 31 Oct. 1939
The WCBS did advertise in labour publications, although less consistently than Progressive Books. Advertisements were placed in the WCBS annual report, 1945. WCBS Papers: 13Transport Worker in 1940 and in the Industrial Worker regularly through 1941. They also advertised in the Public Service Journal (and would later introduce a 5 per cent discount for PSA members), but here they were looking to a different market. It was observed in the annual report of 1944 that circulars sent to trade unions (and other institutions), as opposed to libraries, were not particularly effective. The conclusion was drawn that 'trade unions. . . do not appear to be interested in books.'
The virtual absence of trade union or working class representation on the management committee of Modern Books was paralleled by the composition of the Wellington society. Only 8.8 per cent of WCBS shareholders whose occupations have been established were of working class background, compared with 36 and 32 per cent respectively in Auckland and Christchurch. By corollary, a greater proportion were white-collar workers—teachers, civil servants, academics and professionals. As with the CCBS, the membership records of the WCBS are incomplete. A membership list from the early 1940s, and some lists of new members from the late 1940s, were used for this analysis. Of the 369 shareholders in the sample, the occupations of 205 were identified.
The predominantly white-collar nature of the Wellington society (as of the Left Book Club there) reflects in part the city's large civil servant population, and its smaller working class, with industry concentrated in the Hutt Valley. Similarly, one can see in the character of the cooperative book societies in Christchurch and Auckland distinctive features of those cities' social and cultural structures. The strongly class-stratified nature of Christchurch and its larger working class population has elsewhere been discussed as the prerequisite for the development of a distinct working class and left-wing culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. L. Plumridge, The Necessary but not Sufficient Condition: Christchurch Labour and Working-Class Culture', R. Shuker, New Zealand]ournal of History, Oct. 1985 (v.19, n.2), pp.130-50Educating the Workers? A History of the Workers'Education Association in New Zealand. Palmerston North: Dunmore Press, 1984, pp.104-5, 133
The Wellington Co-operative Book Society also contained a greater proportion of university graduates. Although the figures that can be quoted here are only approximate, they show a dramatic contrast. Approximately 36 per cent of the membership sample have been identified as graduates compared with 12 per cent of the Auckland society and 16 per cent in Christchurch. An anonymous donation made to the WCBS in 1946 of 50 shares to be allocated to university and teachers' college students made some contribution to these statistics. But the strong academic interest in Modern Books is also an indication of the high profile maintained by the university and the Wellington Teachers' Training College within left-wing and liberal-left cultural and intellectual activity in Wellington generally. A little ironically, this influence may be explained partly by Victoria's tradition and reputation for having the most politically radical student body of the four university colleges. Modern Books indeed owed its origins to this radical intellectual climate. Throughout the 1920s Victoria's Debating Club and Free Discussions Club had provoked alarm and moral outrage from the city fathers and the university authorities, and as we have seen it was from his involvement in the Free Discussions Club in the early 30s that Bart Fortune went on to run the International Bookshop and initiate the WCBS. Of the handful of university 'little magazines' which sprang up in the depression years, See J.C. Beaglehole, Student, which Fortune edited for the Free Discussions Club, was the most politically-oriented and outspoken. It was banned by the student executive after its first two issues, and when it defiantly produced a third in 1933, this time edited by Gordon Watson, the club was disaffiliated from the students' association.Victoria University College. An Essay Towards a History. Wellington: New Zealand University Press, 1949, pp.207-30; K. Sinclair, A History of the University of Auckland, 1883-1983. Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1983, p.150
Wellington Teachers' Training College, meanwhile, enjoyed an even greater reputation in these years as a 'Hotbed of Revolution'. The college had been closed at the end of 1932, a victim of the depression, and reopened in 1936; the resulting older age of the students in the later 1930s may be one factor in the
Ako Pai, years later. Needless to say, at the time some sections of the community perceived these virtues as dangerous political tendencies. As we shall see later, in the second half of the 30s both the teachers' college and Victoria College maintained their public image as 'radical' institutions particularly through theatre: Victoria with its witty and very political capping shows, and the teachers' college with a series of contemporary and politically progressive plays produced by English lecturer WJ. Scott.
Scott and Victoria's 'radical' History lecturer
An apprenticeship at Whitcombe and Tombs during the first world war instilled in Beaglehole, 'From Bookshop Assistant to Areopagitica—republished in a limited edition by the Caxton Press in 1941 shortly after the introduction of wartime regulations requiring the licensing of publications, hand set 'in 14-point Caslon Old Face, with Perpetua for titling' and printed on 'Francis antique laid paper'.Bookseller, 3418, 26 June 1971, pp.2594-7; Sinclair, A History of the University of Auckland, pp.153-7; J. Milton, Areopagitica. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1941
For WJ. Scott the primary intellectual influence was
politically fairly radical, culturally an almost fanatical highbrow, and educationally a firm believer in the necessity of making students aware of the cultural influences in their lives and those of children—newspapers, comics, magazines, films, radio—and of helping them to measure the quality of these influences by the standards and values derived from knowing and responding to good literature of the past and present.
P. Macaskill (ed.),
Ako Pai. A Special Issue to Celebrate the Centenary of Wellington Teachers College 1880-1980.Wellington: Price Milburn for the Centennial Committee, Wellington Teachers College, 1980, p.58 no Scott, 'Books and Readers', pp.405-6; 'A Readers' Bookshop' 111 Ibid.
Taking Leavis and Thompson's Culture and Environment as his text he overhauled the History of Western Literature-style syllabus to concentrate instead on contemporary cultural developments, the influence of 'mass' culture and the need to preserve cultural and critical standards. He impressed upon his students the importance of rigorous critical awareness and the independence of thought for which not only 'Eng. Lit.' but the college as a whole was known. The atmosphere was one of intellectual and cultural, rather than political, radicalism, despite official and public conceptions to the contrary.
It was this Leavisite concern with maintaining critical standards and a cultural tradition which underlay Scott's article in Scott, 'Books and Readers', pp.405-6; 'A Readers' Bookshop'Tomorrow on the newly-formed WCBS, entided 'Books and Readers', in which he described Wellington's sorry literary climate. Lamenting the rise of the culture 'industry' and the 'tragic surrender to the middlebrows', he accounted for the establishment of the cooperative book movement as 'an indication of the deep dissatisfaction felt by many of us with the inadequate supply of good books': as one bulwark against the insidious effects of capitalism, against mediocrity and cultural poverty, the cooperative book societies promised to make more readily available serious, quality literature of all kinds—'books of all kinds that have the stuff of life in them'.
The policy of the Wellington Co-operative Book Society shall be to provide readers with books, pamphlets and periodicals that try with honesty, skill and thoroughness to make the life of men in society intelligible to them. Recognising the difficulty of preserving a sound judgment of literature and art in a world in which so much of it has been debased for profit, the members of the Society look to their bookshop to help them and the public generally to this end; they regard it as a means of developing the critical intelligence that the understanding and treatment of human conditions to-day so urgently need.
Ibid.
This statement reveals a different conception of the relationship between the 'political and cultural problem' of the time (the rise of fascism), and a different understanding of the role of the intellectual in this moment of crisis from that held by Selwyn Devereux, or by Winston Rhodes.
As was the experience in the other centres, the Wellington shop found it necessary in times of financial difficulty to carry 'certain lines not traditionally stocked by our shop, such as digests, popular periodicals, and "best-selling" novels'. This report went on to apologise for the society's submission to the forces of Mammon, reassuring members: This is regarded as an expedient which we hope will be temporary. The committee is as anxious as anyone to maintain Modern Books' reputation for quality.' WCBS annual report, 1945 WCBS annual report, 1947. WCBS Papers: 21 The Leaning Tower of Babel', [C1947], Roth collection
In its emphasis on cultural standards the WCBS also had a different conception of its audience. In its 1938 prospectus, while referring to 'the average reader' and the aim of making important literature available 'at low cost', the society directed its appeal to a 'specialised', and by implication minority, reading public. Commenting on the deficiencies of the current book trade, wherein 'selection is by no means as comprehensive or as meritorious as it might be', it proposed: 'If it were possible to organise a section of the public whose reading tastes were similar, much might be done to sift the worthwhile publications and make available the very best of reading matter.' The 'us' in Scott's 'Books and Readers' article remained undefined, or was perhaps assumed given the medium for which he was writing, but here the newly-formed WCBS addressed itself, by implication if not by intention, to a defined class of reader. The idea of a 'Readers' Bookshop'—the title of a similar leaflet issued by the WCBS in 1939— is not the same as the 'People's Bookshop' envisaged by Winston Rhodes. When it described the cooperative book movement as 'action by organised readers' New Zealand Co-operative BookSociety Ltd. Prospectus, [1938]
Arguably as a result of its broader nature and appeal the Wellington Cooperative Book Society was by far the largest of the four societies, with 908 members in 1944 and 1400 by 1948. It was also prospering financially at the end of the 1940s, in marked contrast to the Christchurch society, despite a population, and potential market, of roughly equal size. The Wellington society did experience some decline in enthusiasm and active involvement on the part of its members in these years, and the 1950 annual general meeting passed a motion that 'strongly deplored the apathy and inactivity of members'; the president had commented in his report of the previous year that, with a number of members 'by this time largely scattered throughout New Zealand, something of the earlier enthusiasm of harder days has inevitably been lost by diffusion and dilution'. But he was also able to attribute this loss of enthusiasm 'in some degree, [to] the spiritual corrosion of material success'. WCBS minutes of AGM, 5 Dec. 1950; annual report, 1948-9. WCBS Papers: 25
Success was achieved in spite of particular difficulties. In the mid 40s Modern Books faced a number of problems which culminated in a financial crisis at the end of 1946. The small size of its Manners Street shop precluded its carrying profitable, non-literary merchandise such as stationery, and because of very high rent it had 'an excessive overhead in comparison with the other shops'. P. Macaskill, chairman, WCBS to secretary, Modern Books, Dunedin, June 1946. WCBS Papers: 17
It would seem significant that Modern Books should thrive while the more politically-oriented Co-op Bookshop found its financial position worsening in the post-war years, when the demand for left-wing literature had slowed. Like Progressive Books, Modern Books benefited from its central location. Its Woodward Street and Manners Street premises were close to the retail centre of the city and to the white-collar population which comprised the bulk of its membership, and probably its clientele. Modern Books did retain its left-wing component, but, knowing its market and its limitations, also retained its
WCBS minutes, 6 Aug. 1952
The founders of the Dunedin Co-operative Book Society wrote into the first draft of their constitution the most explicit statement of the socialist ideals of the cooperative book movement. After stating the cooperative principles on which the movement was founded, it identified its task in terms both of the broader purpose of the dissemination of progressive literature:
to foster the reading and writing and production of books, pamphlets, circulars and other publications of a nature that will promote an active and intelligent interest in progressive ideas and activities by the largest possible number of the reading public
and of its particular relationship to the working class movement:
improving the conditions of living and promoting generally the well being of members of the working classes, and . . . enlightening the community on all matters that have an economic, political, historical and ethical bearing upon the working people of the world, and their conditions, status and aspirations.
Rules of the Dunedin Co-operative Book Society Ltd (draft). Dunedin Modern Books Papers
Despite this clear statement of political interest, the Dunedin shop followed its Wellington namesake in having a stronger cultural than political orientation. It also had a strong New Zealand emphasis, which may have reflected the impetus given by the newly-formed Progressive Publishing Society to its establishment. This was despite a left-wing representation among the founding members of the society, in the persons particularly of Mark Silverstone, Peter Neilson, and John and Rita Harris.
The Harrises played a prominent role in the left movement in Dunedin in the 30s and 40s, and were the key figures in the Dunedin society in its early years. Rita was the society's first secretary and John its chairman. John Harris had been studying at Oxford when the stock market crashed in 1929, and after graduating escaped some of the worst part of the depression in New Zealand by taking to the Pacific with three young friends and a yacht. They spent over a year sailing around the islands, eventually being shipwrecked; Harris's connection with radical politics apparendy dated from the two years he spent in Auckland on his return. There he lectured for the WEA and radio and led 'a somewhat bohemian existence which brought him into close association with radical extremist groups in the city'.New Zealand Libraries, Dec. 1948 (v.11, n.11), pp.269-72
However, his reputation was known to the United States consul in Auckland, who refused him a visa to study librarianship in America with the aid of a Carnegie grant. Instead Harris studied in London, before returning to take up his position at Otago University in late 1935. Both John and Rita Harris joined the Communist Party; John Harris may have been president of the Otago branch at some time in the 1940s. Their home became the venue for political discussion evenings attended by Party members, students and academic fellow travellers, and possibly some trade unionists, and they played a leading role in the Left Book Club. They left New Zealand in 1948 when John Harris was appointed Librarian at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
As a professional bibliophile John Harris's literary interests ranged much wider than just left-wing material, as, it seems, did those of the Dunedin Cooperative Book Society as a whole. Its founding committee contained a greater number of librarians and educationalists than trade unionists and labour politicians. In the absence of minute books and correspondence, and of the society's annual reports for the first five years, it is not possible to investigate the internal dynamics of the society. Nor are any membership records available. But by the end of the 1940s there was, at least, no input into the shop from the Communist Party. The shop's essentially non-political character by this time is suggested by this comment made in the 1949 annual report:
the Board has been keeping a close watch on the matter of ordering, and has been trying to build up a good stock in such lines as New Zealand books, history, music and philosophy, as well as general literature.
DCBS annual report, 1949. Dunedin Modern Books Papers
It is also suggested by the media in which the shop advertised at this time: the university student newspaper Critic, National Education and occasional Repertory Society programmes.
As well as being the shortest-lived, the Dunedin society was the smallest of the four, with a membership in March 1949 of 443. It got off to a faltering start, with a loss of £257 in its first year of trading compounded by a £421 debt to the Progressive Publishing Society. But over the latter half of the 1940s it gradually strengthened its position. Its sales increased from £543 in 1943-4 to £3213 in 1948-9, and £5404 in 1953-4. In its 1948 annual report the society congratulated itself on its continued success: 'The shop continues to grow and can now be considered as well established in Dunedin book selling circles.' DCBS annual report, 1948. Dunedin Modern Books Papers
By this time Modern Books undoubtedly bore the influence of Charles Brasch, who headed the book selection committee from 1948 and was chairman of the society from 1949. The direction of Brasch's interest, in literature rather than politics, is underlined by a conflict which was later to erupt between him and the shop's manager, Dick Reynolds. Reynolds, formerly a second-hand bookseller in Dunedin, took over the management of Modern Books in mid
Reynolds interview
In the 1948 annual report of the Wellington Co-operative Book Society, marking its 10th anniversary, the president gave an assessment of its progress which underlines the distance and the direction in which it had moved from its origins in the International Bookshop and from the early debate over 'political' versus 'literary' interests:
besides the tangible benefits to the members from their participation in this cooperative enterprise it can fairly be claimed that Modern Books has been no mean influence in the cultural life of the City and Province. Not only have we brought to the attention of citizens important works which would otherwise have been unavailable to them but we can claim credit for having raised the standard of bookselling here. No one who remembers the state of the stocks of local booksellers ten years ago can dispute this point. We now carry as wide a range of stock as any shop in Wellington. In children's books, in political literature, in music and in drama we can justly claim that we excel.
WCBS annual report, 1948. WCBS Papers: 24
Modern Books is here perceived not as a radical political bookshop but rather as a good general and progressive bookshop; not as a political centre but instead the 'living cultural and intellectual centre' the members of the society envisaged at its founding. 'Meeting Books on New Terms'
The kinds of books in which our bookshop specialised were not so widely available as they are now. ... in the days I am thinking of there was a whole sector of literature that would not have been available but for the special effort that created Progressive Books and maintained it through difficult times.
Quoted in'25 Years Old. Progressive Book Society Ltd/
The difference between Modern Books and the Auckland and Christchurch shops was really one of degree not of kind. In the development of Modern Books one sees an earlier and more pronounced process of broadening and diffusion of purpose which each of the societies experienced as they came to cater to a demand for a wide range of literature 'which would otherwise have been unavailable'. Progressive Books and the Co-op Bookshop also stocked Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Faber poetry alongside Maxim Gorki, Stephen Spender and Michael Gold. In addition to modern and classic literature, all of the shops sold books on science and psychology, 'Christianity and Marxism', Freud, health and sexuality, university textbooks, foreign language texts and children's literature, as well as a wide range of political and social criticism—all areas which were not adequately covered by existing bookshops.
The cooperative bookshops catered to artists, architects and others interested in contemporary developments in the arts. The young Colin McCahon pursued his interest in modernism in the 1930s through 'a few inadequate books on the subject that filtered through to the bookshops and libraries from overseas'. At a time when there was an 'absence even of minor paintings to act as samples of European modernism or of contact with artists profiting from contact with the avant-garde. . . the artist interested in the new forms of art was left to sort out the difficulties of modernism in lonely isolation.' R. Haese, Colin McCahon: Artist. Wellington: A.H. and Rebels and Precursors. The Revolutionary Years of Australian Art. Ringwood, Victoria: Allen Lane, 1985, pp.16, 25; J. Sendy, Melbourne's Radical Bookshops. History, People, Appreciation. Melbourne: International Bookshop Pty Ltd, 1983, ch.8
They imported extensively from American and Continental publishers, not just from the British market on which the New Zealand book trade had traditionally relied. The library committee of Wellington's Modern Books observed that its 'policy of catering for political books and the best modern literature particularly' had proved correct, while also noting a strong interest in American literature, 'particularly in the sociological novel'.' 'Report on Library and Second Hand Departments (Feb-April)', [1941]. WCBS Papers: 3
Sexuality and birth control was another area in which the cooperative bookshops played a very significant role. As Eileen Coyne of Progressive Books recalls, it was there that she was introduced for the first time, at the age of 28, to literature on sexuality and marriage as well as to radical political ideas: 'any book with sex in the title was likely to be seized by Customs'. Coyne interview Hyde, 'Jack Basham's Bookshop' P. Christoffel, Hyde, 'Jack Basham's Bookshop' List of prohibited literature, appended to 'Question of the prohibition of the importation of certain literature into NZ\ Memorandum from Comptroller of Customs to Minister of Customs, 27 Jan. 1936. C1 36/959: box 152. NA W. Nash, Minister of Customs to Minister in charge of Police Department, 25 May 1936. Ibid. Coyne, 'And Baby Makes Three'Censored. A Short History of Censorship in New Zealand. Monograph Series, 12. Research Unit, Department of Internal Affairs. Wellington: Department of Internal Affairs, 1989, pp.20-1; R. Openshaw and R. Shuker, 'Silent Movies and Comics', in The American Connection. Wellington: Allen and Unwin/Port Nicholson Press, 1988, pp.58-60; Contraception, Married Love and Wise Parenthood, The Woman's Book of Health, and Ettie Rout's Practical Birth Control, could be imported, but with no guarantee against subsequent police action. In the same category came James Joyce's Ulysses. The prohibited list included titles such as A Commonsense Treatise on Birth Control, and How to Prevent Pregnancy alongside Les Nuits Voluptueuses, Spicy Stories, The Virgin's Progress, The Butcher Shop by Jean Devanny—'New Zealand's one and only home-grown banned novel',Lady Chatterley's Lover (unexpurgated version) and an issue of Art in Australia. Twelve works were permitted on the condition that they would be sold only to medical students and practitioners, scientists, psychologists, sociologists, law students or art students.
Throughout the 1940s the co-op bookshops maintained a virtual monopoly over a broad range of serious, quality literature. They survived, despite economic constraints, because they filled a vacuum in the literary market. And in effect they survived in spite of their left-wing basis. For, as became increasingly obvious, 'no progressive bookshop . . . could survive just on the sale of left material', had this even been the intention. Ewen correspondence
The range of literary interests contained within the cooperative book movement, the size and nature of the market, economic factors, and the change in the political climate in the post-war years were all contributing factors in the difficulties and the development of the bookshops in the 1930S-1940s. They were also influenced by a number of other external factors.
The war may have created a demand for radical literature but it also presented obstacles of a more practical nature to its sale. There was the difficulty of maintaining any kind of voluntary organisation under the highly mobile, disruptive and regulated conditions of wartime society. Then there were the unavoidable hazards involved in transporting goods from one side of the world to the other, although these proved not so great as initially feared. Winston Rhodes noted in his 1941 annual report that the society was 'fortunate in that only two shipments of books have been sunk by enemy action during the year'.
The manager of Progressive Books added to this concern 'import restrictions, bombing-out of London publishers, labour and paper shortage . . . sky-high prices and heavy war-risk insurance'. CCBS chairman's report, Oct. 1941; Comptroller of Customs to Prime Minister, 8 May 1940, quoted in Taylor, CB, Feb. 1944 (v.1, n.4), p.[5] The Home Front, p.997
D. Basham to J. Ferguson, 21 Aug. 1941. WCBS Papers: 3
It was not only the amount of material that was held that irked booksellers but the lack of information given. It was not until July 1940 that Customs made public the fact that incoming packages were being impounded, and the list of banned books was not published. Nancy Taylor sums up the confusion, official obfuscation and overkill which characterised wartime censorship:
booksellers repeatedly asked to be told what titles were proscribed; censorship, showing much skill in dodging questions, refused this information and was itself uncertain about many books and periodicals on which it awaited higher direction. Postal and customs authorities had further confused the issue by withholding some obviously virtuous books, guilty only by association in packages with suspected ones, thereby increasing the bewilderment and exasperation of booksellers.
Taylor,
p.1001The Home Front ,
In Parliament the Prime Minister admitted that
The Government will probably have to pay compensation with regard to the holding up of literature. Quite a range of absurd administrative actions are possible under the Regulations. Every individual officer of the law cannot possibly distinguish between what is subversive and what is not.
Quoted in
Union Record,15 Jan. 1941 (v.1, n.19), p.3
The cooperative book societies made several protests to the Minister of Customs over the stringency of censorship restrictions, particularly over the practice of impounding books without notice for unspecified duration, and sought support from local trade unions, LRCs and the Federation of Labour. Wellington's Modern Books also protested over the censorship of its incoming mail. In February 1941 the WCBS wrote to the Minister suggesting that a committee of 'competent and open-minded persons' be appointed with the power to override the censor, that importers be immediately informed of any confiscation, that the list of banned books be made public and that anything passed by the British censor be automatically allowed into New Zealand. Secretary, WCBS to Minister of Customs, 18 Feb. 1941. WCBS Papers: 3
A related and no less vexatious problem was import licensing. Licensing was introduced by the Labour government at the end of 1938 under the Import Control Regulations as a means of conserving overseas funds. Initially this had little effect on the importation of literature; there was no effective restriction on material imported from Britain or Australia, although imports from America were 'considerably reduced'. ABNZ minutes, 25 Jan. 1939 Ibid., 30 Oct. 1939, 6 Mar. 1940, 27 Jan. 1943 'Aspects of Censorship', 'The Importation of Books', Tomorrow that: 'If there must be restrictions let them be restrictions on detective novels, stories of the wild west, crime fiction—anything you like but not on serious thought of which New Zealand needs as much as she can get.'Tomorrow, 1 Feb. 1939 (v.5, n.7), p.213CB, July 1944 (v.1, n.9), p.1New Zealand Listener, 1 July 1949 (v.21, n.523), p.7
Import licensing restrictions were substantially relaxed in 1951. Meanwhile, the end of the war had brought a relaxation of censorship, but also, as we have seen, a change in the political context and a lessening of the demand for political literature. Social and cultural as well as political changes also affected, and were reflected by, the development of the literary market.
There was a significant overall growth in the literary market over this period. In 1949 books and periodicals to the value of £1,375,000 were imported into New Zealand compared with £568,000 in 1938. Ibid.Co-op Books in 1944 Blackwood Paul observed:
I ought to know book buying people. For ten years I have tried to sell them books. In those early years I thought nobody ever bought books except to give them away. . . . The pattern in recent years has changed a little. More people buy books for themselves. . . . More choose intelligently for themselves. There are also signs of a new class of book buyers, people who could not afford to buy books before at all but who now buy expensive books.
Paul, 'The Book-Buying Public'
While there were more people buying books (although not necessarily, in Paul's opinion, 'good' books), there were also fewer people by the post-war years buying political pamphlets, which had formed the bulk of the International and Labour bookshops' sales. The depression had been 'the great period for pamphleteering'. Rhodes interviewWorkers' Weekly than there had been a year earlier, or in the International Bookshops' advertisements in the early 1930s.
International political events of the late 1930s and the war itself may have stimulated a greater interest in longer, more in-depth studies of political, social and economic questions than the political pamphlet allowed. But this change in literary consumption may also be related to a more fundamental social development—the apparent demise of a 'self-educated working class' tradition. The image of the cloth-capped autodidact which is represented by people such as Walter Nash and Jack Basham, whose interest in bookselling derived from a love of literature as well as an interest in politics, and by the Auckland watersider 'who would . . . walk out with twenty books under his arm', is an image of the 1920s or 1930s, not of the 1950s. The extent, origin and development of a self-educated working class culture in this country is a question which cannot be fully addressed here, but only noted in so far as it receives some expression in the
The New Dominion. A Socialand Political History ofNew Zealand, 1918-39. Wellington: A.H. and Educating the Workers?
A parallel development was the significant expansion of the university population in this period. There was a large increase in student numbers in the late and post-war years: the roll of the University of New Zealand rose from 5979 in 1939 to 11,964 in 1948,AJHR, 1940, E7, p.2, 1950, E7, p.3
The debate within the cooperative book movement over 'political' versus 'literary' interests was also framed in terms of cheap working class literature as opposed to more expensive books. The commitment to low prices was always borne in mind, but the relative shift from cheap pamphlets to higher priced books may in turn have further distanced the cooperative bookshops from their working class origins and popular cultural ideal. In the Wellington Modern Books catalogues of the later 1940s many books were priced upwards of 10/- and some over 20/-. By comparison, Penguin paperbacks, which first appeared in 1935, cost 1/- in New Zealand in the 1930s and 1/8-1/9 in 1946. These figures must of course be seen in the context of rising living standards. But it is also worth noting in this context a comment made by one book society member, that even on an academic salary 'it was not easy to spend a pound [the price of a book society share] for an idea'. Parsons interview
So the cooperative bookshops never became the 'genuine People's Bookshop[s]' Rhodes envisaged, CCBS chairman's report, Oct. 1942
Their progress from working class based and strongly political bookshops associated with the Communist Party or Friends of the Soviet Union, to the more general, progressive bookshops of the 1940s, was paralleled by their shift in geographical location. Auckland's Progressive Bookshop moved from Pitt Street off Karangahape Road to the lower Queen Street area. Wellington's International Bookshop was located opposite and later next door to Trades Hall in Vivian Street; Modern Books in Woodward and Manners Streets. In Christ-church the transformation of the International Bookshop into Co-op Books accompanied a shift from Manchester Street, a relatively industrial area, to New Regent Street nearer the commercial centre of the city.
Throughout this period these shops remained the principal outlets for left-wing and other progressive literature and thus to a greater or lesser extent the 'spiritual centres' of the left. They satisfied a demand for 'good and progressive literature'Co-op Books, Nov. 1943 (v.1, n.1), p.1
In later years the cooperative bookshops lost the monopoly they had enjoyed over a large section of the literary market in the 1940s, as their purpose was partially absorbed by competing bookshops catering to a need which they themselves had been partly responsible for creating. The emergence of specialised bookshops and the improving standard of general bookshops were to be major factors in the increasing financial difficulties they faced.
After recording a net loss of £1170 over the previous 12 months, the Dunedin Co-operative Book Society was wound up on the advice of its auditor in October 1954 and its stock and lease sold to Catholic Supplies Limited. The three other societies survived, and continued to reflect in their membership, the books on their shelves and the debates in their committee meetings, the changing politics of the left in the next 20-30 years. They continued to operate as cooperative organisations (and the WCBS continued to deplore the apathy of its membership), and to identify their major constituency as 'liberals and left-wingers of various political shades'. WCBS. Draft letter to major creditors, [nd]. WCBS Papers: 34 Manager's report to board, 1 June 1966; notice of AGM, 1980. PBS Records Progressive Book Society Ltd. Leaflet, 195?. PBS Records Annual report, 1968. PBS Records
When Progressive Books finally closed its doors in 1980 it cited among the factors in its decision the general economic climate (inflation and the falling value of the dollar) and a sharp reduction in sales. But the crucial factor in Progressive Books' demise was its difficulty in finding affordable premises. When the Darby Street building was sold in 1975 the shop was given one month's notice and lost $5000 in the shift to Victoria Street. In three more moves over the next seven years increasing commercial rents forced it further from the commercial centre of the city, and the high turnover this brought. At the time it closed it had 400 members, about half the membership of the mid 1940s. Yet the high profile it had maintained since the 1930s as Auckland's principal progressive bookshop is evidenced by the appreciative obituary it received in the 'The Right to Dissent', New Zealand Herald. 'The shop in its hey-day was well worthwhile; it still supplies avant-garde books not easily found elsewhere', the Herald observed, and expressed its regret at the loss of a shop 'that made a feature of offering, with dignity, political dissent.'New Zealand Herald, 8 July 1980, p.6
The Wellington shop was forced to undergo only one shift of premises (to another location in Manners Street), but in 1970 it too cited as a major reason for its closure high rents and the problem of maintaining security of tenure.
Appeal to members, [1968?]. WCBS Papers: 34 Ibid.
The Christchurch Co-operative Book Society had a longer, but somewhat sorrier, history. While the successful development of Progressive Books clearly demonstrated the need for the shops increasingly to broaden their stock, the Coop Bookshop in its later life narrowed its focus, and lost custom to superior general shops such as Scorpio Books and the University Bookshop. By the 1980s the Co-op Bookshop occupied a small upstairs room in its New Regent Street premises and opened only for a few hours on Friday afternoons. Its large selection of Marxist classics and international communist and socialist literature gave it an old-fashioned appearance, closer, probably, to its 1930s predecessor the International Bookshop than to its 1980 contemporary Progressive Books. It finally closed its doors in 1988.
In contrast with the long, if uncertain, history of the cooperative book societies, the Progressive Publishing Society had a brief but spectacular life. A joint publishing venture of the Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch societies, it was founded in 1941 with a capital of £250. It went into liquidation three years later with debts of £2482 and 65 publications to its credit.
The Wellington Co-operative Book Society had remarked in 1938 on the 'enormous . . . part that such a Society could play in the establishing of an independent New Zealand culture'. New Zealand Co-operative Book Society, Ltd. 'Meeting Books on New Terms', 1938. Roth collection Progressive Books Ltd. Prospectus, 1937. Robert Lowry Papers. Ms Papers A-194: box 1, folder 4. University of Auckland LibraryThe Policy of Import Selection by New Zealand Financial Times. A second article by Sutch, on The New Zealand Social Security Act, was reprinted for the society that year by Melbourne University Press. In 1941 Standards of Living, Wages and Prices, a pamphlet by Horace Belshaw, was published by Modern Books in cooperation with the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The Wellington society's most substantial independent effort, however, was Sutch's Poverty and Progress in New Zealand (1941), which had been commissioned as one of the centennial Historical Surveys series but was rejected (for reasons which are discussed later in this chapter). It had also investigated publishing two further manuscripts offered to it in 1939: Little Ann (essays on educational subjects, published by Whitcombe and Tombs in 1940) and an essay by Ian Mackay. Mackay and Combs were both to be founding members of the PPS. It appears that Modern Books' move into publishing was prompted in some part by the desires of its
The Christchurch society published six pamphlets in 1941-2: Chairman's report, Oct. 1941. Christchurch Co-operative Book Society. Minute books, 1938-1970. Acc 90-259. Alexander Turnbull LibraryThe Military Strength of the Soviet Union by Winston Rhodes and Harold Fenton ('not only issued by the Co-operative Book Society but. . . written in a co-operative way'War over the Pacific by Winston Rhodes; Rich and Poor in New Zealand by The Soviet Constitution with a foreword by Rhodes; Cartoons from 'Tomorrow' by Kennaway Henderson; and The Traitor Class by Ivor Montagu which was reprinted under licence from Lawrence and Wishart for Australasia. Other titles under consideration were: 'Industrial Co-operatives in China' by James Bertram and Rewi Alley; a study of industrial and political development in Australia by Ian Milner; 'Japan Strikes Back' by Winston Rhodes; 'Who Owns New Zealand?'; 'Medical Benefits'; a history of the New Zealand labour movement; an 'exposure of the American Meat Trusts' by Together Against Hitlerby Health and Medicine in the U.S.S.R. by Eva Black. (The society declined an offer of a manuscript on incendiary bombs.)
The formation of the publishing society followed moves to coordinate generally the work of the co-op bookshops. In 1939 a conference of the shop managers was held and a book token scheme involving the three shops and Paul's Book Arcade was announced later that year. At a second conference in Easter the following year cooperation in publishing as well as in buying and advertising was suggested by the Christchurch society, but only joint advertising resulted. The extension into publishing was again mooted in April 1941 in correspondence between Progressive Books and the Caxton Press, and the Wellington and Christchurch societies. The organisation proposed at this stage was to be called the New Zealand Publishing Society and was to involve the Caxton Press and Paul's Book Arcade as well as the three cooperative book societies.
An interim committee of the New Zealand Co-operative Publishing Society, as its name became, was set in place by mid 1941. It was convened by Ibid.; 'Urgent Appeal for Action', Ibid., 14 July 1941Cooperative Book News, Sept. 1942 (v.1, n.9), p.1; Wellington Co-operative Book Society Ltd. Management committee minutes, 12 May 1941. Wellington Co-operative Book Society Ltd. Papers, 1938-1970. Ms Papers 1122: box 5/1. Alexander Turnbull Library
Publishing got underway in late 1941 with the first three of a series of pamphlets on aspects of post-war reconstruction, published in cooperation with the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. This organisation had recendy published a similar series of essays and begun a monthly bulletin in cyclostyled form;
The structure of the Progressive Publishing Society followed the democratic organisation of its three partners. A nine member committee responsible for overall management was elected annually by a conference of delegates from the three co-op bookshops which represented the final controlling body of the society. A range of sub-committees included a selection committee which 'was assisted by a panel of about sixty readers specially qualified in various fields'. 'Democracy in Action', Co-op Books, Apr. 1944 (v.1, n.6), p.1
Membership of the society was obtained by taking out a share in one of the cooperative book societies; a percentage of each new share would be transferred automatically to the publishing society unless otherwise directed. Membership, at £1, was 'open to all and beyond the reach of none'. [Progressive Publishing Society], Freedom to Publish. Evidence in a Case for Appeal Christchurch, Auckland, etc: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1944, p.12. Neither the Progressive Publishing Society nor the cooperative book societies appear to have been modelled on similar organisations overseas. It is possible that the Fellowship of Australian Writers was aware of the recent formation of the PPS when it established a Co-operative Publishing Company in 1943. However, this organisation did not get off the ground. See J. Devanny, Point of Departure. The Autobiography of Jean Devanny. Ed. C. Ferrier. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1986, pp.261-3
The purpose of the organisation was not simply to be the publication of progressive literature. Progressive Books' manager Arthur Jackson-Thomas outlined a more detailed proposal for an organisation which would coordinate the work of the bookshops in the areas of buying, wholesale trading, national distribution, printing and the establishment of new shops:
To have a finger in practically every bookshop and news-stand in the country should be worth some trouble. If the job were done in a workmanlike manner the Society should within a reasonable period be in dominant position in the book trade in this country. If this position were attained it would seem to be of some advantage to the country to have a body which has a sense of social responsibility pre-selecting its literary fare.
'Proposed Bookshop Society', [1942], pp.[3-4].WCBS Papers: 3
The 'ACo-operative Bookshop Union', Co-operative Book News also looked forward to the day when 'every district in New Zealand has its own Co-op. Bookshop'.CBN, Jan. 1942 (v.1, n.2),p.4Co-op Books (after August 1944 this was published in four regional editions with local advertising and shop news), and coordinated importing and distribution for the co-op bookshops, holding the New Zealand agency for several progressive overseas publishers—International Publishers (USA), Lawrence and Wishart, Kniga, the Fabian Society (London), Current Book Distributors (Sydney) and International Book Party Ltd (Melbourne), and distributing New Zealand periodicals In Print, the Rationalist and John A. Lee's Weekly. It also investigated employing agents in London and America. Long-term plans included the establishment of a printing press, the publication of a monthly progressive review 'intended as a national forum for current topics' (a proposal initiated by the Christchurch society and clearly modelled on Tomorrow), undertaking research into 'Sociological problems', literary competitions, the establishment of new shops, and discussion circles based on the society's publications, which, the manager hoped, 'in turn, would affect profoundly the political future of this country.'Freedom to Publish, p.14; CB, Nov. 1943 (v.1, n.1), p.6; CBN, Sept. 1942 (v.1, n.9), p.2
Of these plans only the literary competition came to fruition. A novel and short story competition was launched in June 1944, with prizes offered of £100 and £15 respectively. Details of the nature and number of the entries are not recorded in Co-op Books, and unfortunately the manuscripts are not among the surviving PPS papers. The winner of the short story section, which was judged
New Zealand Listener, WJ. Scott and Winston Rhodes, was Anton Vogt with 'The Accident'. The novel competition was to be judged by Professor W.A. Sewell,
By 1944 the PPS claimed to have 'two thousand odd members'Freedom to Publish, p.8CB, Sept. 1944 (v.1, n.11), p. [6]. As surviving PPS records are incomplete, the full executive membership of the society is not known.
Like the cooperative book societies the Progressive Publishing Society was established as a practical experiment in cultural democracy. It was to be 'a cooperative democracy in publishing': Ibid., pp.4, 7,14Freedom to Publish, p.5Freedom to Publish. Evidence in a Case for Appeal, distributed free to prospective members as part of a membership campaign in 1944, outlined the motivation behind its formation. Prefaced by a quotation from Milton's Areopagitica on the moral and spiritual worth of literature, it argued that a genuine freedom of the press depended not only on the absence of censorship—of, that is, the privilege of those in control of the press to say what they choose—but on access for all to the medium of print. While 'the printing presses of the world are operated by only a minute percentage of the world's people' and the decisions even of liberally-minded publishers are dictated by profit the 'mute inglorious Miltons and the village Hampdens are only mute because no-one will take a risk on their glory'. The sole reason the co-op bookshops were not stocking many New Zealand books was that there were so few being published. 'New Zealand literature languished for want of publishers' and the Progressive Publishing Society would fill this need by publishing on the principle not of profit but of 'worth'. It was to be a publishing society which 'is owned by the people and ... publishes for the people'.
The implicit connection in theoretical terms between the socialist and 'nationalist' ideals which inspired the Progressive Publishing Society is suggested most explicitly in a statement by Co-operative Book News:
It's a strange thing—or is it?—that the publications read by New Zealanders are either predominandy produced in another country or are the newspapers belonging to the most conservative groups in this country. Those in the first category are not of New Zealand while those in the second represent only a fraction of New Zealanders.
W. B. Sutch , 'National Co-operative Publishing. Joint Action by Bookshops',CBN,Feb. 1943 (v.1, n.3), p.3
Both socialist and nationalist ideals here contain a populist element, in the vision of a culture which is owned by the people. Sutch also saw the PPS as realising a synthesis of left-wing and nationalist ideals in terms of the nature of its publications. New Zealand, he argued, was urgendy lacking in literature that would 'venture to analyse or to describe the New Zealand people and New Zealand institutions.' Until this time, with the exception of the Caxton Press and occasional publications of the individual cooperative bookshops, New Zealand publishers
have published text-books (of a kind), books on birds or Maoris, or missionaries, occasionally an adventure story. . . . even our radical literature is produced
mainly overseas.... we all know so little about New Zealand. For example has anyone yet written a 'Tory M.P.' or a 'Traitor Class' on this country? Ibid., p.4
It was Sutch's intention that the society would stimulate a progressive New Zealand literature of this kind. Freedom to Publish also expressed a progressive political purpose in this sense, although in broader terms, addressing its appeal to 'all those who believe in the future of New Zealand literature, who prefer progress to reaction, who care more for the welfare of the people than for the status quo'.Freedom to Publish, p.11
But just as the cooperative book societies represented a range of interests and sought to maintain a balance between literary and political priorities, so the Progressive Publishing Society heard a parallel debate between 'New Zealand' and 'left'. The society was perceived as, alternatively, a commitment to the publication of good New Zealand literature generally, or more specifically as a publisher of left-wing literature. The two visions were not always harmoniously combined. Ultimately, though, it was not internal division which was responsible for the society's premature end. Nor was it any lack of a need for a publishing society of the PPS's philosophical principles and interests. Its failure was the result of the same economic and market limitations encountered by the cooperative book societies, compounded by excess of enthusiasm and lack of management expertise.
The PPS divided its resources roughly equally between the two objectives defined by Ian Mackay in the first issue of LA. Mackay, 'Membership Campaign Committee Report', Co-op Books, 'the encouragement of New Zealand writers and the desire to keep people informed on New Zealand problems and International Affairs together with their relationship and effect on New Zealand.'CB, Nov. 1943 (v.1, n.1), p.5Britain Marches with Russia and Health Protection in the USSR, Ernest Beaglehole's popular account of ethnological studies in the Cook Islands, Islands of Danger, which was its most substantial publication; Maori Problems Today by Ron Meek; Medical Advice from a Backblocks Hospital (second and third editions) by Dr CM. Smith; We New Zealanders and Hands off the Tom Tom; Venereal Disease. The Shadow
over New Zealand; and collected essays by Frederick Sinclaire. Publications planned or commissioned at the time of the society's collapse included studies on town and country planning, the New Zealand film industry, state housing, 'the life of a freezing worker' and a biography of Harry Holland.
The society's cultural publications were equally wide-ranging, both in quality and in kind—from light satirical verse to pacifist poems, earnestly socialist poetry to Wordsworthian lyrics, seventeenth-century French poetry in translation to children's books. Several of the major New Zealand writers from this period are represented, including Allen Curnow with P. Evans, Sailing or Drowning and Whim Wham, 1943 (a collection of satirical verse reprinted from the Christ-church Press and New Zealand Listener); Frank Sargeson with A Man and His Wife, and The Waiting Hills, the second of his trilogy of critical essays on New Zealand culture; and The Timeless Land. There were also publications of more dubious, or at least less durable, literary quality. Some Poems for New Zealand by Merrill Moore, an American psychiatrist who had been stationed with American troops in New Zealand for two years, and become a friend of Poems by Clyde Carr, Reverend and Labour Member of Parliament for Timaru, which were inspired by faith, nature and the Romantic poets 'in the The Penguin History of New Zealand Literature. Auckland: Penguin, 1990, p.91
Once more 'twas spring. The first green of the oak Was such a vivid thing Of such translucent loveliness as to choke The sight with tears
Moving north, one finds Auckland:
Another Aphrodite she, with softly-rounded limbs, Cradled between the breasts of Mother Ocean. C. Carr,
Poems by Clyde Carr.Wellington: Progressive Publishing Society, I944> pp.7, 16
This, clearly, was not quite the stuff of which revolutions are made. Leaving aside Allen Curnow's satirical verse and Anton Vogt's pacifist statement, F. Ost and R. Meek (ed. and trans.), Poems for a War, only two of the society's cultural publications can be described as explicidy political: Three Essays on Czech Poets by Frederick Ost, a Czech refugee in New Zealand, and The Vltava Still Sings, a collection of Czechoslovak nationalist and socialist poetry translated by Ost and Ron Meek and 'dedicated to
The Vltava Still Sings. Modern Czech Verse. Wellington: Progressive Publishing Society, 1945, inside title pageThe Willing Horse by Isobel Andrews, which one critic (unkindly) described as 'everyday nineteenth century stuff—a girl crossed in love, grown middle-aged and a "willing horse" to be relied on to get supper ready for dances, etc.—set in a local New Zealand country town setting';Art in New Zealand, 61, Sept. 1943 (v.16, n.1), p.17Outlaw's Progress, a story of economic hardship and murder set in the 1920s, loosely based on the Stanley Graham murders on the West Coast which occurred in 1941 (it bears an interesting comparison with John Mulgan's Man Alone as a study of the social and personal aftermath of the first world war). One quarter of its cultural publications were children's books. Also produced under the imprint of the PPS was a set of greeting cards with texts by Milton, Blake, Morris and Whitman. Among the titles planned for 1945 but not published were 'New Zealand Verse 1923-45' edited by Allen Curnow (subsequendy published as A Book of New Zealand Verse 1923-45 by the Caxton Press, 1945), and That Summer by Frank Sargeson (published in England the following year by John Lehmann). A planned short story collection to be edited by Sargeson was probably the basis for the Caxton Press publication Speaking for Ourselves (1945). It is unfortunate that a full list of the manuscripts received by the society has not survived. Among them were stories by John A. Lee, a novel by educational innovator
Criticism of the publishing society's lack of ideological purity was focused on the cultural publications. Both the relative proportions of literary and political material and the nature of the literature itself attracted disapproval. Among the members of the management committee who voiced their dissent were Communist Party members
We are supposed to be a part of the labour movement, according to conference resolutions, so why have we little or nothing of concern to that movement? Some matters of interest and importance are Banking, Housing, Cost-of-Living, health, industrial unrest, etc. etc. Would such manuscripts be drier or less saleable than verse or stories which are almost equivalent to sur-realism in art, they are so remote from the interests, of the ordinary man and women?
Unsigned letter to
R. S. Parker , chairman, PPS, 6 Mar. 1945. WCBS Papers: 13, 7
(The author of these comments added: 'The initiative in the formation of the P.P.S. came from me and I did much of the preliminary work.') At a PPS conference in October 1944 Griffin urged the production of more 'topical publications' and fewer 'ephemeral books fully bound'. Sutch, 'Conference Report', CB, Dec. 1944 (v.1, n.14), p.[3]
dominated by left (or merely liberal) intellectuals, as has happened in another centre in the past. The result in that instance was that the more expensive type of literature was given preference, while pamphlets and periodicals which workers needed were in short supply. [The reference is evidently to Modern Books in Wellington.] We want to help create the right balance between all types of literature which will be of the greatest service to [the] progressive movement.
Communist Party of New Zealand (Christchurch branch). Bulletin, 27 Oct. 1942. Jack Locke Deposit: additional material: item 5. University of Canterbury Library
Comments such as these drew a distinction between political, popular or working class writing and cultural and 'highbrow' literature. Other criticisms were, however, based on a conception of what might constitute a progressive or working class literary culture. The Christchurch Co-operative Book Society, for example, objected to a decision taken by the PPS committee in 1944 to obtain rights for reprinting popular fiction such as 'Rebecca or the detective stories of Dorothy Sayers' in order to increase the society's capital. For one thing, a major policy decision of this kind taken without consultation with the member societies constituted 'a breach of faith with the partners in the Society' and violated the democratic principles of the movement. It was also, in the opinion of the Christchurch committee, contrary to the purpose of the publishing society which was to publish 'books of social content and New Zealand literature'. As an alternative to the proposal the CCBS urged that
the choice of books suitable for reprinting should always be related to the objects of the Society and consideration should be given to books by Upton Sinclair, Jack London, Steinbeck, Richard Wright,
H. G. Wells , Sholokov,Gorki, Anand, Bernard Shaw, Sean O'Casey, K.S. Prichard, Brian Penton and Rex Warner. CCBS minutes, 19 May 1944
It also suggested that consideration be given to reprinting early New Zealand books. The publishing society's 1943 national conference, which involved del-egates from each of the shops as well as the management committee, passed a resolution stating:
That we approve of the present plans for future production, but would like to see a greater proportion of what might be termed popular material of a progressive character as well as the encouragement of socially significant fiction or short stories.
The conference also passed a remit committing the society to support the 'Labour movement'. 'National Conference of Progressive Publishing Society', CCBS minutes, 11 Jan. 1945InPrint, 30 June 1943, p. [3]; 'Politics and Progressive Publishing', CB, Nov. 1943 (v.1, n1i), p.4Poems by Clyde Carr and Verse by New Zealand Children 'Christchurch considers should not bear the imprint of the Progressive Publishing Society'.Co-op Books after the next issue.
It was New Zealand New Writing, however, which attracted the most controversy. Four numbers of New Zealand New Writing were published between December 1942 and March 1945, and a fifth was in production when the society folded. Initiated by Professor Ian Gordon, who edited all four issues, the series was modelled on the Penguin New Writing (1940-50) published in England and edited by John Lehmann. The initial cover design for the New Zealand version was an imitation of the Penguin cover, and the introduction to the first issue acknowledged Lehmann's New Writing as its 'godfather'. The debate which surrounded New Zealand New Writing stemmed from specific conceptions of a proletarian, socially-conscious or popular literature, with comparison drawn implicidy with Lehmann's leftish publication and explicidy with the earnesdy anti-fascist and proletarian Australian New Writing.
Only a handful of the contributions to A. Falconer, To Uncertain Leaders', G. Texidor, 'Home Front', New Zealand New Writing would have satisfied those who looked to it for a manifesto of socialist realism. Of the poetry there was Ron Meek's 'Stalingrad 1943', the title of which is self-explanatory, and 'To Uncertain Leaders' by Alun Falconer, which presents a class view of the war in the threat of the common soldier to the makers of war to 'give liberty to those for whom we kill'.New Zealand New Writing, 3, June 1944, p.26NZNW, 1, Dec 1942, pp.64, 66That Summer and the sketch 'Growing up'.
These made up only about 15 per cent of the total content of the four issues.
On the whole the contributions to New Zealand New Writing were not political. The contributors to the series included Allen Curnow, A.RD. Fairburn, Kendrick Smithyman, The Waiting Hills, which assessed the positive impact of the depression on New Zealand writers in that it gave them 'time to think', an essay by Ian Gordon on Katherine Mansfield, and an essay by R. Seymour on 'A Present Tendency in New Zealand Literature', which sharply criticised writers such as Curnow, Holcroft and NZNW, 4, Mar. 1945, pp.31-2
Not surprisingly, war was the subject of approximately half of the series' content. Contributions such as 'My Ship was Bombed—Letters from a Merchant Seaman' and '5 Poems from the Pacific Campaign' focused on the immediate, personal experience of war—pain, fear, heroism, individual survival. The prose pieces generally looked at the local, social or domestic context of war. E. Locke, correspondence, New Zealand New Writing did not, as one of Ian Gordon's critics defined the necessary purpose of art in this time, take a 'stand somewhere in relation to the issues of the struggle against fascism'.CB, Feb. 1945 (v.2, n.2), p.[3]
Critics of the publication's political insipidity looked across the Tasman for an example of the anti-fascist, 'proletarian' literature they expected of New Writing. The first issue of Australian New Writing, which appeared shortly after New Zealand's, was edited by a communist literary triumvirate of Katharine Susannah Prichard, Bernard Smith and George Farwell, and was prefaced with a quotation from Miles Franklin on the inherently political character of art (as a disturber of the status quo) and a foreword which placed literature and art within the context of the anti-fascist and class struggle. Its contents included strikes, unemployment, war and union politics, and a critical essay on 'Art and the Working Class'. It was reviewed in Co-op Books by CB, Jan. 1944 (v.1, n.3), p.5New Zealand New Writing against the second number of Australian New Writing and concluded:
It is a breathtaking literary impertinence to the people of this country that N.Z.N.W. No. 3 contains in its prose only one very minor hint that there is such a thing as a war on, one broad hint and two minor hints that there are social problems among the people as well as individual ones.
P. G. Harding , 'Australia's Baby Dwarfs Ours',CB,Sept. 1944 (v.1, n.11), p.[4]
The Christchurch Co-operative Book Society, meanwhile, greeted the first number of New Zealand New Writing with the resolution that
whatever the literary merit or the sales value of New Zealand New Writing may be, it has completely failed to represent the type of writing in which the progressive movement is chiefly interested.
The society was evidently no more impressed by subsequent issues, for at its 1944 annual general meeting several criticisms were made along with a suggestion that the name be changed 'to prevent association with "Australian New Writing" and "English New Writing" as the latter publications were far superior in general content.' CCBS minutes of AGM, 27 Oct. 1943, minutes, 16 Oct. 1944 CCBS minutes, n Aug. 1944; J. Campbell, CZW, Jan. 1943 (v.i, n.12), p.[4]CB, Sept. 1944 (v.1, n.11), p.[6]CB, Sept. 1944 (v.1, n.11), p. [6], Oct. 1944 (v.1, n.12), p.[3]
There were other critics, however, who felt that New Zealand New Writing suffered from an overdose of grim social realism. Wrote a somewhat embattled editor in Co-op Books:
I am told ... it is too gloomy (Mr. James Harris); it does not reflect the life of these islands (Mr. Parkyn); it is a great job (Mr. Holcroft); it should not contain stories about consumptives (Mr. Harding); it should (Sydney Bulletin);... the poetry is good but the prose is bad; the prose is good but the poetry is incomprehensible . . .
I. Gordon,
'New Zealand New Writingand its Critics',CB,Nov. 1944 (v.1, n.13), p.1
In fact, one is more likely to be struck by a strong tone of nostalgia and romanticism than by overdone realism; stories of childhood experience are especially prevalent. Nevertheless, in the opinion of a number of its critics New Zealand New Writing was infused with a 'cult of gloom',
a little too slavishly imitative? I thought the trend in New Zealand literature would be deliberately aimed at establishing our own culture; this looks like an echo of John Lehmann. First thing we know we will have simply replaced the Holy Trinity of Spender, Auden, Isherwood with our own 'more English than the English'—Three Graces, Mason, Curnow, Sargeson. Don't encourage this neo-Sargeson cult too much.... Every second N.Z. writer is developing literary parsimony . . .
G. Ingham, 'N.Z. New Writing Criticised',
CBN,Feb. 1943 (v.1, n.13), p.[5]
This is, in fact, a curious comparison given the lack of obviously left-wing content in New Zealand New Writing, let alone that much of Auden and Isherwood's writing in the 1930s was hardly in the social realist genre of Sargeson to which the writer particularly objected. But W.J. Scott in a more perceptive review of the second issue also complained about the earnest and dreary tone of the first effort:
There is no doubt that No. 1 stank a bit. Faint, stale smells of the depression and the self-pitying 'thirties hung over it; words were too often second-hand and slightly rancid; its tone flat, grey, humourless and sour; the conversational-colloquial technique monotonously similar in too many stories.
He cautioned against what he called the 'dumb ox' technique which 'unless done with great skill as by Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson and Sargeson at their best . . . has serious defects.'CB, Nov. 1943 (v.1, n.1), p.6New Zealand New Writing located Sargeson within the context of the questions surrounding social realism and socialist realism in the 1930S-1940s. This perspective has to a large extent been lost in the subsequent reading of Sargeson in terms of the nationalist programme of identifying a distinctive New Zealand voice. New Zealand New Writing, in so far as it was an expression of cultural nationalism, was conceived, and received, as a medium for the publication of writing by New Zealanders rather than of a definably New Zealand writing.
The news was not all bad, however. The Labour Party's Standard, for example, one of the series' greatest fans, enthusiastically wrote of the Jackson-Thomas story: 'From a sociological point of view it is the finest document, probably, in which a New Zealander has epitomised (in this case with clarity and intensity) the suffering and ignominy inflicted on people through the inequities
Standard, 7 Jan. 1943, p.2Standard greeted New Zealand New Writing as a positive contribution to the war effort in a different sense:
'Literature is a cardinal feature of the civilisation we are in arms to defend. Looked at in that light, 'New Zealand New Writing' constitutes a snook cocked at totalitarianism; since an indication that we are in sound morale intellectually is as definite a rebuff to Goebbels as the defeat of the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain was to Goering or as the defeat of the Afrika Korps has been to Rommel.
Ibid.
While the other PPS manuscripts were chosen by the selection committee through a process of discussion and consultation, the selection for Gordon, 'In Memoriam "NZNW", New Zealand New Writing was the sole responsibility of the editor. Gordon, a self-confessed 'Tory' and the 'alien cuckoo in their nest',New Zealand Listener, 21 Jan. 1984 (v.106, n.2293), p.31; interview with author, 9 Dec. 1986Life and the Poet (1942). The selection criteria were literary merit, sincerity and 'contact with life. But life includes what goes on in the writer's head, not merely what is going on in the street outside'; 'Above all', he stated, 'I have avoided mere partisan writing'. From his point of view New Zealand New Writing was intended simply to provide 'one publication in this country in which writers (established and otherwise) could have printed their contributions of a literary nature.''New Zealand New Writing and its Critics'
What was envisaged by a number of the critics of both Griffin, 'Publishing and Distribution— Co-operative Efforts', New Zealand New Writing and the society's cultural publications as a whole was not only a literature of social comment and political commitment, but a 'proletarian literature' in the stricter sense of writing by the working class, about and for the working class. Co-operative Book News thought it necessary to point out that the proposed New Zealand New Writing would offer 'opportunities to writers of the middle class as well as the working class'.CBN, June 1942 (v.1, n.6), p.2; 'Recent N.Z. Publications', ibid., Oct. 1942 (v.1, n.10), p.[4]Co-op Books hoped that the Progressive Publishing Society would stimulate a 'popular' literature in a broader sense, a literature that would represent
the attitudes and values of New Zealanders now. Not just the vocal New Zealanders in universities and newspaper offices and Left Wing circles, but people in trams and pubs and milk bars, members of 'the Plunket' and helpers of 'the Patriotic', men in camp and girls in factories—what do we all live by?
And who are the writers who will interpret—in novels, in plays, in short stories—the New Zealand scene in the 1940's? This Culture',
CB,Dec. 1943 (v.1, n.2), p.1
In the case of New Zealand New Writing they were (as identified in the 'notes on contributors' in each volume): civil servants (9), teachers (8), journalists (4) and writers (4), academics (2), a filmmaker, a student, a clergyman, a bank officer, a farmer, a compositor, a gardener and a freezing worker and trade unionist. Four were identified as serving in the Armed Forces. They were predominantly, in other words, people 'in universities and newspaper offices and Left Wing circles'. New Zealand New Writing was no more popular in this respect than was the membership of the society's management committee.
Although there are insufficient records available to identify the contributors of all of the manuscripts received by the society, that comment may equally be applied to its authors generally. Most of them were already published writers, a fact which did not surprise one, F. Sargeson, correspondence, Tomorrow he had rejected Winston Rhodes' romantic notion of the 'worker-artist', of writers 'who work in mines and factories, and after knocking off, unless there's a political meeting on, or political work to do, they sit down and bang away at their typewriters and use up the energy that their fellow-workers let loose in being human in whatever way appeals to them most.'Tomorrow, 4 Aug. 1937 (v.3, n.20), p.632
New Zealand New Writing was, however, popular in another sense. The most successful of all the PPS publications, the first issue sold 5000 copies (its first edition oversold by 800), the others around 7000 each.
Ian Gordon's recollection of a conflict of interest between himself and the rest of the committee, and the strong dissatisfaction from some quarters over New Zealand New Writing and other publications, suggests that the society was rent by serious conflict, both within its management committee and within the wider constituency—the cooperative book movement—that it represented. This is not the recollection of all members, however. Opinions differ as to the depth and the balance of the division between the society's left-wing and its less politically-minded members. On the whole, it seems that the general desire to
For long we in New Zealand have felt the need of a medium through which our indigenous culture might be expressed. We have been the last of the Dominions to feel our own feet culturally. . . . a publishing society has been formed to make available New Zealand works for New Zealand people.
This society aims to publish books, pamphlets, verse, by New Zealanders on subjects which interest New Zealanders. The Society does not aim to make profits—it aims to be a progressive force in every field.
P. Martin-Smith , 'Dominion Writers. Chances Offered',Union Record,1 Aug. 1944 (v.5, n.2), p.3; Sutch, 'Publishing is Our Job',Rostrum,Aug. 1942, p.38
The terms 'progressive' and 'New Zealand' in this context were not mutually exclusive. The society's commitment to supporting an independent New Zealand literature was in itself progressive at a time when New Zealand was still largely a colonial culture. Its appearance was a symptom of and response to a need within a provincial cultural infrastructure.
A glance through the New Zealand National Bibliography at books published in the 1930s and 1940s indicates the gap there was in New Zealand publishing at this time in the areas of social, political and economic critique and cultural literature where the Progressive Publishing Society's interest lay. Items in these fields are scattered thinly amongst school and church jubilees, religious tracts, occasional local histories, books on flora and fauna, gardening and the like, many biographies and the occasional Communist Party pamphlet,
The years immediately prior to the establishment of the PPS had in fact seen a significant expansion in the publication of New Zealand books. In the years 1939 to 1940 the total number of books published nearly doubled, compared with a 30 per cent increase from 1937 to 1938 and a drop of 20 per cent in 1941. These figures were quoted by John Harris in an article in New Zealand Libraries in October 1942. Harris estimated that 21 per cent of titles published in the period 1936-41 were in the areas of 'politics, economics, law and sociology', representing less than 'science, technology and the useful arts' (the largest category at 32 per cent). Legal publishing made up a large part of this figure. The larger increases in the years 1939-40 were in the categories of literature, 'education, sports and pastimes' and reference, rather than in political, social and economic literature. Moreover, most material of this kind that was published was not the product of independent publishing efforts. Rather,
a large proportion of the material is the result of planned publication—books written not on the off-chance of publication by some printing or publishing firm, but at the special instigation of an institution or official body.
J. Harris, 'Book Publishing in New Zealand',
New Zealand Libraries,Oct. 1942 (v.6, n.3), p.43
These included the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, which was
The centennial publications of 1939-40 had been, in scale, the most significant publishing venture to date in the area of investigation of New Zealand society and culture. To mark the hundredth anniversary of European political sovereignty in New Zealand the government produced, along with an orchestra, a touring art exhibition, local music and drama festivals, parades, and the centrepiece centennial exhibition in Wellington, 30 publications in magazine format entitled Booker, ibid., p.15Making New Zealand. Pictorial Surveys of a Century, and the Historical Surveys, a series of 12 works of around 30,000 words each commissioned by the National Historical Committee. The centennial publications were motivated in a sense by the same object that Making New Zealand. Pictorial Surveys of a Century, v.1, introduction, quoted in Letters and Art in New Zealand, New Zealand in the World, The Discovery of New Zealand and Oliver Duff's New Zealand Now.
The centennial publishing programme was to become the basis of the War History Branch and Historical Publications Branch of the Department of Internal Affairs, and can be seen as the precursor of the New Zealand Literary Fund and Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. To point out the limitations of a government-sponsored exercise of this kind is not to deny its long-term significance, both in giving an impetus to New Zealand historical writing and as an experiment in state cultural funding, nor the quality of several of the historical surveys, notably those by Wood and McCormick. The subject of religion was dropped from the Historical Surveys series as too contentious, and a chapter on the Waikato land confications excised from James Cowan's Ibid, p.37 Ibid., pp.37-49Pioneers and Settlers. Government in New Zealand and McCormick's Letters and Art in New Zealand were submitted by the editorial committee to the Prime Minister before publication (the latter because of concern about 'the extended discussion given to John A. Lee's novels'Poverty and Progress in New Zealand; the first (revised) version was published in England the following year as The Quest for Security in New Zealand.
The non-fiction publishing of Whitcombe and Tombs and A.H. and Thistledown (1935), a volume of three poems by Denis Glover, and Three Poems by Allen Curnow (1935) were published in editions of 40 and 50 respectively. Glover's Thirteen Poems (1939) was published in an edition of 30, 15 of which were for sale. Included in Caxton's 1941 catalogue were limited editions of Nastagio and the Obdurate Lady, a tale from The Decameron, with 15 out of a print run of 25 for sale, and The Adventures of Chanticleer and Partlet in an edition of 50. Its projected market was clearly different from that envisaged by the Progressive Publishing Society with print runs of 5000 for its topical pamphlets, and higher for New Zealand New Writing.
An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand. Wellington: Government Printer, 1966, v.2, pp.884-6; The House of Reed. Fifty Years of Publishing. Wellington: A.H. and The Caxton Press. Some Impressions and a Bibliography. Wellington: Belthane Book Bureau, 1951
Harris's figures also showed the small amount of 'imaginative' literature being published. Fiction, poetry and drama constituted 11 per cent of books published in this period (1936-41), and the bulk of New Zealand publishing at this time was of 'informative' works. Caxton, small and discriminating, was the only significant medium of literary publishing. Whitcombe's published novels only occasionally, approaching this area with extreme caution. In general New
Bookseller, 3418, 26 June 1971, p.2596Tomorrow, was there a national journal which provided a regular forum for the publication of serious short fiction and poetry. The New Zealand Listener, founded in 1939, printed a small amount of verse and fiction, mostly light and humorous; it was not to develop as a significant medium of literary publishing until Book—a 'miscellany' of 'Articles. Fiction. Poems. Satire. Criticism. Engravings'Book, 2, May 1941, title page
The Progressive Publishing Society also filled a vacuum in providing an outlet for the 'mute inglorious Miltons and the village Hampdens'. As well as publishing work by 'established' writers such as Curnow, Fairburn and Holcroft the society apparently tapped a vein of aspiring literati. In the 12 months to April 1944 it received 'over 200 manuscripts' according to Freedom to Publish, excluding those submitted for New Zealand New Writing. New Zealand New Writing alone attracted over the same period 523 contributions. Co-op Books recorded that 30-40 manuscripts were received each week. A gradual shift in the balance of non-fiction and literary titles published by the society, with an increasing proportion of literary titles, may have reflected the nature of the manuscripts it was receiving as the society became better known. The desire to maintain an even balance was expressed more than once by the management committee and by the national conference.
Even allowing for a publisher's customary exaggeration, these figures are significant. They reflect, quite simply, the small amount of New Zealand publishing at this time. The initial success of the society in financial terms further attests to the opportunity there was for New Zealand publishing and bookselling. Between January 1942 and February 1943 the society achieved total sales of £2230 and was distributing 34 New Zealand publications. Publicity material was carried in 57 publications, and 70 shops were added to its distribution list over November-December 1942, contributing to a total of 300 agents by February 1944. The society was also represented in Australia by the firm Robertson and Mullens, though without great success (it was intended to circularise the Australian book trade direcdy in future). Between January and December 1943 monthly turnover increased from £144 to £1300. Gross sales, of imports and PPS publications, totalled £9000-9500 in 1943, £9600 in the 1944-5 financial year.
The timing of the venture was a major factor in the positive response to the Progressive Publishing Society. The strong market for books generally in the mid war years has been commented on in the previous chapter. The particular demand for topical pamphlets which was experienced by the cooperative bookshops is also reflected in sales of PPS publications of this kind. In June 1943 Gordon, 'In Memoriam "NZNW" L. Strahan, Britain Marches with Russia had sold 5000 copies, Sutch's Workers and the War Effort 2500 (slightly disappointing—5000 were printed) and Fascist Japan 2000. War was not the only subject which sold: the society had also sold 5000 copies of Venereal Disease. The Shadow over New Zealand War conditions, along with import licensing restrictions, provided a boost for local publishing as well as bookselling. As Ian Gordon later commented on the success of New Zealand New Writing, 'reading matter (to put it no higher) was like everything else in short supply'.Just City and the Mirrors. Meanjin Quarterly and the Intellectual Front, 1945-1965. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1984, p.41
The collapse of the Progressive Publishing Society turned out to be as spectacular as its initial success. From a deficit of £41 in April 1944 it ended the year to February 1945 with a net trading loss of £1075. By the end of March it had debts of over £852 to overseas publishers and £240 locally. Half of the initial capital had been lost. The extent to which it was able to meet its commitments was estimated at 5/- in the pound. A crisis report on the society in May 1945 reflected: 'What is lacked in cash it had tried to make up in enthusiasm and audacity.' 'Crisis in PPS Affairs', CB, May 1945 (v.2, n.5), p.1
By late 1944 the cooperative book societies were becoming concerned about the threat to their own survival posed by the publishing society's increasingly apparent financial problems. During 1944 the Wellington and Auckland societies had been sending all of their new capital to the PPS. In December that year the WCBS sought a legal opinion on the extent of its liability for any PPS losses; it was informed that the three partners were individually and collectively
Like the cooperative book societies, the publishing society's major financial problem was undercapitalisation. Chairman Ian Mackay warned in December 1944 that the society needed either greatly increased turnover or 'several thousand pounds' more capital if it was to survive. Its application for a £1000 bank overdraft had been turned down as it could not provide guarantors. Instead it would have to either mount a campaign for more share capital or try to raise a loan. Mackay to secretary, WCBS,9 Dec. 1944. WCBS Papers: 7; 'A Challenging Proposal', Fenton to secretary, WCBS, 31 Mar. 1944. WCBS Papers: 6; J. Finlay, secretary, PPS to branch secretaries, [nd]. WCBS Papers: 6 'Share Campaign in Auckland', CB, Jan. 1945 (v.2, n.1), p.1Freedom to Publish booklet (published for the society by Whitcombe and Tombs) which was distributed free to prospective members, identified as 'people with radical tendencies or who are interested in New Zealand literature', the holding of literary competitions, and the setting of monthly membership quotas for each of the shops. These quotas were to be met through public meetings, circularising organisations such as the Society for Closer Relations with Russia, the Rationalist Association, trade unions, the Communist Party, Labour Party branches and literary, art and dramatic circles, and involving 'influential or active persons from circles of people we want to become members:—Trade Unionists, Intellectuals, Professional classes, etc' in membership campaign committees. It was hoped 'to break new ground in a big way among trade union membership' through publicity in 'the progressive press'.CB, Jan. 1944 (v.1, n.3), p.3
The results of this campaign numbered in the hundreds rather than the thousands: 390 new members and £490 capital had been attained by August 1944. A particularly poor showing from the South Island reflected the weaker financial position of the Dunedin and Christchurch shops. Among the debts owed to the society at the end of 1944 were sums totalling more than £1000 by the co-op bookshops themselves, most of which was owed by the Co-op Bookshop and Dunedin Modern Books. The society also secured two small loans of £30 and £50 in 1943, but these efforts were not enough to offset a substantial trading loss on its publications, increasing overhead expenses, and further losses through over-ordering in the 1944-5 financial year.
An auditor's report prepared at the request of the WCBS management
Report of auditor, V.P. O'Kane, 9 Feb. 1945, p.1. Modern Books, Dunedin, Papers, 1944-55. Ms Papers 711. Hocken Library Manager's report to the 1944 conference, [Oct. 1944], pp.6, 2-3. Dunedin Modern Books Papers
The auditor concluded that £2000 more capital was needed to cover the current publishing programme. This should be raised by increasing turnover through an increase in imports, 'concentrating on quick-selling lines', rather than in the society's own publications, and promoting 'backwinners', that is, strong-selling PPS titles. Auditor's report, 9 Feb. 1945, p.1 Manager's report to 1944 conference, p.6Medical Advice from a Backblocks Hospital and the import The Socialist Sixth of the World came into the category of'books for which there is a steady demand' (the latter pamphlet had sold 22,000 copies in New Zealand at June 1943); such books were necessary if the society was to become 'permanently established and accepted in the publishing world and by the trade generally'.
In March 1945 the society rejected the advice of its own auditor, its acting manager and an investigating accountant that it go into voluntary liquidation,
PPS management committee minutes, 20 Mar. 1945. WCBS Papers: 14
breathing space . . . [which] will be used to develop a technique of control in which those two features of successful co-operative enterprise—sound business economy and the freest possible play for the democratic and idealistic impulses . . . —will be effectively and harmoniously combined.
'Crisis in PPS Affairs'
The committee's commitment to the ideal was laudable but its optimism misplaced. A final decision to wind up the society was made in July 1945 following the advice of the Auckland and Wellington shops that they were no longer prepared to jeopardise their own survival to support the publishing society. The Wellington Co-operative Book Society reflected in its annual report for that year: 'The co-operative bookshops have paid rather dearly for their experiment in the publishing business, but it was a gallant effort and there are some good things to show for it.' WCBS annual report, 1945. WCBS Papers: 13
In the aftermath, criticism and recrimination were directed particularly at Harold Fenton, who had resigned in conflict with the committee in February 1945. Fenton was criticised for general bad management and for over-ordering, particularly in the area of children's books on which the society made substantial losses. It must be noted, however, that none of those involved in the PPS had prior experience in publishing. In a report to his own society Progressive Books' chairman 'Faith in Co-operative Publishing. Wellington Meeting', 'Keynote to Conference', CB,June 1945 (v.2, n.6), p. [3]; manager's report to 1944 conference, p.6CB, Dec. 1944 (v.1, n.14),p.[1]
lost our money, published the wrong books, refused to publish the right books, published the dearest books in New Zealand, and distributed them by the worst system ever devised for any concern in the country.
'Faith in Co-operative Publishing', p. [3]
His view that the PPS published the most expensive books in New Zealand is not entirely fair, although criticism on this point was also recorded in the manager's report of 1944. Their prices compare not unfavourably with those of the Caxton Press. Caxton's Associated Booksellers of New Zealand. Minutes, 26 Jan. 1944. Associated Booksellers of New Zealand. Minute book, 1931-8. Ms y 1075. Alexander Turnbull Library; booklists of co-op bookshops, printed in 'National Conference of Progressive Publishing Society' Mackay to secretary, WCBS, 9 Dec. 1944; Recent Poems (1941) was priced at 5/- while Curnow's Sailing or Drowningby the PPS (1943) cost 6/6. A Present for Hitler and other versesby Whim Wham (1940) published by Caxton at 3/- compares with Whim Wham, 1943 by the PPS at 3/6. A small number of PPS publications were cheap reprints of Caxton editions, such as Frank Sargeson's A Man and His Wife (4/-; first, Caxton edition 6/-) and Frederick Sinclaire's Lend Me YourEars (5/-; Caxton edition 7/6). By contrast, hardback novels published in Britain were priced upwards of 10/- in New Zealand in 1944, and the PPS's poetry volumes were on a par with, for example, Forty Poems by John Lehmann at 6/6 or Some Poems by 4/6.CB
The Waiting Hills (1943). The centennial Pictorial Surveys priced at 5/- each were 'well within the reach of the average buyer, although still too expensive for the younger readers'; by contrast, the average price for New Zealand classics—works by Robert McNab, Guthrie Smith or Adventure in New Zealand could be bought for 15/-; The Long White Cloud for 16/6; Guthrie Smith's Tutira for 50/-. These were books which, in Holcroft's opinion, 'should be obtainable in all bookshops at prices so low that every wage earner could afford to keep them on his own shelves.'The Discovered Isles. A Trilogy. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1950, pp.183, 181CB, Dec. 1944 (v.1, n.14), p.[3]Islands of Danger which ran to 212 pages and was illustrated cost 15/6.
Fenton came in for particular criticism for over-ordering children's books, while the society made considerable losses on its children's publishing, although a few titles were strong sellers. Its failures in this area, though, must be considered in the context of Whitcombe and Tombs' and Reed's domination of the school textbook market, and in the light of the observation later made by Reed, The House ofReed, p.32
As the society's contingency plans—such as reprinting popular novels— suggest, the question of 'right' books and 'wrong' books could be posed in political or market terms with contrary implications. The critic who objected to the proportion of 'highbrow' material in the PPS's 1945 publishing programme urged a 'drastic' change in policy which would limit publication to 'winners', making profit 'the chief concern for a considerable time'. Unsigned letter to Mackay, 'A Challenging Proposal'
Don't let's kid ourselves that the retail trade is queueing up to handle all our present publications. Many retailers consider that we are merely peddling political pamphlets with only a limited appeal and as a result are not keen on giving us orders.
Ibid.
One committee member blamed the society's collapse on 'an undiluted succession of propaganda books which could not pay their way.' 'Faith in Co-operative Publishing', p. [3]
imports should be chiefly concerned with popular progressive material for the encouragement of retail sales of an improved character, (a) We also think a conservative policy on imports is advisable, but recognise that to secure widest contacts for distribution of better class literature, we must have a fair proportion of more popular matter of cheap quality.
'National Conference of Progressive Publishing Society'
The chairman's statement quoted above on the PPS's reputation amongst booksellers was made in reference to 'propagandist' pamphlet literature, such as Sid Scott's Manager's report to 1944 conference, p.2Socialist Theory of the State and the Soviet Union and Historical Background of the World Labour Movement, and imports such as Britain Marches with Russia. But it is likely that the market was as resistant to 'proletarian' or socialist realist literature. No doubt to the frustration and embarrassment of its critics, New Zealand New Writing was the most successful of the society's publications financially: 'The success, from the sales point of view, of "New Writing"', observed the manager, 'has made possible the publication of other works which have not paid their way.'Tales for Pippa, a children's book, had sold 1570 and Verse by New Zealand Children, which had been singled out for criticism, had sold 1635, compared with 250 of Allen Curnow's Sailing or Drowning and 370 of Anton Vogt's Poems for a War. Curnow did slightly better with Whim Wham, 1943 which had sold 950. Clearly there was a limited market for serious literary material. It is unlikely therefore that a volume of political poetry such as The Vltava Still Sings or Frederick Ost's Three Essays on Czech Poets would have found a more extensive market than these. In the light of these comments, and of the left-wing political and populist ideals which motivated some members of the Progressive Publishing Society, the following lines from a poem in The Vltava Still Sings read with some irony:
I follow the future which is centred in the industrial quarters in the mining districts in the suburbs through which are marching future readers of poems. J. Noha, Tomorrow', in Ost and Meek,
The Vltava Still Sings,pp.45-6
It was the Czechoslovak poetry which Eileen Coyne of Progressive Books cited as an example of the serious, dull, academic-looking books produced by the Progressive Publishing Society which were the most difficult to sell. The PPS shared with the Caxton Press and Bob Lowry an interest in typography, although not of such a flamboyant style, which was more appropriate for Milton's Beaglehole, 'The Work of the Typographical Committee', Areopagitica or Curnow's Three Poems than for Wool Marketing or Slums of Auckland. CB, Nov. 1944 (v.1, n.13), p.[2]
Critics of the society's cultural publications on the grounds of their lack of political content would have been even less encouraged by the fact that, not only did such material apparently not sell well, but (unsurprisingly) the society did not receive an abundance of literary manuscripts of a political nature—no New Zealand Manager's report to 1944 conference, p.2 'Conference Notes', R. Gilberd, correspondence, Cwmardys or Waiting for Leftys. As the manager commented on the New Zealand New Writing controversy: 'While many of our members feel that a greater proportion of the articles should have some social content, it must be remembered that this type of MSS. is rarely received.'CB, Jan. 1945 (v.2, n.1), pp.[2-3]New Zealand New Writing, which were two of the more perceptive and critical contributions to the series, and written by an author who had been in the country for only a few years. (Nor, for that matter, would such critics have been gratified by the reaction of one New Writing contributor—the freezing worker and union member—who objected to a 'political' reading of his work. His story, 'The Woods No More', which describes the monotonous, purely physical work of tree-felling and the need of the worker for some intellectual stimulation, was not intended to be a commentary on 'a collective problem, of bringing culture to outback workers', he advised, but rather an attempt 'to picture the revolt of an individual from the fascination of a life that, for him, was only a half-life.'CB, Nov. 1944 (v.1, n.13), p.[3]
In so far as it developed out of a conjunction of left-wing and nationalist
New Zealand New Writing and Verse by New Zealand Children and for the more affordable 9d pamphlets of topical interest. It received manuscripts in abundance simply because there was so little New Zealand publishing at the time, and probably most of them were neither socialist in content nor 'popular' in intent.
In accounting for the failure of the Progressive Publishing Society one must also consider that, unlike other New Zealand publishers in this period, the PPS had no significant financial base independent of publishing. The Caxton Press, by contrast, had the financial support of its printing business. Whitcombe and Tombs was also based on printing, as well as bookselling, and on the large and steady market of school textbooks. Reed's retained its initial basis in Sunday School literature. The centennial publications were funded by the government. Paul's Book Arcade (later Blackwood and Janet Paul Ltd) was founded upon a long-established family bookselling business. The 1940s also saw the beginning of university publishing in New Zealand. The short life of the New Zealand University Press, which was founded in 1946 and 'unfortunately and unnecessarily slain' Beaglehole, 'From Bookshop Assistant to O.M.', p.2596New Zealand Libraries, Jan.-Feb. 1963 (v.26, n.1), pp.1-18
The cooperative bookshops, by contrast, hardly represented a secure financial base. The Progressive Publishing Society was thus left more exposed than its
When the affairs of the society were wound up its import licence and remaining stock were distributed amongst the four cooperative book societies. This became a matter of some debate when the Wellington society objected to the liquidator's decision to include Dunedin Modern Books in the setdement, even though the Dunedin society had never legally joined the partnership and had therefore sustained no financial loss from its demise. The WCBS apologised for its 'dog in the manger' attitude, but explained that it was forced to take this position because of the severe difficulties it was facing in extricating itself financially from the publishing society's collapse. (Eventually agreement was reached over Dunedin receiving a portion of the publishing society's import licence.) The Wellington society had lost £1500 in the PPS. Other factors, such as tenancy problems, aggravated its difficulties at this time and in addition to selling its library it was forced to take out a bank overdraft and seek an indemnity from its shareholders to enable it to clear its PPS debt by the end of 1946. Progressive Books lost £1400 in the venture. It paid off the bulk of its debt from its share capital account, by asking each member holding multiple shares to forfeit all but one share to cover the loss. For the book societies the Progressive Publishing Society had indeed been a costly experiment.
Publications in press when the society folded were taken over by Blackwood Paul. One lasting influence of the Progressive Publishing Society was thus in providing the basis for one of New Zealand's longest surviving independent publishers. In addition to the books that appeared under its own imprint the PPS had also initiated at least two of the most significant New Zealand literary publications of the 1940s: Sargeson's Speaking for Ourselves anthology and Curnow's seminal A Book of New Zealand Verse.
While Blackwood Paul in a sense took up where the PPS left off, others were not so inspired by the experience. The Christchurch Co-operative Book Society did venture back into publishing on an occasional basis in the second half of the 1940s, with Secretary, WCBS to The Challenge to New Zealand Labour by Dudley Seers, published, after cautious consideration, in 1946, and Fools' Carnival, cartoons by Kennaway Henderson, in 1949. The Wellington society did not regain its interest in publishing until the 1950s, and then only cautiously, considering manuscripts as
A. Curnow, introduction to Curnow to Curnow, 'The Poetry of Collected Poems. Christchurch: Pegasus Press, 1962, p.9A Book of New Zealand Verse Curnow described the final lines of Mason's 'Sonnet of Brotherhood'— 'here in this far-pitched perilous hostile place. . . fixed at the friendless outer edge of space'—as the most explicit statement in the poetry of this period of the New Zealander's unique sense of isolation. Thus he identified Mason as 'the first among New Zealand poets'R.A.K Mason. Wellington: Oxford University Press, 1977, p.56Book, 2, May 1941
Of the 'Consumer Co-operatives in Auckland', 'Phoenix group' Mason was also the most strongly influenced by the left-wing intellectual climate of these years. The commonly accepted story is that Mason's political commitment drew him away from poetry into politics, and to an extent this is true. Most of his poetry was written in the 1920s, and is contained in the volumes In the Manner of Men (1923), The Beggar (1924), Penny Broadsheet (1925) and No New Thing Poems, 1924-29 (1934). The 1936 volume End of Day contained only five poems, and his next and final volume of poetry did not appear until 1941. The 30s and 40s saw Mason occupied primarily in political and trade union work. He joined the Communist Party in the early 1930s, wrote regularly for the Workers' Weekly and the People's Voice and was editor of In Print, which replaced the banned Peoples Voice between 1941 and 1943. He was an executive member of the Auckland Builders' and General Labourers' Union,
Challenge from 1944 to 1948 and editor of Congress News for the New Zealand Trade Union Congress in 1950. He was also active in the consumers' cooperative movement as secretary of the Metropolitan Co-operative Alliance formed in Auckland in 1937.Borer, June 1937 (v.1, n.6), p.6;
From the mid 1930s Mason sought to synthesise his political and literary interests, principally in the medium of theatre. Mason is a curious absence from the catalogue of the Progressive Publishing Society. For just as the PPS can be seen as a practical experiment in creating a popular, progressive New Zealand culture, and brings together the left-wing and nationalist cultural themes of this period, Mason holds a central place in both of these movements. And like the PPS he too had a vision of a popular New Zealand culture.
The outspoken political voice first heard in Mason's two issues of Weir, Harley, 'Phoenix magazine in 1933 was expressed in a few poems from the 1930s such as 'Youth at the Dance', In Manus Tuas Domine' and 'Stoic Overthrow', in the 'Prelude' to This Dark Will Lighten from 1941 and the later 'Sonnet to MacArthur's Eyes' (1950). The poet signalled this change when he told Frank Sargeson some time in the early 1930s that 'he would find it impossible to stand up in public and defend the poetry he had written', and in his often-quoted comment to Denis Glover in 1937, that he hoped 'to bring my artistic feelings into line with my intellectual knowledge' and 'to publish some reasonably decent proletarian stuff., Islands, June 1980 (v.8,n.2), p.164; Creative Writing in New Zealand. A Brief Critical History. Auckland: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1946, p.34R.A.K Mason, pp.58, 45, 44Collected Poems of Education, July 1963 (v.12, n.6), p.17Collected Poems of Education, July 1963 (v.12, n.6), p.17Comment, 16, July 1963 (v.4, n.4), p.38
In the preface to his verse drama script China (1943), Mason questioned the distinction between poetry and politics which the critical judgements quoted above maintain:
If our poets studied dramatic needs, then not only would that art perhaps benefit, but also it might act as a cross-fertilising agent on poetry: which— despite Verlaine and even possibly at the cost of a slight rash of 'O, Liberty's— could profit by a little rhetoric with its resulting comprehensibility.
Later he again explicitly rejected the idea that poetry should be private, introspective, and by implication apolitical:
There are, of course, those who insist on judging all forms of expression in verse by principles applicable to poetry intended for printing only and who fail to consider that any such expression may be intended for any other purpose. . . . For my own part, I cannot agree with this, nor, indeed, tolerate those Jeremiahs of poetry who, often with protestations of regret, prophesy a continual narrowing in theme and purpose until ultimately nothing shall be left save a wisp to blow away with the wind. . . . On the contrary, I still consider that poetry should break the charmed circle to seek its ancient allies of music, drama and oratory."
It was in theatre, and in particular verse drama, an integration of poetic and dramatic forms, that Mason sought a cultural form consistent with his political ideals. The theatre was a public, dynamic, participatory art form, and thus inherently a social and political practice:
The drama, more than any other art, calls for popular stimulation, for cooperation between artists, technicians, audience and the whole community, perpetually re-creating a centre of energy, which is at once a recipient and source of social stimulus.
Mason, 'Mr Kerridge Tries Culture',
Landfall,Mar. 1948 (v.2, n.1), p.35
From 1936 to 1939, Mason put his creative energies into the People's Theatre.
The event which sparked the formation of the People's Theatre was a production of Waiting for Lefty by the Auckland WEA Dramatic Club, in October 1936—the first production of this play in New Zealand. The WEA Dramatic Club had already made its mark in theatrical circles with the choice of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard far its 1932 annual production, followed the next year by Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, and Toller's Masses and Man in 1934. The club was founded in 1929, and joined in 1932 by producer Arnold Goodwin, the director of design and applied art at Elam School of Art and formerly producer with the Auckland Little Theatre Society. Goodwin had come to New Zealand just before the first world war, having trained and worked as an artist in London, Paris and New York and with theatrical experience gained with the Birmingham Repertory Society. From 1918 he worked as a commercial artist in Auckland before being appointed director at Elam in 1935.
He was to be a major influence in Auckland theatre for many years, as a member of the Auckland Drama Council and with his Goodwin Marionette Theatre as well as with the WEA Dramatic Club. See P. Harcourt, A Dramatic Appearance. New Zealand Theatre 1920-1970. Wellington: Methuen, 1978, pp.54-5, 85-7;
The club was disbanded after a fire in the WEA's Symonds Street premises in 1949, and was not re-established until some time in the 1950s (with a completely different character), but before then it had produced a series of contemporary and progressive plays which were, for the New Zealand drama world of the 1930S-1940S, quite revolutionary. Its repertoire included many of the most popular plays and major playwrights of the international left theatre in this period: Sean O'Casey's 'Penetrating Satire. Coming W.E.A. Production', Juno and the Paycock, O'Neill's The Hairy Ape, The Insect Play by the brothers Capek, Chekhov's The Seagull, Odets' Golden Boy, Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and The Moon is Down; Bury the Dead by Irvine Shaw, The Beautiful People by William Saroyan and the Russian play Distant Point (Afinogenov). It was also notable for its production of New Zealand plays: Squire Speaks (performed in 1938), and two plays by former Auckland University College drama student Cartoon (1939), his only full-length play, a satire on 'the shams of our present-day systems and sacred institutions',People's Voice, 3 Nov. 1939, p.8. Programmes for productions of the Auckland WEA drama group in this period are held in Ephemera Collection: Theatre, 1940s. Auckland Institute and Museum Library; and by M. Lusty.
B. Mason, 'New Stages in Theatre', Waiting for Lefty was the most politically radical of the WEA's productions. But the motivation and policy of the group was less political than cultural. Its programme represented a reaction against the conservative theatrical culture offered by Auckland's amateur dramatic societies—a monotonous diet of British West End comedy and drawing room drama, relieved only by the occasional Shakespeare—which was representative of amateur theatre in New Zealand. Since the late 1920s New Zealand had supported a thriving amateur dramatic movement, and in the 30s and 40s scores of provincial and suburban groups took part in the regional competitions held annually by the New Zealand branch of the British Drama League. This organisation, formed in 1932, provided the cultural as well as institutional framework for New Zealand amateur drama, before the establishment in 1945 of the New Zealand Drama Council. The development of the amateur movement followed the depression and the arrival of the 'Talkies' in 1928, which together brought to an end the era of the large professional touring companies from Britain and America. Since the 1880s these companies had toured New Zealand as part of the Australian entertainment circuit, and their departure left a large hole in the cultural life of the country which local initiative was forced to fill. By the end of the 1930s every reasonable-sized town supported an amateur dramatic society, and 'Cockney
New Zealand's Heritage, part 95, p.2645
The dramatic scene in Auckland was only a slight improvement on this picture. The principal amateur societies in Auckland were the Grafton Shakespeare and Dramatic Club, which had a respectable history dating back to 1912, the Little Theatre Society and the Auckland Repertory Theatre. The Litde Theatre was founded in 1925, and was described by R. Bowie, quoted in Harcourt, Fairburn. Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1984, p.44A Dramatic Appearance, p. 55The Ascent of F6, The Moon in the Yellow River by Denis Johnston (an Irish 'problem play') and Coppard's 'Sordid Story', another expressionist work. However, Rattigan, Sheriff and 'off-Broadway' plays were more representative of its repertoire.
In this context of theatrical mediocrity a play like O'Neill's The Hairy Ape was controversial, and gained for the WEA Dramatic Club a reputation for being innovative or radical. Commented the WEA's annual report for that year:
the resulting arguments in the drawing room and at the street corner have not come as a complete surprise. Quite inevitably some people did not 'like' the play. Others could not see what it was all about. Others again, including some experienced critics, regarded it as the best W.E.A. production to date.
Workers' Educational Association, Dominion of NZ. Nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first annual reports for the years ending 31st October 1933-45,p.31
The WEA club benefited not only from Arnold Goodwin's innovative choice of plays but from his skills as an artist as well, for it also made its mark with high technical standards. F.S., 'Notes By The Way', Ibid., pp.72-3;F.S., correspondence, ibid., 5 Jan. 1939 (v.5, n.5), p.16oThe Insect Play (1938) was described by Frank Sargeson in Tomorrow as 'a stunning production'.Tomorrow, 7 Dec. 1938 (v.5, n.3), p.73Juno and the Paycock or Strindberg's The Father as more to his liking.
The People's Theatre was formed with a more specific objective than its progenitor: the production of radical political theatre of the Lefty kind. Mason had been engaged by WEA director Lefty in October 1936. Under a block
Reviews of the production were generally favourable and audience response enthusiastic. One reviewer saw it as an example of 'what a powerful factor the stage can be in education, industrial, social and cultural'. News clipping, in Waiting for Lefty Scrapbook. Mason Papers: 5 Mason Papers: 5 'People's Theatre', New Zealand Herald, 2 Nov. 1936, p.14Lefty producer Arnold Goodwin and representatives of the WEA and the trade union movement. Out of this meeting the People's Theatre was formed.
The constitution of the People's Theatre stated as its object:
a mass development of the Theatre to its highest social level: for a theatre dedicated to the struggle against all forms of reaction, such as war, fascism, censorship, and other interferences with democratic rights.
Rules of Peoples Theatre Incorporated, 23 Dec. 1936. People's Theatre. Papers. NZ Ms 821: folder 1. Auckland Public Library
As its name implies the People's Theatre was conceived as both political theatre and popular theatre: a cultural organisation which would be 'owned and controlled by the people'. People's Theatre enrolment card. Mason Papers: 5
This constitution allows for the ownership and control of the organisation by the people of New Zealand (i.e., the workers, farmers, artisans, small shopkeepers, intellectuals, unemployed and professional men), on the broadest and most democratic mass-basis.
E. Smee, correspondence,
Tomorrow,11 Oct. 1939 (v.5, n.25), p.800; People's Theatre. Programme,Waiting for Lefty,Dec. 1936. Ephemera Collection: Theatre, 1930s. Alexander Turnbull Library
Primarily, however, it was seen as a working class theatre. The advertisement for the inaugural meeting expressed its aim as
encouraging the production of plays with a special working class interest, focusing the efforts of dramatic groups in trade unions and other working class organisations, providing a clearing house of information and expert guidance for such groups, [and] encouraging the writing of plays by such groups.
People's Theatre. Leaflet, [Oct. 1936]. Mason Papers: 5
A second, irregular meeting on 3 November, convened by Mason and chaired by university Professor of English Arthur Sewell, agreed upon structural mechanisms by which to 'ensure proper Trade Union representation on the Committee', which, it was felt, had not been adequately established at the inaugural meeting. Bill Deuchar, an electrical worker, was nominated as interim secretary and Mason as organiser, and the organisation's political objectives—to 'encourage and organise the writing and production of plays which shall have significance in social change'—reaffirmed. Mason, convenor, 'to members of the Constitution Committee'; minutes of meeting held at WEA, 3 Nov. 1936. Mason Papers: 5
The constitution formally adopted at the next scheduled meeting five days later (attended by around 50) provided for a democratic structure and formal relationship with the labour movement. The theatre's executive committee would be 'elected by ordinary members and by delegates from the affiliated Trades Unions. The executive sitting together with the Trades Union delegates form the Grand Council which is the governing body of the theatre.' Manuscript notes. Mason Papers: 5People's Theatre Magazine, Dec. 1939 (v.1, n.1), p.15
The People's Theatre could jusdy claim, in terms of its affiliated membership, to be a workers' theatre. In all 13 unions affiliated: watersiders, boilermakers, coachworkers, Auckland district labourers, local bodies labourers, painters, plasterers, carpenters and joiners, tramwaymen, electrical workers, the Otahuhu branch of the ASRS (railwaymen), the Institute of Marine and Power Engineers, and the Locomotive Engineers, Firemen and Cleaners Association. The Mount Albert branch of the Labour Party and the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Youth Council also joined. Membership records (which are not complete) show a majority of workers, trade union members and union officials among the theatre's general membership and delegates: of an undated membership list which records 82 names, some 80 per cent of those who can be identified were workers or trade unionists. The cast of the theatre's 1937 production of Odets' Letter to V. Arnold, secretary, Sydney New Theatre League, 27 July 1937. People's Theatre Papers: 1Till the Day I Die was said to have been chosen 'mostly from Trade Unionists'.Waiting for Lefty. In a speech to a People's Theatre meeting Mason suggested that the stronger initiative came not from the workers or trade unionists but from those of professional or middle class background. The original group of people involved in the Lefty production, he observed,
included a good sprinkling of proletarians but was not dominated by them. It was left to the intellectuals to ensure the 'hegemony of the proletariat' both on the Constitution Committee and our General Council.
Manuscript notes. Mason Papers: 5
While the theatre's constitution ensured a significant trade union representation on the executive committee, the main executive positions were on the whole not held by workers. Of the second committee, elected in May 1937, AJ.C. Fisher was president, Sewell, Singer and Shreeve vice-presidents, and Deuchar secretary. Fisher resigned from the presidency in January 1938, partly because of pressure of work but also because of the 'exceedingly democratic form of control' which he found 'exceedingly irksome'.
Along with its political agenda, 'the struggle against all forms of reaction', the People's Theatre also expressed a commitment to the art of drama itself, a commitment which was indeed integral to the popular and political ideals of a people's theatre in Mason's conception. At the inaugural meeting,
All the speakers pointed out the value of such a movement to the working classes, who without it had no prospect of anything save a decadent ruling class art which has no connection with life as they knew it. The Peoples Theatre Movement would enable them to participate in dramatic productions of a high order, which set forth their own ideas and ideals, and thus to revivify the dramatic art as well as to educate themselves.
New Zealand Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic Review,11 Nov. 1936, quoted inWaiting for Leftyprogramme, Dec. 1936.
Furthermore, Mason was expressly concerned that 'every effort be made to concentrate on offering first-class entertainment and that no person be allowed to turn a function into a political meeting.' Manuscript notes. Mason Papers: 5
The group's more ambitious plans included acquiring a theatre with paid technical staff and establishing a library. It was intended to approach for assistance organisations of workers, soldiers, farmers, churches, friendly societies and returned soldiers ('in this order'), and eventually the government. It was Mason's hope that within a few years, 'barring the advent of war or fascism', the People's Theatre would have grown to become a national movement. Ibid.
Mason's qualification was prophetic, and the People's Theatre did not live long enough to see these ambitions realised. It did, however, produce a People's Theatre Magazine, 'a humble cyclostyled effort' of 16 pages which appeared in December 1939. This was intended to be the first, but in the event was the only issue of a monthly magazine for the purpose of
publishing news of progressive theatre in New Zealand and linking local activities with realist drama in the international sphere. . . . [to] not only help to develop public interest in the movement throughout this country but also establish a bond of friendly association and enthusiastic competition between the various workers dramatic groups.
People's Theatre Magazine,p.1
Its contents surveyed the international left theatre movement with which the People's Theatre identified itself, with articles on London's Unity Theatre, Clifford Odets and theatre in the Soviet Union, and quotations from Hallie Flanagan (director of the American Federal Theatre), John Allen (president of the Left Book Club Theatre Guild), George Bernard Shaw and Maxim Gorki. Promised material for the next issue included 'The theatre art of Stanislavski, 'The rise of the Federal Art Theatre in America', 'Documentary film and its relation to realist theatre', 'Chinese revolutionary drama', and 'The theatre in New Zealand: history and perspectives'.
Just over half of the People's Theatre productions were from the repertoire of the British and American left theatre. The group regularly corresponded with and received scripts from the Sydney New Theatre League and was affiliated to the Left Book Club Theatre Guild in London. It opened with three performances of 'Working Class Play', 'People's Theatre Success', Report of annual meeting of the General Council, 15 July 1937. People's Theatre Papers: 1 'Judgment Day. Unconvincing Drama', Secretary, People's Theatre to Waiting for Lefty in Avondale in December 1936. 'Sponsored' performances were also planned for New Lynn, Otahuhu and Hikurangi, and the production went on tour to Waikato in April 1937, playing at Hamilton and Huntly. A short adaptation of the play was performed by the theatre's 'Agitprop Group' at several trade union meetings, and the carpenters' journal Borer described the
Borer, Oct. 1937 (v.2, n.2), p.18Till the Day IDie (produced byA.J.C. Fisher), which played 'to a capacity audience' at the WEA hall in June 1937.Workers' Weekly, 25 June 1937, p.4 (reprinted from the New Zealand Herald)New Zealand Herald, the season was extended by two nights and requests were received for the play to tour to other centres. The People's Theatre was moved to describe this production as 'the most outstanding piece of work yet seen on the New Zealand amateur stage.'Judgment Day, an American anti-fascist play by Elmer Rice, appar-endy its only production that year. Judgment Day was a financial loss and the Herald was unimpressed: 'farcical', 'unconvincing' and melodramatic, 'many of the audience simply laughed.'New Zealand Herald 27 June 1938, p.12Peoples Theatre Magazine was not so enthusiastic about this choice, apologising: 'We'd just like to say the time is strictly 1933. We've tried to whoop it up a bit'.People's Theatre Magazine, p.8Marching Song, an American strike play by John Lawson, was in rehearsal in September 1939 but was abandoned when the demands of war rapidly reduced its large, mostly male cast.
In drawing from the repertoire of the international left theatre the People's Theatre was typical of left theatre groups in New Zealand in the 30s. The 'various workers' dramatic groups' to which the Harcourt, 'Leftist Propaganda. Two Plays by Odets', People's Theatre Magazine referred were mostly the Left Book Club drama groups, whose staple fare was Odets and O'Casey. It also referred to the recendy-established People's Theatre in Hamilton, which will be discussed in more detail later. Dunedin supported the most significant left theatre activity outside Auckland in the 1930s. Prior to the six productions of the Left Book Club there a short-lived Little Theatre Group had produced a double bill of Waiting for Lefty and Till the Day I Die in December 1937. This group, which had been formed in 1935, bore a closer resemblance to its main competitor, the Dunedin Repertory Theatre, than to a political, people's theatre, however. Its swing to the left in 1937 'alarmed many of the more conservative members' and the following year saw a return to safer ground with Baa Baa Black Sheep by A Dramatic Appearance, p.66Evening Star, 8 Dec. 1937, p.7
What distinguished the Auckland People's Theatre from other left theatre groups was its production of New Zealand material, written with only one exception by Mason. Locally-written drama based on local themes was implicit in Mason's conception of the theatre as 'a recipient and source of social stimulus', and a logical extension of the prevailing doctrine of realism. Following through this idea the People's Theatre looked forward to the development of an indigenous progressive drama. Similarly, Tomorrow, commenting on the reception of the first two productions, observed:
The success of these productions indicates the possibilities which the future holds for a strong and virile drama in our country. Such a development is dependent upon writers of plays as vital as the two mentioned above, but dealing with our own problems and outlook; and secondly, the training of earnest and truthful actors . . .
'News and Views',
Tomorrow,13 Apr. 1938 (v.4, n.12), pp.354-5
They endeavoured to further this ideal with a playwriting competition held in 1938. The announcement of the competition in Tomorrow and the Workers' Weekly made clear what kind of theatre was required:
While it is not anticipated that the plays submitted will be of outstanding dramatic merit, it is expected that their authors will endeavour to deal fearlessly and truthfully with problems of worldwide significance, in special relation to the lives and happiness of our own people. For example, 'high society' drama and 'eternal triangles,' however well they may be written, will receive scant consideration from the judges.
Ibid.
Scripts of the winning one-act plays—'Left, Right' by Comments on playscripts, [nd]. People's Theatre Papers: 1 I. Hamilton, "Tails the Shadow". A Criticism of People's Theatre Production', F. Sargeson, 'Mr Hamilton's Play', Falls the Shadow by Ian Hamilton (published in 1939 by the Griffin Press). The author, a farmer and orchardist formerly from Hawke's Bay, later spent 15 months of the war in prison as a conscientious objector. Falls the Shadow was a pacifist play, and as such fulfilled the condition of dealing with 'events of world-wide significance'. However it did not bear 'special relation to the lives . . . of our own people'. It was set 'in the Drawing Room of Sir Guy Stewart's house, in the country, South of London'Falls the Shadow. Auckland: Griffin Press, 1939Workers' Weekly complained that it was 'nothing but propaganda for pure pacifism' which aroused only 'disappointment and gloom', bringing the following response from a member of the theatre's executive: 'We are quite conscious of the limitations of "Falls the Shadow", but it is part of the constitution of the People's Theatre to encourage New Zealand plays.'Workers' Weekly, 31 Mar. 1939, p.4Tomorrow on the inappropriate-ness of the play's social setting for people's theatre: 'in view of the theme (pacifism), no one can seriously object to the conventional upper-middle class setting, because aerial warfare doesn't discriminate much between classes.'Tomorrow, 12 Apr. 1939 (v.5, n.12), p.377
In its international context Ibid., p.10 Weir Falls the Shadow was typical of the New Zealand material produced by the People's Theatre. Six sketches written by Mason were performed in 1939. The majority of these were 'agitational' pieces, and the People's Theatre functioned here as an agitprop theatre also by taking its message to its audience. But only one dealt with a local issue. 'BMA' (for British Medical Association), a sketch 'written in support of socialised medicine under the Social Security Act', was performed at several Labour Party branches and at the Auckland Unitarian Church one Sunday in place of the sermon.People's Theatre Magazine, p.5. Copies of the script of 'BMA' are in the Mason Papers: 3 and People's Theatre Papers: 1People's Theatre Magazine, p.15Squire Speaks, a dramatic monologue published by the Caxton Press in 1938, was a more substantial work and was performed by the People's Theatre in December 1939. It had already been produced by the Dunedin Left Book Club and by the Auckland WEA Dramatic Club in September the previous year (the date it was written is uncertain).(R.A.K Mason, p.27) claims that Squire Speaks was written in 1928, but as Harley points out he offers no evidence for this assertion (Harley, '
Such a generalised and romanticised conception of'the people' and the class struggle is also characteristic of Mason's verse dramas. Three of these were performed by the People's Theatre: 'Service for the Fallen. In Memory of the International Brigade' (also titled 'International Brigade'), which was first produced by AJ.C. Fisher for the Spanish Medical Aid Committee in May 1939; 'Skull on Silence', a verse monologue written for Armistice Day and performed at a public meeting in November 1939; and 'This Dark Will Lighten', a 'mass chant' which was performed in December along with Squire Speaks. 'International Brigade' takes the form of a dialogue between a Man and a Woman who represent the voice of the Spanish people. It describes their struggle for freedom and ends with a salute to the memory of those who fell and to the ongoing struggle. The description of the International Brigade members emphasises, by definition, unity and the common struggle:
Mason, 'Service for the Fallen', People's Voice, 14 July 1939, p.7
'Skull on Silence', an anti-war piece, followed the style of 'International Brigade' with 'Skull' representing the symbolic voice of the returned soldier from the first world war. According to a reviewer in the People's Voice, 'The audience listened with close attention throughout and their deep silence indicated their appreciation of its significance and high dramatic quality'.People's Voice, 24 Nov. 1939, p.7. The script of 'Skull on Silence' is printed in full here.
'This Dark Will Lighten' is as its title suggests more 'revolutionary' in tone. As Mason explained in his explanatory note, it was written 'the day after War was declared, at a time when I thought it might become a genuine war against Fascism. I was wrong'. The synopsis reads:
A group of men and women who have worked together in the Labour movement are meeting perhaps for the last time. The doom of war is on them. . . . Torn between the spirit of despair and the spirit of struggle, a firm resolve grips them—the resolve to forge out of this world of darkness a new world of e.ernal light.
People s Theatre Magazine,p.8
This note was printed in the People's Theatre Magazine, and evidently Mason had by December 1939 modified his stance on the war in line with the Communist Party's. The text of 'This Dark Will Lighten' ranges from the symbolic discourse prefigured above to more specific evocations of the experience of oppression:
. . . year after year sweated, exploited, bullied, despised, kept in ignorance, preached at, lied to. Year after year dull in mill, wharf, truck, ship, factory— on the picket-line, hunger-march, strike, demo clash with scabs skirmish with specials. . . . The blessings of a king cannot conjure out the devils that darkness built up in our spirits: no paper can wipe off scars etched into the flesh with acid: holy water cannot wash away what is burnt into the living bone.
There is some specific New Zealand reference:
Then too the starved rugged farm outback . . . And slump and slave-camp, soup-kitchen and doss-house— . . . And the word of some comrade comes from overseas the refugee, international brigadesman, or from some old-timer from Waihi, red fed, or returned man. 'P.W.D.', This Dark Will Lighten',
People's Voice,15 Sept. 1939, p.7
But for the most part the piece is as generalised in its setting and international in its thematic context as the war it described.
Mason composed two more verse drama pieces in this period, 'China Dances' and 'Refugee'. These were written as scripts for dance drama and
New Theatre Group. Prospectus, 1945. Robert Lowry Papers. Ms Papers A-194: box 1, folder 6. University of Auckland Library; NewTheatre Group. Programme, 'China Dances' [etc], Oct. 1945. Ephemera Collection: Theatre, 1940s. Alexander Turnbull Library. Programmes for other Margaret Barr productions are held by M. Lusty. 'China Dances' programme. A short profile of Margaret Barr appeared in Banking Buccaneers), Hebridean folk songs, sketches entitled 'Breadline' ('a study of starvation in Europe') and 'In the Best Tradition' ('a satirical comedy of the Edwardian period'), and a technique display. A Living Newspaper 'based on the Housing Problem' and 'specially written for the New Theatre Group' was planned for the following year, but this performance does not appear to have eventuated. Barr left for Australia in 1946, and the New Theatre Group folded soon after.In Print, 22 Oct. 1941, p.5. See also P. Herlinger, 'A new direction for "the New"?', Australasian Drama Studies, 8, Apr. 1986, p.108
'China Dances' described the Chinese resistance to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1933. In 'Refugee' Mason turned his attention to New Zealand. Its setting is a returned soldiers' meeting, at which a deputation of refugees tell of the experience of 'all our main streams of migration [who] came to New Zealand as a haven of refuge from some form of oppression': Maori, Irish rebel, Sydney convict, New Zealand Company labourer, dispossessed Highland crofter and refugee from Nazi Germany. 'China Dances' programme. The script of'Refugee' is in the Alexander Turnbull Library.
These are the only pieces of Mason's writing for the theatre which are known to have been produced in this period. No performance is recorded of 'To Save Democracy', a political sketch 'Based on Tomorrow in April 1938.Tomorrow, 27 Apr. 1938 (v.4, n.13), pp.408-11
Interestingly, none of these takes the international anti-fascist setting of the plays discussed above. Many are short sketches: a publicity sketch for the
Mason, 'Toilers Triumphant'. Mason Papers: 3R.U.R, the 'Monkmen' eventually revolt. 'Toilers Triumphant' is a satirical agitprop piece about the depression and war. Its final scene shows a tableau of a man with a Volunteer Week billboard; the strains of the 'Marche Militaire' and 'Rule Britannia' are heard as two ditch diggers, the toilers triumphant of the title, declare: 'Well we can't go on under the depression like this. We must have this war—a bigger, better war'. The script ends—after Waiting for Lefty—with the audience joining in a call to 'war! war! war!'
Two more of Mason's unpublished scripts follow the historical interest prefigured in 'Refugee'. 'This Bird May Swing', in which a young man is on trial for the murder of his estranged lover who has died of poisoning, is based on 'an actual [case] which occurred in New Zealand' (according to Mason's note 'an accidental discovery proved that it was suicide'). The play is set in the street outside the courthouse; Mason juxtaposes the arguments of a liberal-minded newspaper reporter with the reactions of various observers and passers-by. A prefatory note advises: 'The play may be regarded as a piece of "propaganda", but that is not the intention, which is purely aesthetic.' Mason, This Bird May Swing', p.1. Mason Papers: 3
Technically, these plays are of little significance. One critic has written of Mason's dramatic writing (published and unpublished): 'Plays obviously provided Mason with a vehicle by which he hoped to combine his literary and political interests but the propaganda element obtrudes and they have little merit.' Harley, 'Politics and Public Themes in New Zealand Literature 1930-1950, with special attention to Mulgan, Sargeson, Mason, Fairburn, Curnow'. PhD thesis, University of Auckland, 1980, p.161
But it is the New Zealand subject matter of Mason's unpublished scripts that makes them interesting, regardless of their artistic merit. Mason's historical
Mason, Frontier Forsaken, later in the radio play Strait is the Gate (1962), which concerned the Scottish immigrants to Otago, and a projected history of the New Zealand Company, was little evident in his published literary work in this period, although his note to No New Thing referred to a design for 'a vast medley of prose and poetry, a sort of Odyssey expressing the whole history of New Zealand.'No New Thing. [Auckland]: Spearhead Publishers, 1934, p.[xxvii]
In its New Zealand and populist character, Mason's dramatic writing offers a stark contrast to the polite social comedies and drawing room dramas which were the staple fare of New Zealand amateur theatre in this period. Some local writing emerged from the upsurge in amateur theatricals in the 1930s. A level of interest in indigenous drama is attested to by the response to the annual playwriting competitions of the British Drama League. The first competition held in 1932 attracted over 70 entries, and the second nearly 100; the first competition run by J. Thomson, Art in New Zealand magazine in 1931 had 45 entries. Little of this material was ever produced, although the better efforts were seen in print in the six-part 'Clay' series of New Zealand one-act plays, published between 1933 and 1936. The vast majority were imitations in style, setting and subject matter of the British Repertory and West End theatre which dominated the amateur programme, precisely the 'high society dramas and eternal triangles' the People's Theatre explicitly warned it did not want to see. Those that did take a recognisably New Zealand setting reflected relatively little, or indirectly, the political currents of the time. 'Rural monotony and isolation', John Thomson has observed, were a predominant theme, and where political and economic forces occasionally intruded more directly these were dealt with in their personal or domestic aspect, with melodramatic plots in which 'industrial or political matters [were] tested against family bonds in situations so extreme or emotionally charged as to batde belief'New Zealand Drama, 1930-1980. An Illustrated History. Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1984, pp.16, 18
In the context of the literary nationalism of the 1930s and 1940s Mason's dramatic scripts also stand apart from the writing of his literary contemporaries, such as Allen Curnow, Charles Brasch and Denis Glover, who pursued the theme of national identity primarily through a focus on the New Zealand land/ seascape. However, there are also significant similarities. In a letter printed in the first issue of the Peoples Voice Mason wrote:
New Zealand speaks with two voices. . . . One is the true voice of our people. It
is clear, bold and direct. . . . Rough it may be at times, but it is the roughness of quartz from which fine gold may be extracted. That voice is the voice of the masses.
People's Voice,7 July 1939, p.4
Behind this description of New Zealand's unheard voice there is a conception of a New Zealand working class culture, which is expressed more clearly in one of Mason's unpublished sketches: 'In the backblocks you'll find evidence of a blunt, free, frank manner. It's disappearing even there. In the towns, of course, the ideal is to be a third-rate imitation of a timid suburban Englishman'. Mason, 'God in Hell'. Mason Papers: 3 Mason, 'BMA'People's Voice) as 'the embodiment of the New Zealand working class . . . tall, rangy, quiet, unemotional, direct'.Man Alone. It is a characterisation that has become an enduring stereotype, and to some extent a defining motif for the 'nationalist' literature of this period. It also represents a limited perception of an increasingly urban New Zealand working class, one which excludes marginal social groups such as Maori and working class women, who are conspicuous by their absence from the major fiction of the 1930s and 1940s (with the exception, in part, of the work of Robin Hyde). And as such it represents, arguably, an inappropriate basis for the development of a genuinely popular New Zealand literature.
But the sketches Mason wrote for the People's and New Theatre did not develop the vision, suggested in his unpublished scripts, of a popular history forming the basis of a New Zealand drama. Of Mason's published and performed plays from this period only two, 'Refugee' and the topical sketch 'BMA', take a New Zealand setting. The theme of 'Refugee' reflects, moreover, the international orientation of the left in this period; the majority of Mason's writing for the theatre was, similarly, international in its context. By virtue of its form, agitprop sketch or verse drama, it presented symbolic characterisations of 'the people', and was rhetorical in style. It has an abstract quality which also characterises Mason's earlier poetry, where his 'universal reference' and lack of 'specific reference to the New Zealand scene and people' set him apart from the self-conscious nationalism of Curnow or Brasch. Broughton, 'Sponges Steeped in Vinegar', p.17; Curnow, 'The Poetry of Mason, China) Mason expressed his hope that 'its publication may possibly be some incentive towards a progressive drama in this country',China, p.[1]
In the preface to China Mason also expressed his confidence in the potential popular support for a progressive theatre movement:
It has been my invariable experience . . . that such plays [his own sketches] are welcomed by the working people. To me it seems certain that the majority of our people would take as ardent an interest in dramatic artistry as do our Maori fellow-citizens: provided only that the work was done honestly and without condescension by authors and players, and that it was progressive both in outlook and presentation.
Ibid.
Whether this should be read as a statement of fact or of faith is difficult to say. That Auckland supported ten performances of Letter to V. Arnold, 27 July 1937Waiting for Lefty in six weeks does not necessarily indicate a widespread interest in left-wing, political theatre, for Lefty was a universally popular play. Its follow-up performances, moreover, were less successful than its opening: 'Audiences were small and not very appreciative'. Possibly, the People's Theatre surmised, 'the speed and violence of that remarkable play . . . stunned them after the insipid pictures to which they had been accustomed.'
Nor does the group's formal link with the trade union movement necessarily signify a widespread interest among trade union members. Trade union executives, a few Labour Party branches and similar organisations showed an active interest. The Waikato tour was organised in conjunction with the Hamilton LRC and a combined committee of Communist Party and trade union leaders in Huntly. But working class audiences were more difficult to find. After their disappointing reception in suburban Auckland, followed by a similar experience in Hamilton, the theatre was gratified to be able to perform, in the mining town of Huntly, before 'a 100% working-class audience . . . which would appreciate working-class drama.' Ibid.Tomorrow on the Huntly performance, Frank Sargeson gave a somewhat more cynical assessment than Mason of the potential here for a popular, political theatre:
Waiting for Lefty was a play about a taxi men's strike. It was queer to stand outside and watch the members of the Left Book Club turning up in Taxis. The play, I understand, didn't go down too well with the Huntly miners. They objected to that sort of language being used in front of their womenfolk, and a disgusted member of the cast told me that the people of this country are bone from the feet up. It is probably quite true. How otherwise could anyone have expected anything different from a performance of Waiting
for Lefty in Huntly? After all, there can't be very many members of the Left Book Club in Huntly. Sargeson, 'Just a Few Hot-points',
Tomorrow,18 Aug. 1937 (v.3, n.21), p.657
Whether the People's Theatre would have gone on to produce more New-Zealand material in the post-war years, and whether, in fact, such material would have provided a more fruitful basis for stimulating a popular interest in left-wing theatre, is also a matter only for speculation. The People's Theatre did not survive the first year of the war. After the abandonment of 'Cancellation of Annual Meeting', Apr. 1940. People's Theatre Papers: 1Marching Song more frequent shows of shorter plays requiring smaller casts were planned. Sunday evening performances for People's Theatre members and affiliated unions were held in November and December 1939, and a sketch was performed at a rally on 5 November to mark the 22nd anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Mason was to have produced Where's That Bomb? in 1939 and a variety concert to raise money for a production of Bury the Dead was held in March 1940, but no reference to productions of these plays has been found-In mid 1939 a report had noted the serious state of the theatre's finances, due to trade union apathy and a continuing decline in the number of general members. Although the number of trade union affiliations had increased, fewer tickets were being sold to unions. In April 1939 there were fewer than 20 individual financial members on the register; a 1940 report put the total number over the previous year at 40. A decision that the theatre go into recess was made before the annual general meeting scheduled for April 1940. The decision was attributed to three factors: financial difficulties; the pressure of work, with 'the increasing work falling on our most active members who belong to other organisations such as unions'; and the political circumstances of the moment— 'the feeling that at the present time the drama was too slow & laborious a method of propaganda'.
While the Auckland People's Theatre was, perhaps ironically, an early casualty of the anti-fascist struggle which it had been formed to fight, the People's Theatre formed in Hamilton in 1939 was a product of the war. Provincial Waikato seems, as Frank Sargeson pointed out, an unlikely place for a people's theatre. The founder of the Hamilton People's Theatre was in fact a Wellingtonian, Ron Meek, also a member of the management committee of the Progressive Publishing Society. Meek was on his way to England to study at Cambridge in 1939 when the outbreak of war forced him to return, and was manpowered to Hamilton for most of the war. He was chairman of the theatre's committee and producer for its major productions before returning to Wellington in 1944. The Hamilton People's Theatre also counted among its members in this period: Blackwood Paul; A.H. O'Keefe, of the PPS and Progressive Books, who was working at the
For its major annual productions during the war years the Hamilton People's Theatre offered a succession of Odets and O'Casey plays and the occasional Steinbeck and Hamilton People's Theatre. Programme, 'Anti-Fascist Play for Hamilton', Till the Day I Die, which was performed at the Waikato Winter Show Hall in October and the following month taken on tour to Te Aroha, Cambridge, Morrinsville and Hundy. Proceeds were donated to the Red Cross. Odets' anti-fascist play was followed in 1940 by Golden Boy (the only production for that year). The next year the theatre presented O'Casey's The Star Turns Red, in aid of the Russian Red Cross, and had two entries in the British Drama League festival, winning second place with an American play entided 'We Got Rhythm'. It also 'fostered at least two original plays, written by members'; 'Some Day They'll Pay' by the theatre's president, John Mackie, was described as 'an interesting sidelight on the conflict between capital and labour'.The Star Turns Red, [1941]. Ephemera Collection: Theatre, 1940s. Hamilton Public Library; Waikato Times, 23 Aug. 1941, p.11. All Hamilton People's Theatre programmes cited subsequently in these notes are in the Hamilton Public Library collection.The Ascent of F6 and a scene from local playwright Cartoon. The Irish season continued in 1942 with O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars presented in 'a rather mixed assortment of Irish accents' (with proceeds donated to the Home Guard funds), and Robert's Wife by St John Ervine; lectures were given on Toller, Synge, 'dramatic technique' and 'drama in its relation to society' and a reading of Where's That Bomb? was followed by a discussion of'the general question of working-class drama and its value as an art form'.Waikato Times, 29 Sept. 1942, p.4; programme, The Plough and the Stars, Sept. 1942; Waikato Times, 30 May 1942, p.4The Moon is Down, a stage adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel about partisans in Norway, which 'with its message of the inevitable victory of the people,' wrote Meek in the Peoples Voice, 'will be eagerly awaited by people throughout the Waikato.'Peoples Voice, 18 July 1943, p.7Distant Point; Shaw's Major Barbara and Village Wooing, The Importance of Being Earnest, Julius Caesar and New Zealander Isobel Andrews' The Willing Horse. In 1944 there was a reading of a Maupassant story of the Franco-Prussian war, a 'semi-production' of The Silver Tassie by O'Casey and a full production of They Came to a City in September.
The Hamilton People's Theatre did not function as an agitprop theatre, as did its Auckland counterpart with its political sketches, more diverse theatrical forms and trade union performances. There appears to have been no formal relationship with the trade union movement in Hamilton, nor are any union officials known to have been involved. Publicly, the Hamilton theatre did not define itself specifically as a working class theatre and dissociated itself from 'any political association'; it was 'concerned solely with the fostering of significant modern drama in the Waikato.' Programme, Waikato Times, 28 Sept. 1940, p.13The Moon is Down, [1943] (and others)
The object of the People's Theatre is to produce and foster drama which is real and sincere in its presentation of life, and we interpret this to mean drama which does not neglect the fundamental issues of today, which is concerned with real people as they are and not as we would like them to be, and which breathes the spirit of humanity.
The theatre is not, as many people imagine, linked with any political ideology; but its members are agreed that a play which is false in its presentation of life is, no matter how brilliant the technique with which it is written, a bad play, a degradation of art. In the world in which we live today many people like to escape, in the theatre or cinema, into a dream world where the unhappiness and annoyances of reality do not exist. The People's Theatre rejects such an attitude and by its constitution is debarred from the production of plays which are mere entertaining diversion.
Ibid.; programme,
They Came to a City,Sept. 1944
The Hamilton People's Theatre survived the peace as well as the war and over the next decade was to become a major force in the development of amateur theatre in that city. But it was not the foundation for the national progressive theatre Macbeth, and readings were from Wilde, Synge and Saroyan. In 1946 the theatre presented 'Scenes from Shakespeare's Plays', produced by Haswell Paine and Barbara Chisholm, a teacher at the local Diocesan School; The Sacred Flame by Somerset Maugham and Ibsen's The Dolls House. In May 1947 the People's Theatre in cooperation with the local repertory society, the Hamilton Playbox, opened the Hamilton Little Theatre in new premises provided by the city council with a programme of one-act plays including a Noel Coward comedy, 'Fumed Oak', and 'The Tinker's Wedding' by Synge. Productions in the late 1940s and early 1950s
You Never Can Tell and Too True to be Good, Sheridan's The School for Scandal and The Rivals, On Approval by Lonsdale, French without Tears by Rattigan, readings of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire , and four Noel Coward productions. The theatre retained its initial emphasis on production standards and on educating its members in the dramatic arts, as was affirmed in a 1950 programme which considered the history and future development of the organisation:
it has reached the stage where it must decide whether to go on as another dramatic society or become a Theatre Workshop'. . . . a workshop where the art of the Theatre is studied and practised—but seriously, and not, as is only too often the case with our New Zealand amateurs, in the spirit of the dilettante.
Programme,
What Say They,Sept. 1950
But priorities had shifted. Whereas earlier the theatre had rejected 'plays which are mere diversion', the 1952 programme for Private Lives made
no apology for presenting Noel Coward's 'Private Lives'. The People's Theatre, with this production, have no wish to point a moral, leave you chewing on a message, or experiment with your emotions. Laughter is the best medicine in the world and 'Private Lives' has all the ingredients for such a potion.
It no longer identified itself as part of an international theatre movement, but as belonging within 'the Amateur Theatre Movement'.
Programme,
Private Lives,[1952]
These developments were accompanied by a change in the theatre's membership. Ron Meek left Hamilton in 1944, Blackwood Paul moved to Wellington at about the same time, and Communist Party members no longer appear in cast lists after 1945. Although no membership records have been seen, the lists of players and executive members in the programmes and reviews support members' recollections that it was a quite different group who ran the People's Theatre after the war. Leading roles appear to have been taken by teachers: the president and secretary in 1952, Ken Duncan and Rona Chew, were both staff members of the Hamilton Technical College, and one of its major producers in the second half of the 1940s and the 1950s was teacher Haswell Paine, who was also area tutor for the British Drama League.
The theatre's public profile changed accordingly. Its productions had always been generously reviewed by the Waikato Times theatre critic, but cooperation with the city council and collaboration with the Hamilton Playbox society in 1947 suggests a degree of public acceptance and status unlikely to have been accorded in the earlier years. Even more so does the support of the Mayoress of Hamilton as patroness in the early 1950s. By contrast, the theatre probably achieved its highest profile during the war years with its controversial production of The Pbugh and the Stars in 1942. Both the play and the production received a positive review in the Waikato Times but provoked several outraged letters to the editor,
Waikato Times, 30 Sept., 9 & 7 Oct. 1942. Newspaper clippings, Hamilton Public LibraryWaikato Times critic, reviewing Golden Boy in 1940, worried that through the use of'choice' language 'the objective, realism,... was defeated by the jar on the nerves of the audience, which caused them to lose track for a while of the play.'Waikato Times, 10 Dec. 1940, p.7Waiting for Lefty had provoked a similar reaction from the more conservative members of the audience. While most participants in this debate, conducted through the correspondence columns of the Manawatu Evening Standard, had attacked the Left Book Club's political agenda, others were alarmed by the language and what they saw as immorality in the play. To some, of course, these were both expressions of a general disintegration of the social fabric. Wrote 'New Zealander':
We New Zealanders profess to be Christians. Our National Anthem is 'God Defend New Zealand'—it was sung at this entertainment on the same programme as 'Workers of the World, Unite'. What are we going to do about the staging of a play that is literally peppered with 'hell's' and 'flaming hell,' and profane expressions containing the name of God?
Manawatu EveningStandard,4 Dec. 1939, p.6
It was not only provincial New Zealand audiences who found the work of the new left-wing playwrights a little too realist for their liking. S., 'Auckland Braves Censors who were Waiting for Lefty', Herlinger, 'A new direction for "the New"?', p.100; Waiting for Lefty was banned on several occasions in America, ostensibly at least because of its language rather than its political content, and when it was performed by the New Theatre League in Sydney was censored of 'natural words and oaths'.Tomorrow, 11 Nov. 1936 (v.3, n.1), p.21Till the Day I Die in 1937: the theatre made headlines after the New South Wales government, acting on a complaint from the German consul and advice from the Commonwealth Attorney General, Robert Menzies, attempted to have the performance stopped.Tomorrow, 17 Mar. 1937 (v.3, n.10), pp.307-8
was interviewed by the editor of the Christchurch periodical Tomorrow, who says that 'in conversation Mr. Fraser made it clear that plays will not be censored, people will be free to read or perform any play; action would be taken by the police only in the case of a play being obscene/
Fairburn, 'No Police Visit. Auckland Production of Anti-Nazi Play',
New Zealand Observer,17 June 1937, p.7
It was probably on these grounds that moves had apparendy been made either to ban or censor the People's Theatre production of 'Auckland Braves Censors', p.21Lefty the previous year.Waiting for Lefty had also offended sensibilities when it was performed, in 1937, in Wellington.
The differences observed between Modern Books in Wellington and Progressive Books in Auckland were repeated in the theatre. In Wellington in the 1930s there was no left theatre movement based on the Communist Party, WEA or trade union movement, although this was not entirely for lack of interest. An advertisement placed in the Ibid., 1 Aug. 1936, p.2Workers' Weekly in July 1936 asked 'workers interested in proletarian art (especially dramatic)' to attend a meeting with the object of forming a 'workers' art club' in Wellington.Workers' Weekly, 18 July 1936, p.4Weekly printed a letter from 'Birchie', alias
At Victoria College in the 30s and 40s anyone interested in either drama or left-wing politics was involved in the annual capping show, otherwise known as the Extrav, a revue-style production of music, irreverence, enormous casts and extravagant costumes. The capping revue was a long-standing university tradition, but from the 1920s Victoria's Extravaganza had established an unrivalled reputation for political satire, humour and bawdiness. The Extrav was a Wellington event. It filled the State Opera House (which seated 1200) each year and was reviewed at length in the press. Its audiences included local and national public figures; Peter Fraser was a regular attender. The show consisted of a main musical item on a topical theme, supported by several shorter, usually less political skits and the customary male ballet. Between 1936 and 1946, with the
Under Meek's pen the traditional Extrav satire became increasingly and more earnestly political. Borrowing Walt Disney characters and Gilbert and Sullivan tunes, Meek presented a critique of local, national and international politics with at times a quite explicit Marxist theme. His first contribution in 1936 was a curtain-raiser entitled 'Brave New Zealand', a 'futuristic Morality' which featured Mickey the Super Savage, Hash and Simple (Michael Joseph Savage, Walter Nash and Bob Semple) in a satire on the Labour Party.Cappicade, 1936, p.23. The script of this and other Extravaganza shows, 1932-49, are held by P. Macaskill.Cappicade, 1937, p.26
In 1938 and 1939 Meek turned his attention to the more pressing international scene with 'Olympian Nights' and 'The Vikings', his programme notes in each case presenting a left-wing analysis of the international crisis. In Meek's view the political message of the show was paramount, although not to be pushed at the expense of the traditional Extrav humour, and in the case of 'The Vikings' his satire clearly hit its mark. In a scene referring to Chamberlain's 'surrender' at Munich the spectacle of 'Nev', 'an ancient British merchant', trying to sell 'Hit' a length of red, white and blue cloth provoked, in the student literary review 'Radical Students' Play Packs Wellington Opera House', Spikes words, 'certain reactions of a hysterical or even pathological jingoism expressed in a certain quarter.' Members of the audience walked out and 'the Attorney General put up a hell of a stink about the whole thing'.Spike, 1939 (v.38, n.67), p.38; R. Bailey. Interview with author, 3 May 1984. This incident is also recalled by People's Voice recorded: 'Most people saw the "moral of the play". Mr. Hislop certainly did— and we have it on good authority that he wasn't pleased.'People's Voice, 24 May 1944, p.2
We're emissaries of Stalin, We're the agents of a foreign state; . . . We listen in to Moscow Every morning into Moscow— We do just what we're told.
Cappicade,1940, p.36
This being the country's centennial year, Meek turned his attention once again to New Zealand with 'Centennial Scandals, or 1840 and all that', which presented a Marxist interpretation of New Zealand's 'Past, Present, and Future' in three acts. The explanatory notes discussed the capitalist basis of the colonisation of New Zealand as embodied in the Wakefield scheme, this comprising the first act in which the 'discovery, colonisation and growth of New Zealand [are] seen through the red spectacles of a mocking, Marxist humourist'. The second act showed the contradictions of liberal democracy as exposed by the present global crisis:
Cinderella . . . represents the New Zealand Labour Party; the fire in Cinderella's kitchen represents socialist reconstruction; and the coal is anti-capitalist measures. This rather ponderous allegory is continued through the scene. The playlet shows the manner in which Cinderella was at last compelled to go to the Reactionaries' Ball, and to leave the fire to the tender mercies of her Fairy Godfather. Notice, please, that Cinderella was
compelledto go to the Ball. She didn't really want to go. She went unwillingly, because she was placed in such an anomalous position that she simply had to go.... The reactionary measures of the Labour Government are economically inevitable. Under a social democratic system of government, in moments of crisis it is more essential to save civilisation—i.e., capitalist civilisation—than to save social-democracy.
Spike,1940 (v.39, n.68), p.46;Cappicade,1940, pp.22, 28
A full script of 'Centennial Scandals' has not been found so we do not know what the third act—the future—promised in Meek's view. A synopsis of the scene in the student newspaper Salient is not helpful: 'the Future is a far-off, mystical, and dialectical romance concerning the great and wise Wizard that Woz'; however, 'The oracle... turns out to be Dr. Weevilbole [Salient, ? 1940 (v.3, n.4), p.[9], ? 1940, (v.3, n.7), p. [6]
The Communist Party evidently did not have much of a sense of humour. 'Centennial Scandals' was not as ponderous as Meek's long and discursive introduction suggests. Among the more memorable lines from the show are the following, from 'Cakefield, with chorus, or Down in Taranaki', sung to the tune of 'Three Little Fishes':
Half a dozen cabbage plants, a carrot and a leek. The Frogs of Aristophanes in expurgated Greek. A yo-yo, a Bible, a broken rubber band— That's what I'll offer for a little bitty land.
And from 'The Tin Man':
I'd distribute warm pyjamas To the Taranaki farmers— That would be a start; And terminate dissension By an unemployment pension, If I only had a heart! Lee did his best to balk us In the Labour Party Caucus, So we asked him to depart. But I'd express my sorrow By writing to 'Tomorrow,' If I only had a heart!
Cappicade,1940, pp.34-5
Spike was pleased to find that, with the exception of the 'clumsy, awkward and obtuse' third act, 'Centennial Scandals' managed a 'narrow escape from the heavy drudgery with which Mr Meek has usually shovelled his message onto the stage. That the annual Varsity Entertainment, which seems ordained to be in the form of a bright and airy musical farce, should be made a vehicle for directing the social upheaval and the imminent class struggle is regrettable.'Spike, 1940 (v.39, n.68), p.46
Although Meek was now busy with the People's Theatre in Hamilton the outspoken political content of the Extravaganza did not abate in the next three years. The original script for the 1941 show written by John McCreary was an adaptation of Pinocchio and The Ascent of F6 featuring John A. Lee as 'Jonnalio' in the title role. The script was ordered to be withdrawn by the student executive on the legal advice that it would breach wartime emergency regulations, and a replacement was hastily prepared, with only the 'Song of Jonnalio' from the original script surviving from the first version. The first verse went:
It's the fault of the cockie The country is rocky, And that is the reason the trains are so slow; He'll fill up the scenery With modern machinery, The powerful and potent Jonnalio!
Cappicade, 1941, p.46
The Extravaganzas shared many similarities with the agitprop productions of the Auckland People's Theatre. They were topical and dynamic. The scripts
Ibid., 26 Apr. 1939, p.5 'Radical Students' Play Packs Wellington Opera House', p.2 in K. Sinclair, Cappicade, 1939, p.26Spike opined, 'the form is not easily adaptable to prophesying and preaching.'Spike, 1940 (v.39, n.68), p.46Evening Post described the Extrav as 'a popular institution with Wellington audiences.... It gives people once a year the chance of a good laugh at the powers that be caricatured on the stage', and observed that, 'Pleas . . . sometimes received by newspapers for the suppression of the college students' annual extravaganza' were unlikely to succeed 'so long as the "extrav." does not exceed the bounds of commonly-accepted decency'.Evening Post, 21 May 1938, p.28Post's review of 'The Vikings' the following year made no explicit reference to the show's obvious political context, and no reference to the adverse reaction recorded by Spike, observing that it 'shows an extremely ludicrous situation, being staged at the early English period.'People's Voice, as being perhaps 'the nearest thing to a truly popular New Zealand theatre yet achieved.'A History of the University of Auckland, 1883-1983. Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1983, p.185
In other university centres the capping revue did not make the impact or gain the notoriety that it did in Wellington, although political and moral satire remained its essential element. In Auckland, for example, some shows of a mild political tone were written by K. Sinclair, Ibid., 1942 (v.41, n.70), p.33A History of the University of Auckland, 1883-1983. Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1983, p.185Till the Day I Die, and the following year 'an evening was devoted to Spain', with a
Defence of Madrid and a talk by Spike, 1937 (v.37, n.65), p.79, 1938 (v.38, n.66), p.80Candida, and the like. The early 1940s proved a little more interesting. Harvest in the North by James L. Hodson, a play set in northern industrial England, was performed in 1941 with the involvement of teachers' college students. In 1942 there were productions of Where's That Bomb?, a popular play of the left theatre (its performance was interrupted by an air-raid warning). A planned production of Love on the Dole, however, was cancelled when copies of the play 'mysteriously vanished from all libraries' and the one remaining script was found to be at the bindery.
The Otago University Dramatic Society, by contrast, gave major productions in the 1930s of plays by Shaw, J.B. Priesdey, Patrick Hamilton, Allen Hall and Masses and Man by the Radical Club, produced by Evelyn Lawn, alongside a Drama Society repertoire consisting of Maugham, Conway, Wilder, Shaw and the occasional Chekhov. There appears to have been no drama club of any note at Auckland University College in the 1930s, and few students were involved in the People's Theatre.
It is the Wellington Teachers' Training College Drama Club rather than Victoria's which is remembered for its productions of contemporary, political drama in the 1930s. Between 1937 and 1939 its major productions were Waiting for Lefty (1937), Judgment Day (1938) and The Ascent of F6 (1939). In the following years the sensitivities of wartime dictated a more cautious choice: Fanny's First Play by Shaw, Thunder Rock by Robert Ardrey, Isobel Andrews' The Willing Horse and Shaw's Androcles and the Lion, a musical comedy by Brighouse, and Uncle Harry (Job). The club's producer throughout this period was English lecturer
These productions caused something of a sensation among Wellington theatre goers, and alarmed the college authorities. B. Mason, in Macaskill (ed.), R. Meek, 'Auden in the Theatre', P. Lowe. Interview with author, 22 June 1984Lefty was given only one performance after members of the Wellington Education Board present in the audience complained to the college principal, apparently over the language in the play.Ako Pai. A Special Issue to Celebrate the Centenary of Wellington Teachers College 1880-1980. Wellington: Price Milburn for the Centennial Committee, Wellington Teachers College, 1980, p.59; Ako Pai, 1937, p.56; McCreary interview; P. Macaskill. Interview with author, 7 June 1984The Ascent of F6 did not meet the same fate, despite its strong anti-imperialist message and being performed only months before the outbreak of
Ako Pai, p.132The Ascent of F6 was not in fact a politically radical play in terms of the left-wing cultural orthodoxy of the time: socialist realism. As Ron Meek pointed out in an article in Spike 'Auden is an "intellectual of the middle classes" and has approached, and still approaches, politics through psychology. He is divorced and isolated from society'.Spike, 1941 (v.40, n.69), p.47
Wellington Repertory, formed in 1926, had been the first of the country's repertory societies established and was also the largest. Less adventurous than its Auckland counterpart, it offered in these years a programme of English drawing room dramas and 'West End comedies ad nauseam' L. Atkinson, 'Wellington and Unity Theatre'. Unpublished article, [nd]of Juno and the Paycock (1937); in the late 40s it managed to introduce a few more interesting choices, including Jacobowsky and the Colonel and Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth in 1946, and Love on the Dole in 1948). Repertory gave six major productions each year in the State Opera House, which were reviewed at length in the local papers with 'chatty paragraphs about the costumes worn' and the individual performances of the actors—a mode of reviewing, Ron Meek commented in a letter to the Evening Post in 1946, in which
the amount of praise . . . is too often in inverse proportion to the degree to which the play departs from the stuffy conventions of drawing-room dramas and 'sophisticated' middle-class comedies.
Mason, 'Wellington's Unity Theatre',
Landfall,34, June 1955 (v.9, n.2), p.156; Meek, correspondence, 21 May 1946. Unity Theatre Records. Ace 80/1: box 3. Alexander Turnbull Library
Repertory performances were as much social as cultural occasions, which meant 'society' events and not social occasions in the sense implied by the term people's theatre. 'To go to a Repertory play one always wore a black tie and the women wore gloves and stoles and fur capes and barked their way up and down the theatre'. McCreary interview
These two societies dominated amateur drama in Wellington, and are the context in which the teachers' college productions can be seen as not only politically but culturally radical. With Lowe interview; Scott, ibid., p.58Lefty and The Ascent of F6 Ako Pai, p.124Lefty, Judgment Day and The Ascent of F6 can be seen the same conjunction of political and cultural radicalism that was expressed in the ideal of the Wellington Co-operative Book Society. They were a product of the political climate of the decade, reflecting an interest in 'plays that dramatized the social and political conflicts of the day'.
It was on the latter model that Wellington's Unity Theatre was formed in the early 1940s, as an agitprop, anti-fascist theatre intent on taking its message to the people. It was as a successor to the teachers' college Drama Club, however, and a reaction against the cultural deprivation represented by Wellington Repertory, that Unity was to develop in the post-war years.
Unity Theatre had its origins in two dramatic performances in 1940. The organiser of these events was Henry Martin, a fitter and turner by trade and Communist Party member who had worked with Ron Meek in the Hamilton People's Theatre in 1939. The first was a 'Pageant', similar in style to a Living Newspaper, which was written 'by various people' and performed in the Oddfellows' (later the Savage Club) Hall in Kent Terrace. Its theme was class struggle and fascism. A series of voices representing the various peoples of the world—of New Zealand, Great Britain, Europe, Spain and the Occupied Countries—presented a people's history 'spoken over a loudspeaker with a spotlight focused on the person representing the particular country'. The style was declamatory:
I am New Zealand I am hills and rivers. I am butterfat and wool, . . . anthracite, gum, flax. ... I am a watersider. . . . a shearer . . . bank clerk . . . trammie . . . A hundred years ago workers left the bitter old world to find a place where they could free themselves from oppression. Chartists . . . workers . . . But they brought oppression with them. . . . I am the people of Europe. . . I carry no national flag, for these flags lie buried in the mud trampled by the feet of Hitler's armies and degraded by the treachery of the Quislings and fifth columnists.
This continued for 13 pages, concluding (after Martin to Waiting for Lefty) with a rousing call for unity in the present, final struggle: 'In the world's darkest hour I call for unity—unity! unity!'
In April 1942 Henry Martin placed the following advertisement in Unity Theatre constitution. Unity Theatre Records: series 4In Print: 'Will all those interested in forming a dramatic group to produce Dramatic and Anti-Fascist plays please communicate with people's theatre . . . Wellington'.In Print, 22 Apr. 1942, p.6, considerably higher than the 1/- or 2/6 subscription of the Auckland People's Theatre. 'Passive membership', for 10/6, entided one to preferential bookings but not voting rights. There was no provision for affiliated membership by organisations. The group's cooperative ethos was also expressed in the discussion session which followed each performance. These sessions were intended to maintain the accountability of the producer and executive to the theatre's membership and audience, and political and dramatic standards.
Unity's chief producer and source of energy from 1942 until 1949 was Robert Stead. A carpenter and a member of the Communist Party, Stead had worked with the London Unity Theatre before coming to New Zealand in 1939. He was 'a dedicated Marxist and he strode around, with his slight and permanent limp, emitting torrents of eloquence carrying as it were, "Das Kapital" in one hand
and Stanislavski's "An Actor Prepares", in the other.' These words are from an obituary by Bruce Mason, who also described Stead as 'a quiet, courteous and quirkish man, with a marvellous ear for accent and nuance, capable of wicked impersonation.' Mason, 'Founder-producer of Unity Theatre Dies in London', Dominion, 18 Nov. 1975, p.4
Unity was not formally a Communist Party organisation but until about 1946 it was a 'Party concern', and along with Stead several of its founding members were also Party members. Its first president was Hein Jorgensen, a German political refugee. The secretary-organiser was Henry Martin. The remaining members of the first committee were Rona Meek (later Bailey), who was a public servant, Bili Martin (whose husband was Doug Martin, former pacifist and now a Party member), Pearl Wood, Doug Evans and Cazna Gawith, all Party members. Others prominent in the early years were George and Vivian Hoerr, a carpenter and a journalist respectively, who had arrived in New Zealand with Stead in 1939 but came originally from Germany; Chip Bailey, Party member and variously a taxi-driver and piano repairer; Allan Bagley, a seaman and Party member; Tahu Shankland, who was also involved briefly with the Progressive Publishing Society, and his wife Dulcie Shankland. Of the committee for 1943-4 all but one or two were Party members. In 1945 the president was Henry Martin and the secretary Rona Meek; the committee consisted of Bob Stead, Vivian Hoerr, Tahu Shankland, and Lee Garvey and Nan Cadman, both clerical workers. Unity Theatre. Minute books, 1945-49. Unity Theatre Records: box 1
Unity Theatre was formed at the time of the German invasion of Russia and the total commitment of the Communist Party to the war effort, and its activities reflected this political background. While the SCR was busy screening Russian war films depicting the successes of the Red Army, Unity Theatre's earliest productions were mostly short, agitprop plays with an anti-fascist message. Their first effort, an anti-Nazi play entitled 'Blood of the Martyrs', was abandoned while still in rehearsal 'on the grounds that it offended all the rules of good theatre.' 'Wanted—People Keen on Stage Craft', Ibid., 4 Nov. 1942, p.3 Unity Theatre Group. Programme, Oct. 1942. Unity Theatre Records: box 2In Print, 26 May 1943, p.2Where's That Bomb?, Russian folk dance, and American and Russian folk songs performed by the Unity Theatre Choir led by Tom Wood; the audience were requested to 'join with them and sing as a tribute to our Russian allies the Internationale'.
'According to Plan' was also performed as one of 'Three Playettes' at the RSA hall in Vivian Street in December that year, along with 'Erna Kremer', 'a fragment of life inside Nazi Germany', and 'Royal Inn', 'a study in social morality'. Programme for 'Three Playettes', Dec. 1942. Unity Theatre Records: box 2Of Mice and Men, which was performed at the teachers' college hall to favourable reviews in March 1944. Other productions and readings in the years 1943-5 included: the inevitable Waiting for Lefty, and Odets' Awake and Sing!; O'Neill's The Hairy Ape, Lillian Hellman's The Children's Hour and Watch on the Rhine, The Ascent of F6; Love on the Dole, Chekhov's 'The Artist'; They Came to a City as the second major production in November-December 1944; and Jacobowsky and the Colonel byWerfel as the major production for 1945. A programme of lectures illustrated with readings covered such topics as 'The international theatre of protest' (given by
Like the people's theatres Unity placed an important emphasis on training. It intended 'to develop its own producers, script writers and technicians, as well as actors' and emphasised that 'the people in the group are made up of enthusiasts interested in the serious study of all aspects of drama.' Programme, Ibid.They Came to a City, [Nov. 1944]. Alexander Turnbull Library Ephemera
No member shall bring wine, spirits or any alcoholic beverages to the place of meeting, rehearsal or production of the Theatre, nor shall it be deemed sufficient to say that such a meeting, rehearsal or production is at an end.
Unity Theatre. 'By-Laws or Rules', Feb. 1943. Unity Theatre Records: series 4
At first Unity's regular Sunday evening readings and lectures were held at the SCR rooms in Lambton Quay, but by late 1944 the group was well enough established to lease its own premises in Cuba Street, which it shared with and later leased from the Tua Toru Lodge of the Royal Ancient Order of Buffaloes.
Relations between the two groups were not entirely cordial, however, and Unity was forced to leave the building in 1949. After another year, during which its productions were put together in various garages and warehouses around the city, it purchased an old house in the suburb of Newtown.
The People's Voice, reviewing Of Mice and Men in March 1944, welcomed Unity as
the only working class theatre movement that has become established in Wellington in recent years. The objects of the group, in addition to presenting realistic drama to its own members and the public, are to produce plays for organisation within the labour movement.
'Unity Theatre Advances',
People's Voice,15 Mar. 1944, p.8
Unity Theatre did not establish any formal association with the trade union movement. But, like the Auckland People's Theatre, it was inspired by the purpose of taking the theatre and its political message to the people. Several attempts were made to pursue this goal. 'According to Plan' was performed before a trade union audience in October 1942. In 1944 performances were put on for the Army, Navy and Airforce Social Club and the national conference of the Communist Party. In June 1945 'All Aboard', an American anti-racist play,
'Unity Theatre—A Progressive Force', ibid., 6 Sept. 1944, p.2
That these were the only such attempts was due in part to practical considerations. Simply, 'it was found to be much more difficult than we had thought.' Bailey interview Martin to McClymont, 22 Aug. 1964 McClymont. Interview with author, 8 May 1984
In view of the lack of interest in the Theatre and the consequent deplorable financial situation in which the Theatre finds itself, the Committee recommends that the meeting should consider a dissolution of the Theatre.
Unity Theatre minutes, 3 Dec. 1945.
But it was revived, largely through the efforts of the Communist Party and in particular the full-time involvement of Ray Nunes, the Party's Wellington branch secretary and later Modern Books' manager, as president. John McCreary also assisted full-time with reorganising the theatre and Ron Meek assisted with programme planning for the first half of the year. The membership subscription was raised to £1.
When Henry Martin had discussed with Ron Meek his plans to form a people's theatre in Wellington Meek had replied:
The first question you have to do is decide how far it is going to be a
people'stheatre. It is a stark and unfortunate fact that the working class as a whole, speaking generally, is not interested in drama, at least it has been our experience here.Meek to H. Martin, [nd], quoted in Martin to McClymont, 22 Aug. 1964
Evidently this was also Unity's experience in Wellington. Despite its close connection with the Communist Party in these years, and about a third of its active membership at this time being in working class occupations, it did not attract significant working class support. Unity was essentially a product of the intellectual wing of the Communist Party, and would more accurately be described as a small group of radical intellectuals than a working class theatre. Its membership in 1943 probably numbered about 30, and by 1945, 100. The active core of members was much smaller. Martin later reflected on Unity's first two years:
At this stage of the theatre's development it was a pretty heart-breaking affair for those who were trying to create it, it being up-hill all the way with nobody caring or wanting to know about our aims and our ideals: we were wiped off as being half-nutty left-wing intellectuals.
Martin to McClymont, ibid.
Much of the informal discussion in and around Unity Theatre took place in the French Maid Coffee Bar, run by Dick Singleton, near the corner of Willis Street and Lambton Quay. The French Maid was an important venue for discussion of art and politics among Wellington's intellectual left in these years, 'a kind of mecca for the left and the arty', and is remembered as being more 'arty' than political. Bailey interview Ibid.
Who comprised Unity's audience at this stage is more difficult to say. They were not public works employees, at least. In the recollection of members 'we were mainly catering to the intellectuals'. Casts for fortnightly readings were
A. Bagley. Interview with author, 25 Apr. 1984
It is notable that, although it was conceived as an agitprop theatre and hoped to attract 'people who can write short, topical satires', 'Wanted—People Keen on Stage Craft' '"They Came to a City"', People s Voice, 29 Nov. 1944, p.3; programme [nd]. Unity Theatre Records: box 2; Bagley interview. See also O. Gray. Exit Left. Memoirs of a Scarlet Woman. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin, 1985, pp.123-9
The type of drama you put on would depend, of course, on the nature of your organisation. O'Casey and Odets are good for any audience and would be good starting points. There are numerous plays put out by the Left Book Club which are of a more obvious nature and devoid of any merit, but which might be effective. You could also try to foster N.Z. drama, though most of it is poor stuff; and some of your members might have play-writing tendencies which could also be fostered.
Meek to Martin, quoted in Martin to McClymont, 22 Aug. 1964
Perhaps Unity simply lacked a writer of the capability and commitment of In Print of the two anti-fascist plays 'Erna Kremer' and 'According to Plan' observed:
Even in peace-time it was a job for a people's theatre. To-day it's even harder. Many of the classics of these theatres—'Bury the Dead' or 'Where's That Bomb?' are now utterly unsuitable; their theme puts them right out of court now that the main interest of the people is to press forward the war and war-production.
'Plays for To-Day',
In Print,4 Nov. 1942, p.3
Nor was this a time which encouraged a focus on New Zealand issues (the recently-celebrated centennial notwithstanding). Like Mason's 'Refugee', Martin's 'Pageant', in so far as it dealt with New Zealand history, placed it
Over the second half of the 1940s Unity underwent a change in its membership, repertoire and public image similar in kind to that experienced by the Hamilton People's Theatre, if not so dramatic. The constitutional statement 'real and sincere in its presentation of life' was described by Meek in a 1946 programme as 'the red thread which runs through Unity productions'.' Programme, Hamilton People's Theatre. Programme, Juno and the Paycock, Apr. [1946]. Alexander Turnbull Library EphemeraThe Plough and the Stars, Sept. 1942.
sufficiently precise to exclude a large number of pot-boiling successes, and vague enough to admit plays of established worth which might, on technical grounds, elude the Marxist canon.
Mason, 'Founder-producer of Unity Theatre Dies'; 'Wellington's Unity Theatre', p.155
This development meant not an abandonment of the strongly left-wing plays of the early years, as occurred in Hamilton, but a broadening of the Unity corpus. O'Casey, Odets and Soviet drama still figured but so did Ibid., p. 158Juno and the Paycock, produced by Ron Meek, which was followed the next year by The Plough and the Stars and O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings. In 1948 there was KingLear and The Male Animal by Thurber and Nugent, Unity's first comedy. In 1949 the major productions were Thornton Wilder's Our Town, a depiction of small-town life in America, The Moon in the Yellow River by Denis Johnston, and Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. Readings and studio productions in these years included Sweeney Todd—the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (a melodrama), Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, T.S. Eliot's The Family Reunion, several Shaw and Chekhov works, Julius Caesar and Richard II, along with Odets' Awake and Sing!, The Russians (Simonov) and Distant Point. It was developing a repertoire which Bruce Mason would later characterise as 'in the minor Ibsen mode'.
At the annual general meeting in 1948 there was a discussion of policy which made explicit the reordering of priorities which underlay this broadening of Unity's repertoire:
It was pointed out that our society, like Unity Theatre, London, originally presented propaganda plays; but as there were not enough of these with dramatic merit, the policy was widened to include plays which were intrinsically good and not sufficiently seen. It was pointed out that really good plays usually have social content, and that it was hoped to extend our audiences by good performances of good plays.
Unity Theatre minutes, 4 Apr. 1948
The shift in priorities was accompanied by a concern to dissociate the theatre from its Communist Party origins and to establish a reputation as 'a drama group (rather than a political outgrowth of any description)'. Mason, 'Founder-producer of Unity Theatre Dies' Mason, 'Wellington's Unity Theatre', p.156Unity Theatre Presents. Wellington: Unity Theatre (Inc.), 1966, p.12Lower Depths? O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock . . . "As Juno Boyle, Miss. . . wore a seedy black skirt with a grubby white blouse. A dirty knitted shawl completed her costume.'"New Life, produced in 1946, the Evening Post observed:
the author has overlooked the primary aim of the theatre which should be to entertain the playgoer through his sense of the aesthetic. . . . There is no doubt about the realism with which the play is presented, but when one of the scenes takes place in the delivery room of a maternity hospital, the realism is overdone.
Evening Post,16 Aug. 1946, p.11
The Unity Theatre minutes of special general meeting, 14 Sept. 1946Yearbook of the Arts in New Zealand concurred: 'the scene in the delivery theatre was so grimly realistic as to be positively discouraging to the young women in the audience.'Yearbook of the Arts in New Zealand, v.2, 1946, p.106Evening Post and Dominion refused to accept advertisements for Jean-Paul Sartre's The Respectable Prostitute—even in the original French.
The press's neglect of Unity prompted Meek to complain to the Evening Post in 1946 that
It is not right that a dramatic society such as Unity Theatre, which since its inception has staged several of the greatest plays of our epoch, . . . should receive such treatment from a responsible daily newspaper.
This letter was not printed, and the Meek, correspondence, 21 May 1946; editor, Unity Theatre minutes, 1 Nov. 1947 Programme, Post's editor, in a private reply, while assuring Meek that Unity would be 'given consideration equal with that of cultural and entertainment societies of similar status' offered the opinion that the production in question (Juno and the Paycock) 'cannot accurately be termed an "important event in the cultural life of Wellington".'EveningPost to Meek, 16 May 1946. Unity Theatre Records: box 3Our Town (March 1949) it was observed that while many of the theatre's early problems—small membership, lack of resources and mistaken public perceptions—had largely been overcome, still 'the political bogey is hard to lay'.Our Town, Mar. 1949. Alexander Turnbull Library EphemeraEvening Post, a statement which succinctly demonstrates the theatre's evolution over this period:
Unity Theatre has been aware for some time of a prejudice in the minds of many of the public who mistakenly connect it with a political organisation. As this misunderstanding hampers our development as a dramatic group we would be most grateful if you would help us to dispel the prejudice by publishing the following facts. Unity Theatre is not a political body, nor has it any political affiliations. It is simply an amateur dramatic group. It is our aim to be a progressive theatre; to produce plays that are real and sincere in their presentation of life, plays that may often be provocative but that all have real dramatic value . . .At a meeting held on August 31 to discuss a change of name, our members showed a natural dislike to taking any rash steps to abandon a name which . . . it has taken us some seven years to establish in dramatic circles in Wellington.
Evening Post,5 Sept. 1949, p.6
The evolution of Unity from a political agitprop theatre into one interested in all kinds of good, contemporary, 'socially significant' drama was in a number of respects a product of the changing political climate of the post-war years. From the mid 1940s it became increasingly difficult to find good, appropriate political plays. And in the developing Cold War atmosphere of the later 1940s audiences were becoming less receptive to left-wing material.
There was a corresponding change in the membership of the theatre, which was itself now less interested in political theatre. Having been partly responsible for averting its imminent collapse at the end of 1945, the Communist Party retained its interest in Unity through the following year. Towards the end of 1946, however,
the Party decided that there were too many of its people working in Unity Theatre and that other work was being neglected, and so a number of us were withdrawn, told that we shouldn't work there any more.
Bailey interview
Ray Nunes had resigned as president in August 1946 (having been appointed manager of Modern Books) and was replaced until March 1947 by Nola Millar. The remainder of the committee for that year were Robert Stead, John
In addition to the Communist Party's official withdrawal the departure overseas after the war of a number of its founding members depleted the ranks of Unity's more politically-oriented membership: Henry Martin left New Zealand at the beginning of 1946; Rona and Ron Meek in 1947; Bob Stead, as touring manager with Ngaio Marsh's Canterbury University College Shakespeare production which toured Australia in 1949. (Stead was to return to New Zealand briefly in 1951 as touring manager with Marsh's Commonwealth Theatre Company, and in 1953 with the Stratford Theatre Company. Ron Meek subsequently became a Professor of Economics at Leicester University. Henry Martin became the owner of an engineering works in England.)
The composition of the committee reflected a parallel change in the overall membership of the theatre. From about 1945 there was 'an influx of Training College and university members, plus what is thought to be almost the entire staff of the Turnbull Library'. Mason and Staffan, Unity Theatre Presents, p.11
Waiting for Lefty and The Ascent of F6, had waned; the interest in drama found an oudet in Unity.
In one significant respect the membership of Unity remained constant: the prominent involvement of European immigrants, a number of whom were also shareholders in the Wellington Co-operative Book Society. A member of the theatre later reflected on its cosmopolitan character:
A symbiosis between the comparatively wealthy but culturally-starved immigrants and the impecunious yet Vitally alive and questioning' Unity members developed; in the generally bourgeois attitude ofWellington towards newcomers during and after the war, 'to be accepted without having to conform' as one new arrival put it was indeed a life-line.'
Ibid.
In the 1930s some 1000 European political refugees came to New Zealand in search of a haven from fascism and anti-Semitism. A. Beaglehole, A Small Price to Pay. Refugees from Hitler in New Zealand 1936-46, Wellington: Allen & Unwin/Histori-cal Branch, Department oflnternal Affairs, 1988, p.1
On Saturday everyone was at Ursula's. When I say everyone I mean of course the intelligentsia. . . . Professor Salmonson with half a dozen bottles of beer, John Priest, who had written some very good poetry once and was reckoned a brilliant conversationalist, the refugee doctor Lowenthal with his case of classical records, the painter Peake with his beard, and Fred, and sometimes a reporter from the
Star,and varying numbers of Varsity students who give one to understand that they write poetry. . . . On a night like this, black and thewind raging, you could forget Mrs Jeffries, on the left, who once in a while brought you a home-baked cake, and Mrs Salter, who reported you to the Council for not cutting the hedge, only a stone's throw away on the right. On these nights of hurricane, the little set of friends seemed very small, in the snug little suburb which might blow away into the sea, and no one would ever miss it. No one would ever miss the intellectuals. G. Texidor,
In Fifteen Minutes You Can Say A Lot. Selected Fiction.Ed. and with an introduction by K. Smithyman. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1987, pp.208-9
In Wellington Unity Theatre was a focus for this mutual attraction based on a shared experience of social alienation and cultural deprivation.
In the second half of the 1940s Unity thus came to attract an audience for good, contemporary, progressive drama. It drew an educated, politically aware membership and audience for whom Wellington in the 1940s was a cultural desert, as deprived of good theatre as it had been of good books in the 1930s. It developed beyond its agitprop, anti-fascist origins in response to this barren cultural climate, and in particular as a reaction against the culture of Wellington Repertory. Unity retained its insistence on the primacy of the dramatic text rather than on the opulence of the stage set and finery of the costumes, and on the play's significance rather than potential box-office return. It retained its emphasis on realism in theme and production, on the quality of staging and performance and on the training of its members in theatre skills. These from the outset had been its fundamental principles. But the shift from political to cultural emphasis entailed a greater concern with finished production standards, and a different conception of the function and legitimate form of theatre. George Eiby, Unity's chief stage manager from the late 1940s, was later to comment:
The founders of Unity had an urge to take Theatre to the Masses. Plays had been done in temples and in barns, in innyards, and on waggons on street corners. Why not do them in factories? For the simple reason that it doesn't work. . . . The only plays written to be performed in iron foundries or hash foundries aren't worth doing anywhere. The proper place to act plays is in a playhouse.
Quoted in Mason and Staffan,
UnityTheatre Presents,p.29
Corresponding changes occurred in the working of the theatre. Post-production discussions and general meetings focused on political questions less often. A member recalls of the 1950s:
People might get up at odd times and put forward a motion condemning something or praising something else but it was never passed. . . . People felt that this was a purely political issue and we're a theatre group, the attitude of Russia to Poland or whether it invades Hungary is nothing to do with us.
McClymont interview
From 1946 major productions were put on in the Town Hall Concert Chamber and readings and studio productions at the theatre's own premises. It no longer
Unity Theatre minutes, 1 May 1946
Along with the 'suffocatingly narrow' political commitment (the phrase is Bruce Mason's), Mason, 'Founder-producer of Unity Theatre Dies' 'Theatre in New Zealand', New Zealand Listener in 1949 gave the active membership of Wellington Repertory as 450, its annual expenditure £8000 and number of performances in the last year 90 (including 6 full-length plays); Thespians' total membership as 600, annual outgoings £2800 and performances 46. Unity had a membership of 105, an annual expenditure of £350-400 and had performed for 15 nights.New Zealand Listener, 2 Sept. 1949 (v.21, n.532), p.9
a coterie audience [which] slowly assembled ... for one reason only: chat they wanted to be there, witnesses to the need for a dramatic nourishment which neither radio nor cinema could offer them.
Mason, 'The Cultural Environment in New Zealand: Theatre', 14 July 1970. Bruce Mason Papers: box 5. Victoria University of Wellington Library
But small though it was, Unity was to have an influence on New Zealand theatre disproportionate to its size. Bruce Mason was perhaps a partisan judge, but his assessment of Unity's seminal position in the history of New Zealand theatre is borne out by its record. Unity provided an apprenticeship in theatre skills for many of New Zealand's foremost actors, playwrights and directors of the following decades. Among its members in the late 1940s and the 1950s were Bruce Mason, Nola Millar, Richard and Edith Campion, George Webby, Grant Tilly, Sunny Amey and Ann Flannery. It introduced to Wellington plays which would not otherwise have been seen, with a repertoire covering 'almost the entire corpus of modern drama: British, Irish, American, French, German, Spanish and Russian'—'the Becketts, the Pinters, the Genets and Osbornes.' Mason, 'New Stages in Theatre', p.2645; Mason, quoted in Mason and Staffan, Unity Theatre Presents, p.1
It was also the first theatre in New Zealand to produce Brecht (The Caucasian Chalk Circle in 1952).
Unity's development over these years was similar in a number of ways to the experience of the Sydney New Theatre League. Although that theatre retained a stronger political character than Unity, it too broadened its range in the postwar years, beyond the standard repertoire dominated by Odets and O'Casey to one which included a considerable amount of classical drama, particularly Moliere: 'a broadening out from the propaganda play to get a more middle-class audience who were crying out for "good theatre".' Herlinger, 'A new direction for "the New"?', p.105
One notable difference, however, was the Sydney theatre's stronger, or at least more active, interest in original material. From the mid 30s the New Theatre had produced a significant amount of Australian drama, mostly satirical plays. But it was not until the 1960s that Unity Theatre began to take an active interest in New Zealand drama and established 'a record of performing New Zealand plays . . . second to none'. Atkinson, 'Wellington and Unity Theatre', p.8
As commented earlier, the time when Unity was established was not conducive to a New Zealand orientation. That there was no New Zealand material produced by Unity in this period despite its stated intention 'to present work which is truly related to life and its environment' Programme, Mason and Staffan, They Came to a City, Nov.-Dec. [1944]Unity Theatre Presents, p.19
The emergence of a vigorous, independent New Zealand drama was a considerably later development than the 'renaissance' which occurred in the media of poetry and fiction in the 1930s and 1940s-1950s respectively. New
The Axe (1949), and Unity member Kathleen Ross's 'The Trap', a one-act, social realist play based on her experience as a social worker in Wellington, which Unity produced in 1951. Many factors undoubtedly contributed to the delayed development of New Zealand drama, and at least one is relevant here. It is arguable that the creation of a written drama depended firstly on the existence of a vigorous, good, practising theatre; in other words, that to be able to write effectively for the theatre one needs experience in the theatre, and this requires in turn the existence of a cultural infrastructure. The performing arts require a more extensive professional base than does written literature. Bruce Mason argued as much in 1972:
Before a playwright can work, a long chain must be assembled: theatre, actors, producer, technicians, audiences. Only then can the writer move in and offer his dramatic vision. This is where New Zealand theatre stands now: the chain has been assembled, and the playwrights are ready.
Mason, 'New Stages in Theatre', p.2651
For almost three decades, until it finally folded in the 1970s, Unity Theatre was to play an important role in the development of that cultural infrastructure.
By the 1960s Unity seemed at last to have outgrown its 'Communist front' image. In 1962 it was described by Wellington's newspapers as 'the city's leading serious drama group'. Quoted in Mason and Staffan, Unity Theatre Presents, p.38Dominion, which 10 years earlier had refused to accept Unity advertisements, now wrote:
Many people believe it to be the finest theatrical group in the country; others have occasionally complained of its morbid sensitivity. Whatever the truth of this, it is certain that since the early 1940s Unity has presented plays that have stimulated, provoked and moved Wellington audiences.
Ibid., p.17
But by the end of the decade Unity Theatre, like the cooperative bookshops, was finding that its purpose had been to some extent absorbed by the emergence of competing theatre groups. Downstage, a professional theatre, was established in 1964 and soon became the dominant presence in Wellington theatre. Several other amateur groups had emerged since the late 1950s, such as Stagecraft (formed in 1957) and the New Theatre Company (formed in the early 60s), and presented a repertoire hardly distinguishable from Unity's. The group had also lost some of the political enthusiasm of the 1940s, as its 'social purpose [became] muddied by the confusion of the times'. B. Mason and J. Pocock, Theatre in Danger. A Correspondence. Hamilton: Paul's Book Arcade Ltd, 1957, p.26
Mason had hoped that his People's Theatre would eventually receive financial support from the government. The argument that the state should support a people's culture was a logical extension of a socialist model of culture. It is also an argument which was expressed by a number of New Zealand writers and critics in this period, and can be seen as a corollary of cultural nationalism. The Waiting Hills (1943), suggested that the government establish an editorial board which would subsidise the publication of New Zealand literature, while the recently-formed writers' organisation PEN lobbied in the 1940s for the establishment of a literature advisory and funding body. These requests were not disappointed; the New Zealand Literary Fund was established in 1946 and the award of government grants to cultural organisations and travel bursaries to individuals initiated in the late 1940s. These initiatives followed the establishment by the Labour government of the National Film Unit, the National Library Service and the National Orchestra.
Between 1947 and 1949 the question of a state funded national theatre was also publicly discussed. The proposal never came to fruition, but the debate, on which it foundered, is of interest here: it involved a number of people who were active in the left theatre movement, and it centred upon discussion around the concept of a popular culture.
A five person committee to investigate the issue was appointed by the Prime Minister in March 1947, and advice was sought from visiting overseas artists as well as local dramatic groups. A meeting held in October that year agreed on the establishment of a drama school which would in due course produce a professional theatre company; the company would be controlled by a seven member board appointed by the government. Disagreement between the principal parties thwarted any further action, however, and the drama school and national theatre never came to be.
The Auckland Drama Council saw the role of a national theatre as one of encouraging popular cultural awareness and activity. It advocated a decentralised, locally-controlled organisation which would cater to a wide, popular audience. Its argument was advanced in opposition to the model of a centralised, government initiated and controlled, professional theatre, as proposed by the recently-formed New Zealand Drama Council. An organisation of this kind, the Auckland group feared, would result in 'an anticipation, possibly incorrect, of the general direction of artistic development'. Stated a submission by
We are frankly doubtful of culture being dispensed from above by Government officials and educational bodies like Adult Education. We believe in the slow growth of culture in and from the people. We believe in a people culturing, not being cultured. We have more faith in the doings of a small amateur group in the backblocks, in its ultimate cultural effects in the people, than the effect of an occasional visit from some company of great actors. We believe in participation.
Quoted in Fox, 'State Aid to the Arts', p.19
This populist argument was extended by Arnold Goodwin in his proposal for small, mobile theatre groups, which would dispense with the conventional proscenium arch stage and experiment in alternative forms of staging—a proposal which emphasised the inherent participatory nature of theatre and which would enable plays to be performed in small communities which lacked stage facilities. A. Goodwin, 'A National Theatre', L Milner, 'U.S. Federal Theatre Project: A People's Theatre?', Landfall, 9, Mar. 1949 (v.3, n.1), pp.69-72. Goodwin's proposals were prompted in part by the experiment of the WEA-based Community Arts Service, which from 1946 toured dramatic productions around the Auckland district.New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, v.277, 1947, p.755Tomorrow Ian Milner had pondered whether the New Zealand government 'might well see its way towards endowing a theatre to produce plays of social significance at prices open to all.'Tomorrow, 23 Nov. 1938 (v.5, n.2), p.59
These proposals expressed a similar vision of the theatre to that expressed by N. Marsh, 'ANational Theatre', Landfall in 1948, in his own contribution to the debate. Concerned about the designs of theatre magnate RJ. Kerridge who was promoting a scheme to establish a commercially-based national theatre in Auckland, Mason supported the principle of a government-funded organisation, but also emphasised the necessity of political and artistic independence, warning of the danger of 'bureaucratic strangulation, and political interference'.Landfall 5, Mar. 1948 (v.2, n.1), pp.34-8; 'National Theatre. Time to Act', Press, 29 Nov. 1948, p.6Landfall 9, Mar. 1949 (v.3, n.1), p.67
This debate introduces the central issue, both theoretical and practical, raised by the history of left cultural activity in the 1930s and 1940s. The conflict between the two models of cultural organisation put forward by the Auckland Drama Council and the New Zealand Drama Council parallels a major tension in the cultural theory expounded by Winston Rhodes, where a model of an organic, popular culture coexists uneasily with an emphasis on the active role of the artist or intellectual, in saving the old culture or in creating the new. This uncertainty centres on a problem which was fundamental to both the idea and the experience of socialist cultural activity in this period: that of how an intellectual avant-garde can create a popular culture. Or, to pose the question in the words of Winston Rhodes: how the 'defenders of culture' might 'carry it forth in to the streets of the cities.'Tomorrow, 25 July 1934 (v.1, n.3), p.13
Neither Unity Theatre nor the Hamilton People's Theatre realised
The expansion of the cultural infrastructure in New Zealand over these two decades was partly the achievement of the left cultural movement itself, but was also a result of new cultural influences in New Zealand society, influences brought by European refugees, American troops stationed in New Zealand during the war, and the return of New Zealand's own soldiers from overseas. The cultural desert of the 1930s had become a more fertile ground by the end of the 1940s, through the related influences of a developing national consciousness and an enhanced understanding of New Zealand's place within a larger political and cultural context.
Realisation of the socialist ideal was also hindered, in the case of the cooperative book movement and progressive publishing, by the simpler facts of economics: the small market, the need for capital, and the necessary if distasteful considerations of sales and profits. But the more disappointing reality was, as Ron Meek observed to Henry Martin in 1940, that 'the people' did not appear to be enormously interested in supporting a left-wing cultural movement. When the Progressive Publishing Society invited manuscripts of a popular or working class nature, and when Unity Theatre performed to a working class audience, they were not gratified by the response. Nor did the organised labour movement—the Labour Party or trade unions—show a strong interest.
The partial exception was in Auckland. There the support of trade union officials was expressed in significant union representation in the management of the Progressive Book Society in its early years and in the affiliation of several unions to the People's Theatre, and possibly in the higher working class membership of these organisations compared with their Wellington counterparts. The Auckland carpenters' union in particular had a comparatively high profile in these activities. This union is also noteworthy for its journal, the facetiously named Borer and its successor the Union Record, which were exceptional among union publications in the degree of interest they showed in international political issues and cultural activity as well as in local politics and union affairs. Borer was one of only two union journals to have significant coverage of the Spanish Civil War. In addition to reporting the activities of the
Industrial Worker, a national labour journal published in 1940-1, had regular book reviews which featured mostly political literature, but otherwise did not attempt to fulfill a cultural function.
The extent of trade union-based, working class cultural activity is not the subject of this book, and it has not been extensively researched. But the lack of cultural material in union journals would seem to reflect the low priority accorded to cultural activity by the trade union movement at this time. R. Taylor, 'Dennis Knight Turner— artist'. Paper given at Labour History Conference: Culture and the Labour Movement, Wellington, 20-1 Oct. 1990Industrial Worker'Readers' Leagues were formed in a number of places, as were Workers' Weekly Readers' Leagues in the late 1930s, but although some saw a potential for these organisations to encourage social and cultural activity—and an Auckland Industrial Worker Readers' League group gave a reading of Where's That Bomb? in January 1941—their primary function was the promotion and distribution of the journal. The paintings done by Dennis Knight Turner for Auckland trade unions in 1948 are a rare example of direct union patronage of the arts in this period. In addition to a handful of social realist paintings (in a style derivative of Frank Brangwyn), Knight Turner produced cartoons for the labourers' union journal Challenge (on which (Buccaneering Bankers and Frontier Forsaken). However, in the 1950s he abandoned social realism for abstractionism, in which he was to develop a greater reputation. The reason for his break with the trade union movement and the Communist Party at the beginning of the 1950s is not yet known but lack of support for his work seems a likely factor.Fighting Back (made by Cecil Holmes and Rudail Hayward), also deserves mention here, as does the mural 'Controversy' which was painted by Lois White for the Auckland WEA between 1943 and 1946 (this was destroyed in the WEA fire a few years later). But it is fair to say that in the 1930s and 1940s the labour movement as a whole did not actively support a working class culture which might have provided a basis for the popular audience that Mason or Rhodes envisaged.
The Communist Party provided a context of a different kind. Although it was only a small organisation the Party defined for itself a larger social and cultural role. Its Unity Centres—one was opened in Wellington in November 1943 and another in Christchurch in 1944—were intended to provide 'a social and cultural home for the labour movement'. 'UnityCentre', Ibid. The Unity Centre murals, now held in the Alexander Turnbull Library, are reproduced in Peoples Voice, 26 Jan. 1944, p.8Sites, 16, Autumn 1988, pp.71-6Peoples Voice, 20 July 1946, p.2
The Communist Party press showed a greater interest than did labour journals in left-wing or working class culture. Until the mid 1930s the Workers' Weekly contained no cultural items at all, but from that time occasional verse or short fiction appeared—Shelley's 'Mask of Anarchy', for example, and a serialised version of Upton Sinclair's No Pasaran!'This may have reflected the appointment of Gordon Watson as editor rather than Popular Front ideology alone. By contrast, the Peoples Voice and its wartime replacement In Print, the latter edited by
The Party also produced a small amount of dramatic activity in addition to its support for Unity and the people's theatres. Party socials, dances and rallies were regular events and would sometimes include cultural items, as did a Wellington 'Rally and Dance' on 1 October 1942 which was billed with 'Poster Display, Choir, Short Plays [Unity's 'According to Plan'], Supper, Dance.' E. Locke. Letter to author, 30 Mar. 1984 Songsheets. In Print, 23 Sept. 1942, p. [4]In Print, 6 Dec. 1942. p. [2]
But despite these efforts, cultural activity was not a Communist Party priority, and formed a smaller part of Party work in New Zealand than it did in other countries. There were no workers' art clubs such as that with which Winston Rhodes had been associated in Melbourne in the early 30s, or Jean Devanny in Sydney. When Rhodes first arrived in Christchurch he was surprised to find no workers' theatre, workers' art club or labour college. A Party member who emigrated from England in the mid 30s was similarly disappointed to find that the cultural life she had enjoyed within the Party there was largely absent in New Zealand. What cultural activity there was coincided for the most part with the heightened activity and rapidly growing membership of the early 40s. In the more difficult post-war years priorities quickly changed, as the Party's withdrawal from Unity Theatre at the end of 1946 demonstrates. The revived People's Voice did not continue the arts page introduced by Mason; its only regular non-political features in 1946-7 were a film review and a (considerably longer) racing column.
In the absence of concerted interest from the Communist Party or the organised labour movement in fostering a working class or left-wing culture, one can only speculate on the support this would have received. But it is arguable that the international orientation of the Communist Party, and its resulting failure to look to a New Zealand working class tradition, political or cultural, would have undermined any real attempt to foster a genuinely popular culture of this kind. The Party's social calendar reflected the international frame of reference which also informed Mason's plays and Henry Martin's 1940 pageant. The occasions for celebration were dates of significance to the international communist movement: the anniversary of the Russian revolution on 7 November; Red Army Day; the anniversary of the signing of the Anglo-Soviet treaty in 1942 (marked by the SCR); the anniversary of Stalingrad; and of course May Day. May Day was marked by the Canterbury Trades Council and Federation of Labour in 1946 with a concert which featured the following programme of entertainment: traditional Russian songs, Spanish and Russian dance, the Tuahiwi Maori Party, a performance of Mason's This Dark Will Lighten' by the Progressive Drama Group (to whom no further reference has been found), and recitals of 'Serenato' and 'O Sole Mio', 'The Road to Mandalay', 'Waltzing Matilda' and 'England' and 'Song of Liberty'. Programme, May 1946. Jack Locke Deposit: item 17. University of Canterbury Library
The failure of the left-wing cultural movement in the 30s and 40s to establish a socialist or popular culture was not confined to such activities in New Zealand. In both the United States and Australia, the upsurge of left-wing cultural activity in the 1930s was, in the 1940s and 1950s, channelled into 'nationalist' cultural movements. Although the histories of these movements were not exactly-parallel, the similarity in the pattern of cultural development in these countries and in New Zealand suggests that there were problems fundamental to the theory and practice of socialist culture.
The disjunction between the socialist ideal which inspired the cooperative book movement and the people's theatre, and the audience to which they increasingly catered, is foreshadowed in the cultural theory of Rhodes in Rhodes, 'The Dance of Life', Ibid. 'Revolt in the Madhouse', ibid., 14 Apr. 1937(v.3, n.12), p.370 'Forerunners', ibid., 28 Aug. 1935 (v.1, n.44), p.12Tomorrow. Rhodes succinctly expressed the central problem of Popular Front cultural politics when he wrote: 'The people, long out of touch with the poets, may not read them; but if they did, they would find something they could recognise and understand—their own authentic voice.'Tomorrow, 10 Apr. 1935 (v.1, n.38), p.io
Just how the writer was to do this, and how, in turn, this might contribute to the growth of a popular culture—the problem experienced by the socialist cultural initiatives discussed in this book—is something that Rhodes' cultural theory is unable to resolve. A relatively simplistic, determinist analysis of the relationship between literature and class or social context is apparent when Rhodes surveys the history of the novel. The writer's imagination and natural
'Revolt in the Madhouse', pp.369-70 'Heroes in Fiction' (3), ibid., 7 July 1937 (v.3, n.18), pp.561-2
The image invoked here of the 'worker . . . writing' is exemplified for Rhodes by Lewis Jones, the Welsh miner, trade unionist and author of two novels of mining life, 'The Novels of Lewis Jones', ibid., 22 Nov. 1939 (v.6, n.12), pp.50-1. Rhodes also reviewed these two novels in the F. Sargeson, correspondence, Rhodes, correspondence, ibid.Cwmardy (1937) and We Live (1939), whom Rhodes describes as a writer 'who was of the people, for the people and with the people all his life', and whose novels 'were merely a by-product of his life of continual struggle.'Peoples Voice under the title 'Miner Who Wrote For The People' (8 Dec. 1939, p.7)Tomorrow over the issues raised by Rhodes (and one of the very few which was not taken up by Tomorrow, 4 Aug. 1937 (v.3, n.20), p.632; T. Woollaston, correspondence, ibid., 30 Mar. 1938 (v.4, n.11), p.352
The conflicting descriptions Rhodes gives of the literary fellow traveller, and the debate between Rhodes and Sargeson and Woollaston, derive from the coexistence of two models of cultural production. His description of the works of Lewis Jones as 'merely a by-product of his life of continual struggle' expresses a model of culture as an organic process and a communal product. This model informs both Rhodes' popular cultural vision and his commentary on New Zealand culture:
more and more is our culture becoming the possession of those who have least to contribute to what little we have of communal life. That is to say our culture is no culture at all. It may seem a flourishing growth but it has no roots in the soil of the nation—its people. It is no culture if it does not spring from the natural recognition of those things which are valuable to the life of the community.
'The Cult of Culture', pp.12-13
Rhodes' organic model of culture is also supported, as is clear from this passage, by a pastoral metaphor, which like his 'humanist Marxism' is owed partly to the influence of William Morris. He finds, for example, that the proletarian literature of the Soviet Union is in 'contact with the rough vigour of worker and peasant', while western literature 'has lost touch with the soil and forgotten the tool'. 'Literature in the Land of the Soviets III: Proletarian Writers', T. Eagleton, Tomorrow, 13 Mar. 1935 (v.1, n.34), p.13Writers Between Two Wars. AEWS discussion course, 1943, p.64Marxism and Literary Criticism. London: Methuen, 1981, p.54
The discourse of New Zealand cultural nationalism in the 1930s and 1940s expresses a similar ambivalence regarding the role of the artist. It too contains a strong emphasis on originating and creating while simultaneously subscribing to an organic model of culture. Here, the pastoral theme and its theoretical implications are carried in the literary focus on landscape and seascape, and in the 'metaphors of solidity' R. Horrocks, 'No Theory Permitted on These Premises', 'This Culture', A. Curnow, Curnow, AND, 2, Feb. 1984, p.136Co-op Books, Dec. 1943 (v.1, n.2), p.1Phoenix and the centennial theme of the nation's 'coming of age' (not to mention The Waiting Hills)—also reflect a conception of culture as an organic whole, and of its development as a natural process. Hence Allen Curnow's self-effacing statement in the introduction to the Book of New Zealand Verse. 'It would not be necessary, even if I thought it honest, to modify the choice of poems so as to illustrate a favoured thesis: the recurring themes and attitudes are there, plainly, in the writings of those whom we have best reason to call our poets.'A Book of New Zealand Verse 1923-45. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1945, p.18Phoenix and Landfall attributed to the artist a redemptive, and prescriptive, role: 'the creation of cultural 'antennae' and 'the integration of national consciousness' (Phoenix); the maintenance of 'a single scale of values' (Landfall); 'a New Zealand metaphysic as a centralising effort of intellect that would be followed by an enrichment of the general culture' (Holcroft).Phoenix, Mar. 1932 (v.1, n.1), p. [1]; 'Notes', Landfall, Mar. 1947 (v.1, n.1), p.3; Discovered Isles. A Trilogy. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1950, p.83A Book of New Zealand Verse, p.52
Curnow could have been speaking for Rhodes and the left-wing cultural movement when he wrote of the Ibid., p.17Phoenix poets: 'The real question was not what they were to write about, but whom they were to write for. . . . About his audience there can be yet no certainty for the New Zealand poet'.
Tomorrow provided the only regular forum for most of the 1930s for the publication of New Zealand literature and for informed debate on political, social, economic and cultural affairs in New Zealand, as well as a medium for the expression of liberal and left-wing opinion on international affairs. The Left Book Club and the cooperative book societies introduced to the New Zealand book buying public a wide range of literature which had previously been virtually unobtainable, from works on Marxism and the Soviet Union to social
Tomorrow sought to reconcile: a vision of a socialist, popular culture; an interest in contemporary and modernist culture emanating from Britain, Europe and America; and a growing interest in establishing an independent New Zealand culture. That vision was not fulfilled. Nevertheless, over these two decades the left-wing movement was a major influence in the development of New Zealand's intellectual and cultural infrastructure.
Belshaw, H., A General Survey of Problems of Reconstruction. Reconstruction Pamphlet n.i (New Zealand Co-operative Publishing Society Ltd for the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs)
Britain Marches with Russia (reprint)
Health Services, or, Doctors and Hospitals. Reconstruction Pamphlet n. 2 (NZCPS for NZIIA)
What of the New Order? Reconstruction Pamphlet n.3 (NZCPS for NZIIA)
Soviet Youth, a speech by M. Maisky (reprint)
Anglo-Soviet Co-operation (NZCPS for the League of Nations Union)
International Affairs Research Group, Fascist Japan, ally of Hitler
Leathem, S., What of Manufacture? Reconstruction Pamphlet n.4 (NZCPS for NZIIA)
The Historical Background of the World Labour Movement (first published 1939)
—, Socialist Theory of the State &the Soviet Union (first published by the Labour Research Association, 1940)
Trade with the U.S.S.R. Where Does N.Z. Come In? (reprinted from
Better Business, May 1942)
—, Workers and the War Effort
The Road to Victory. The People's Unity against Fascism
Slums of Auckland
Dean of Canterbury, Soviet Strength (reprint)
Shaping the Future (reprint)
Hours of Work in War-time
Socialist Medical Association of Great Britain, Health Protection in the U.S.S.R. (reprint)
Venereal Disease. The Shadow over New Zealand (introduction by
The Willing Horse. The Prize-winning Play in One Act
Twelve Echoes from France. French poems Englished
Black, D., Tales for Pippa (illus. B. Milne)
Outlaw's Progress
Bush, A., et al, A National Health Service
Curnow, A., Whim Wham, 1945
Women on the Home Front. An S.O.S. from Mothers
The Waiting Hills
Verse by New Zealand Children (illus.
Sinclaire, F., Lend Me Your Ears. Essays (second ed.)
Medical Advice from a Backblock Hospital (second ed.)
Workers and the War Effort (second, cheap ed.)
Vogt, A., Poems for a War
Close-up of Guadalcanal
Something To Tell
Twelve More Echoes. French Poems with Verse Translations
Beaglehole, E., Islands of Danger
Poems by Clyde Carr
Half Lengths of Pupils & People (illus. R. Clark)
Christians in the Class Struggle. Progressive Pamphlet n.i (reprint, with foreward by
Curnow, A., Sailing or Drowning. Poems
Hands off the Tom Tom
—, We New Zealanders. An Informal Essay
The Bad-mannered Pigs. A read-it-yourself book (illus.)
—, The Little White Gate (illus.)
—, The Ten Chickens (illus.)
—, When I Grow Up (illus.)
Gardner, R., The Industrial Development of New Zealand. Progressive Pamphlet n.2 McDonald, D., Sidi Reszegh and other verses{memorial ed., published for the Feilding Agricultural High School Old Pupils' Association)
Mason, A. (Baggie and his Famous Cat Tom (illus. N. Bolton)
Maori Problems Today. A Short Survey
Morice, S., The Book ofWiremu (illus. N. Bolton)
Mostyn, I. (The Truth About Internal Marketing
Russia—The Coming Power in the Pacific
Sargeson, F., A Man and His Wife (cheap ed.)
Medical Advice from a Backblock Hospital (third ed.)
Good-bye to Gold.
A Guide to the International Monetary Fund
Wool Marketing and Notes on the Care of Hides and Skins. Progressive Pamphlet n.3
A Step in the March Towards a People's World. Progressive Pamphlet n.4
Timeless World. A Collection of Essays
Moore, M., Some Poems for New Zealand
Ost, F., Three Essays on Czech Poets
Ost, F. and R. Meek (trans, and ed.), The Vltava Still Sings. Modern Czech Verse
La Rochefoucauld, F., A Primer of Love. A Selection from the Maxims of La Rochefoucauld
(foreword by
New Zealand New Writing n.1 (Dec. 1942), n.2 (1943), n.3 (June 1944), n.4 (Mar. 1945)
8-10 December: Waiting for Lefty (Odets). Avondale Municipal Centre
?: Waiting for Lefty. Trades Hall
10 April: Waiting for Lefty. Hamilton
11 April: Waiting for Lefty. Huntly
12-18, 21-2 June: Till the Day I Die (Odets). WEA Hall
8 September: short adaptation of Waiting for Lefty. Carpenters' union meeting (also performed at meetings of the general labourers' and local bodies' labourers' unions)
25, 27-8 June: Judgment Day (Rice). Town Hall Concert Chamber
18, 20-22 March: Falls the Shadow (Hamilton). Town Hall Concert Chamber
14 May: International Brigade (Mason). Spanish Medical Aid Committee meeting, Regent Theatre
1 October: BMA (Mason). Auckland Unitarian Church
5 November: sketch performed at a rally to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of the Russian revolution
12 November: Rehearsal (Maltz); Good Blood—Bad Blood; BMA. Fabian Club Rooms
12 November: Skull on Silence (Mason). Rally
10 December: Squire Speaks (Mason); Eleventh Hour; People's Court; This Dark Will Lighten (Mason). Fabian Club Rooms
?: Rehearsal. WEA social evening
?: BMA. Performed for Labour Party branches and other organisations
?: Perkins and the Butler (Mason). People's Theatre dance ?: Better Bayonets (Mason)
19 March: variety fundraising concert
12-14 October: Till the Day I Die (Odets). Waikato Winter Show Hall
11 November: Till the Day I Die. Te Aroha 18 November: Till the Day I Die. Cambridge 25 November: Till the Day I Die. Morrinsville
?: Till the Day I Die. Huntly
9, 11-12 December: Golden Boy (Odets). Waikato Winter Show Hall
2 June: The Ascent of F6 (Auden and Isherwood). Reading (for members only)
9 June: lecture: 'The Ascent of F6', R. Meek
23 June: A Bid for Freedom (Hanlon). Reading (for members only) 7 July: Fumed Oak (Coward). Reading
14 July: We Got Rhythm (Ratcliff); Habit, a scene from Cartoon (Coppard)
24, 26 July: Habit; We Got Rhythm. British Drama League festival
11 August: Battles Long Ago (Bax)
18 August: Some Day They'll Pay (Mackie)
1 September: Dark Lady of the Sonnets (Shaw). Reading
17-18 November: The Star Turns Red (O'Casey). Theatre Royal
1 December: Noel Coward sketch. People's Theatre social evening
27 April: Atonement (Thompson). Reading
25 May: Where's That Bomb? (Gullan and Roberts). Reading
28-9 September: The Plough and the Stars (O'Casey). Theatre Royal
19-20 October: Robert's Wife (Ervine). Theatre Royal Lectures: Toller, Synge, 'Dramatic technique', 'Drama in relation to society'
19 April: lecture: 'O'Neill', with readings: In the Zone; The Long Voyage Home. Centreway Tearooms
10 May: The Moon is Down (Steinbeck). Reading. Centreway Tearooms
24 May: Anton Chekhov evening: lecture and readings. Centreway Tearooms 14 June: Distant Point (Afinogenov). Reading. Centreway Tearooms
28 June: Village Wooing (Shaw); Who Killed Me? (Chantel). Readings. Centreway Tearooms
12 July: lecture: 'Henrik Ibsen—his life and work', Ron Meek. Centreway Tearooms
9 August: lecture: 'The Elizabethan dramatists', Haswell Paine. Centreway Tearooms
30-1 August: The Moon is Down
21 September: The Importance of Being Earnest (Wilde). Reading. YWCA
11 October: According to Plan (Parsons); The Willing Horse (Andrews). Readings. YWCA
1 November: Julius Caesar (Shakespeare). Reading. YWCA
15 November: Dr O'Toole; The Boy—What Will He Become? (Brighouse). Readings. YWCA
29 November: Major Barbara (Shaw) (excerpt); John Alladin Lee and his Wonderful Lamp (a musical extravaganza). Centreway Tearooms
?: discussion evening: Paul Green
16 March: dramatisation of de Maupassant story of the Franco-Prussian war
27 July: They Came to a City (Priestley). Semi-production (for members and friends only). EPS hut
10 August: The Silver Tassie (O'Casey). Semi-production (for members and friends only). EPS hut
27-8 September: They Came to a City. State Theatre
14 May: The Beautiful People (Saroyan). Reading. YWCA
28 May: The Ideal Husband (Wilde). Reading. YWCA
11-12 June: Macbeth (Shakespeare). Frankton Town Hall
27 August: Deirdre of the Sorrows (Synge). Reading. YWCA
6 May: Arms and the Man (Shaw). Semi-production. Hamilton Little Theatre
18-20 July: The Sacred Flame (Maugham). Little Theatre
15 October: The Doll's House (Ibsen). Little Theatre
30 November: 'Scenes from Shakespeare's plays'. Little Theatre
1, 3 May: Fumed Oak; The Tinker's Wedding (Synge) (with combined casts of Hamilton People's Theatre and Hamilton Playbox). Little Theatre
6 May: Squaring the Circle (Katayev). Reading. Little Theatre
10 June: In Camera (Sartre). Reading. Little Theatre
8 July: Too True to be Good (Shaw). Reading. Little Theatre
25 July: The Waxen Man (Reynolds). BDL festival
9 September: Kind Lady (Chodorov). Reading, Little Theatre
28 October: French without Tears (Rattigan). Little Theatre
11 November: lecture: 'The Other Theatre, by N. Marshall', H. Paine. Little Theatre
1-2 March: The Mistakes of a Night, 'an adapted comedy by R. Parkes'. Little Theatre
27 April: Peace in Our Time (Coward). Reading. Little Theatre
5-6, 10 July: You Never Can Tell (Shaw). Little Theatre
28, 30 July: You Never Can Tell (act one); The Young Idea (Coward). BDL festival
17 August: The School for Scandal (Sheridan). Little Theatre
7 September: The Guinea-Pig (Strode). Reading. Little Theatre
16 November: Night Must Fall (Williams) (in association with the Morrinsville Drama Club). Little Theatre
23 November: Overtones (Gerstenberg); The Scarecrow (Ferguson). Little Theatre
30 June, 1 July: Arms and the Man. Production by the CAS Theatre Unit, presented by the People's Theatre. Little Theatre
25-6 July: Overtones; The Scarecrow. BDL festival
12, 14 November: The Rivals (Sheridan) (in association with the College Players). Hamilton Technical College Hall
25 September: According to Plan (Parsons). Lower Hutt Communist Party variety evening
1 October: According to Plan. Rally and dance, Trades Hall
7 October: According to Plan; Where's That Bomb? (Gullan and Buckley), with Russian folk dance and American and Russian folk songs by the Unity Theatre Choir. CP concert
10 December: Royal Inn; According to Plan; Erna Kremer (Bishou). RSA Hall
14 March: lecture: 'The international theatre of protest', WJ. Scott, with reading: The Earth Is Ours (Kozlenko) (performed by Wellington Teachers' Training College students). English Speaking Union rooms
18 April: lecture: 'Mime and satire as a weapon of the theatre', Elsie Lloyd, with reading: Awake and Sing! (Odets). SCR rooms
16 May: lecture: 'The American theatre and drama', Rona Meek, with reading: My Heart's in the Highlands (Saroyan). SCR rooms
?: Waiting for Lefty (Odets). Reading (for members only)
30 May: lecture: 'Unity Theatre, London', Robert Stead, with reading: Life is Calling. SCR rooms
13 June: Paul Green evening, with reading: In Abraham's Bosom. SCR rooms
27 June: social evening with play reading, singing and entertainment. SCR rooms
11 July: lecture: 'The non-commercial theatre, i.e. the amateur theatre, the Soviet theatre, and the Federal Theatre, USA', S. Williams, with reading. SCR rooms
25 July: Distant Point (Afinogenov). Reading. SCR rooms
8 August: lecture: 'The Greek drama', Nance Potter, with reading: The Iphigenia in Tauris (Euripides). SCR rooms
22 August: reading and discussion of three one-act plays. SCR rooms
1-3 September: The Artist (Chekhov); According to Plan (Parsons); The Red Velvet Coat (Niggli). British Drama League Festival
5 September: lecture: 'Anton Chekhov', Howard Wadman, with reading: excerpt from The Russians (Simonov). SCR rooms
18 September: two-act Noel Coward comedy (Fumed Oak?). SCR social and dance
19 September: The End of the Beginning (O'Casey); Sweeney Agonistes (Eliot); Guerilla Wedding; excerpts from The Ascent of F6 (Auden and Isherwood), with folk dancing. RSA Hall
17 October: three-act play reading. SCR rooms
23 October: one-act play performed for CP national conference
31 October: lecture: 'The working class theatre in London', with reading: excerpts from Dirge Without Dole (Mount). SCR rooms
14 November: Squaring the Circle (Katayev). Reading. SCR rooms
27 November: Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck). Reading. Social evening, Grey Cabs Hall
?: Two Gentlemen of Soho (Herbert). Reading
?: The Moon is Down (Steinbeck). Reading
?: Love on the Dole (Gow and Greenwood). Reading
15-16,18 March: Of Mice and Men. Teachers' Training College Hall
7 May: lecture: 'Ibsen', Ron Meek, with readings and folk dancing. SCR rooms 28 May: According to Plan. SCR celebration of the second anniversary of the Anglo-Soviet Treaty. Time Theatre
18 June: Take Back Your Freedom (Holtby). Reading, with folkdancing. SCRrooms
25 June: 'Landmarks of working class drama': readings and extracts from Spender, Saroyan, Steinbeck and The Reichstag Fire Trial (Falconer). Unity Centre
2 July: lecture: '
16 July: Watch on the Rhine (Hellman). Reading (produced by John Gray). SCR rooms
26 July: The Cave (Galitsky). BDL festival (second place)
27 August: The Cave, with lecture: 'Is there a Jewish problem in New Zealand?', Ron Meek. SCR rooms
17 September: Sur le Pont (Gray); Who Killed Me? (Chantel); The Dark Lady of the Sonnets (Shaw). Unity Theatre
24 September: lecture: 'Hollywood and the status quo', Gordon Mirams. Unity Theatre
28-30 November, 2 December: They Came to a City (Priestley). Teachers' Training College Hall
?: Sur le Pont. Army, Navy and Airforce Social Club
10-11, 17-18 February: They Came to a City (Priestley). Unity Theatre
10-11, 17-18 March: The Artist (Chekhov); The Enemy (Alexander); All Aboard (Bengal). Unity Theatre
8 April: lecture: 'Can the theatre be used as a propaganda weapon?', Rona Meek, with reading: All Aboard (Bengal). Unity Centre
6 May: film screening: Council for Education of Music, Drama and Art. Unity Theatre
20 May: Ladies in Retirement (Percy and Denham). Reading. Unity Theatre
3 June: Too True to be Good (Shaw). Reading. Unity Theatre
17 June: lecture: 'Can the theatre be used as a propaganda weapon?', Rona Meek, with reading: Journey for an Unknown Soldier. Unity Theatre
1 July: Down on the Farm (Brown); The Bear (Chekhov); Something to Talk About (Phillpotts). Readings. Unity Theatre
15 July: lecture: 'Drama and the community', Maria Dronke. Unity Theatre
19 July: Sur le Pont. BDL festival
3-5,11-13,18-19, 25-6 August: Jacobowsky and the Colonel (Werfel). Unity Theatre
16 September: The Hairy Ape (O'Neill). Reading. Unity Theatre
14 October: The Children's Hour (Hellman). Reading. Unity Theatre
28 October: Awake and Sing! (Odets). Reading. Unity Theatre
11 November: lecture: 'Stage make-up', A. Peacock. Unity Theatre 15-16 December: The Feminine Touch (Kvasnitsky); Hello Out There (Saroyan); excerpt from My Sister Eileen (Fields and Chodorov). Readings. Unity Theatre
31 March: Days to Come (Hellman). Reading. Unity Theatre
24, 26-7 April: Juno and the Paycock (O'Casey). Town Hall Concert Chamber
18 May: Candida (Shaw). Reading. Unity Theatre
22-3, 29-30 June: Before Breakfast (O'Neill); The Drunkard (Smith); The No- 'Count Boy (Green). Readings. Unity Theatre
27 July: All God's Chillun Got Wings (O'Neill). Reading. Unity Theatre
14-15 August: New Life (Rice). Town Hall Concert Chamber
1 September: Playboy of the Western World (Synge). Reading. Unity Theatre
29 September: The Laughing Woman (Daviot). Reading. Unity Theatre
13 October: The Devil's Disciple (Shaw). Reading. Unity Theatre
20 October: A Month in the Country (Turgenev). Reading. Unity Theatre
24 November: Bees on the Boat Deck (Shaw). Reading. Unity Theatre
7-8, 14-15 December: The Man of Destiny (Shaw). Unity Theatre
23 February: I Have Been Here Before (Priestley). Reading. Unity Theatre
14-15 March: All God's Chillun Got Wings. Town Hall Concert Chamber
20 April: Close Quarters (Somin). Reading. Unity Theatre
25 May: The Voice of the Turtle (Van Druten). Reading. Unity Theatre
11 May: film evening: The Bridge; Diary for Timothy; Good Neighbours; excerpts from Julius Caesar and Macbeth. Unity Theatre
8 June: Awake and Sing! Reading. Unity Theatre
29 June: The Time of Your Life (Saroyan). Reading. Unity Theatre
20 July: Harvest in the North (Hodson). Reading. Unity Theatre
9-10,16-17 August: The Family Reunion (Eliot). Unity Theatre
7 September: Sweeney Todd—the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Wheeler). Unity Theatre
21 September: In Camera (Sartre). Reading. Unity Theatre
24-5 October: The Plough and the Stars (O'Casey). Town Hall Concert Chamber
16 November: The Glass Menagerie (Williams). Reading. Unity Theatre
10-12 March: King Lear (Shakespeare). Town Hall Concert Chamber
18 April: The Three Sisters (Chekhov). Reading. Unity Theatre
9 May: The Russians (Simonov). Reading. Unity Theatre
30 May: The Apple Cart (Shaw). Reading. Unity Theatre
20 June: Julius Caesar (Shakespeare). Reading. Unity Theatre
27 June: excerpts from Our Town (Wilder) and The Women (Boothe). Readings. Unity Theatre
18 July: The Long Christmas Dinner (Wilder); prologue from Key Largo (Anderson). Readings. Unity Theatre
12-14 August: The Male Animal (Thurber and Nugent). Town Hall Concert Chamber
29 August: Androcles and the Lion (Shaw). Reading. Unity Theatre
12 September: Distant Point (Afinogenov). Reading. Unity Theatre
25-6 September: Richard II (Shakespeare). Reading. Unity Theatre
October: The Male Animal. Napier
18 December: Born Yesterday (Kanin). Reading. Unity Theatre
9-12 March: Our Town (Wilder). Town Hall Concert Chamber
21 March: Our Town. Hutt Horticultural Hall
11 May: Crisis in Heaven (Linklater). Reading. Unity Theatre 8 June: Uncle Vanya (Chekhov). Reading. Unity Theatre
13 July: The Bear (Chekhov); The Price of Coal (Brighouse). Readings. Unity Theatre
19-20 July: The Bear; The Price of Coal. BDL festival
10 August: Village Wooing (Shaw). Reading. Unity Theatre
27-30 August: The Moon in the Yellow River (Johnston). Town Hall Concert Chamber
3-5 November: An Enemy of the People (Ibsen). Town Hall Concert Chamber
6 November: The Proposal (Chekhov); Liberation (Holland). Readings. Unity Theatre
17 December: Dream Girl (Rice). Reading. Unity Theatre
Department of Customs. Censorship (subversive literature), 1930-9. C1 36/959: box 152. National Archives
Associated Booksellers of New Zealand. Minutes books, 1931-59. Ms y 1075, 1076. Alexander Turnbull Library
Christchurch Co-operative Book Society. Minute books, 1938-1970. Acc 90-259. Alexander Turnbull Library
Falconer, Alun. 'The Reichstag Fire Trial', 1940. Rona Bailey. Private collection
Extravaganza scripts (Victoria University of Wellington), 1932-49. P. Macaskill. Private collection
Glover, Denis. Papers, 1928-1970. Ms Papers 418. Alexander Turnbull Library (consulted with the permission of the Chief Librarian)
Hamilton People's Theatre. Programmes and newspaper clippings. Ephemera collection: Theatre, 1940s. Hamilton Public Library
Harris, John. Personal papers, ca.1930-1940. M1, 645. Hocken Library
Left Book Club. Study course on Strachey's Programme for Progress, [194-]. Ms Papers 1327. Alexander Turnbull Library
Locke, Jack. Deposit (Communist Party material 1924-40). University of Canterbury Library
Lowry, Robert. Papers. Ms A-194. University of Auckland Library
Mason, Bruce. Papers. Victoria University of Wellington Library (consulted with the permission of Mrs L. Robinson)
Mason, R.A.K. Papers. Ms Papers 990. Hocken Library (consulted with the permission of John Caselberg)
Millar, Nola Leigh. Papers, ca.1930-1971. Ms Papers 1563. Alexander Turnbull Library
Modern Books, Dunedin. Papers, 1944-55. Ms Papers 711. Hocken Library
New Zealand Communist Party. Otago Branch. Papers. Ms Papers 675. Hocken Library
New Zealand Society for Closer Relations with the USSR. Christchurch Branch. Executive minutes and other papers.
New Zealand Society for Closer Relations with the USSR. Lower Hutt Branch. Records, 1945-1946. Ms Papers 3826. Alexander Turnbull Library
People's Theatre. Papers. NZ Ms 841. Auckland Public Library
People's Theatre. Programmes: Judgment Day (1938); Falls the Shadow (1939). Ephemera. Frieda Dickens Programme Collection. Auckland Public Library
Progressive Book Society Ltd. Records. Len Parker. Private collection
Roth, H.O. Left Book Club file; progressive bookshops file. Private collection
Silverstone, Mark. Papers. Ms Papers 1016. Hocken Library
Unity Theatre. Programmes; 'Pageant' script. Ian McClymont. Private collection
Unity Theatre. Records. Ace 80/1. Alexander Turnbull Library
Wellington Co-operative Book Society Ltd. Papers, 1938-1970. Ms Papers 1122. Alexander Turnbull Library
Workers' Educational Association, Auckland. Dramatic Club. Programmes, 1933-49. Ephemera collection. Auckland Institute and Museum Library; and Mervyn Lusty. Private collection
New Zealand Parliamentary Debates
New Zealand Statutes
Statutory Regulations
Allender, R., The National Film Unit', Landfall, 8, Dec. 1948 (v.2, n.4), pp.320-7
Studio, Apr. 1948 (v.135, n.661), pp.130-1
New Zealand Listener, 1 July 1949 (v.21, n.523), pp 6-7
'Bookselling in New Zealand', Ideas, May, June, Aug., Oct. 1947
Curnow, A., A Book of New Zealand Verse 1923-45. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1945
Curnow, A., The Poetry of Book, 2, May 1941
Glover, D., and I. Milner (eds.), New Poems. Christchurch: The Caxton Club Press, 1934
Glover, D. and Verse Alive. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1936
Glover, D. and Verse Alive, 2. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1937
Goodwin, A., 'A National Theatre', Landfall 9, Mar. 1949 (v.3, n.1), pp.69-72
Hamilton, L, Falls the Shadow. Auckland: Griffin Press, 1939
Harris, J., 'Book Publishing in New Zealand', New Zealand Libraries, Oct. 1942 (v.6, n.3), pp.42-3
The Discovered Isles. A Trilogy. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1950
Hyde, R., 'Jack Basham's Bookshop. Land of the Free—Since When?', New Zealand Observer, 11 June 1936, p.11
Hyde, R., Nor the Years Condemn. Introduction by P.
Letters and Art in New Zealand Wellington: Department of Internal Affairs, 1940
Yearbook of the Arts in New Zealand, 1947, pp.125-7
Marsh. N., 'A National Theatre', Landfall, 9, Mar. 1949 (v.3, n.1), pp.66-9
China. Script by R.A.K. Mason for a Dance-drama by Margaret Barr. [Auckland: Times Printing Works, 1943]
China Dances. Script by R.A.K. Mason for a Dance-drama by Margaret Barr, and other verses. Dunedin: John Mclndoe, 1962
Landfall, Mar. 1948 (v.2, n.i), pp.34-8
Press, 29 Nov. 1948, p.6
Squire Speaks. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1938
Speaking Candidly. Hamilton: Paul's Book Arcade, 1945
Mulgan, J. Man Alone. Auckland: Longman Paul, 1972 [1939]
Mulgan, J. Report on Experience. Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1984 [1947]
[Progressive Publishing Society], Freedom to Publish. Evidence in a Case for Appeal Christchurch, Auckland, etc: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1944
Creative Writing in New Zealand. A Brief Critical History. Auckland: Whitcombe and Tombs, 1946
Human Values & Literature. [Christchurch]: Canterbury District Council of the WEA, 1949
Writers Between Two Wars. Wellington: AEWS discussion course, 1943
Co-operative Onekaka. A Challenge to the Labour Movement [1941]
Final Statement. Wellington: the author, 1950
Sargeson, F., The Stories of Frank Sargeson. Auckland: Penguin, 1982
Texidor, G., In Fifteen Minutes You Can Say A Lot. Selected Fiction. Ed. and with an introduction by K. Smithyman. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 1987
Gordon Watson, New Zealander: 1912-1945. His Life and Writings. Ed. E. Locke. Auckland: New Zealand Communist Party, 1949
Workers' Educational Association. Annual Reports, 1930-50
Ako Pai
Art in New Zealand
Australian New Writing, 1 (1943), 2 [n.d.]
Book
Borer
Canterbury College Review
Cappicade
Challenge
Co-op Books
Co-operative Book News
Dominion
Evening Post
Evening Standard (Dunedin)
Ideas
Imprint
In Print
Industrial Worker
Landfall
Left News
Manawatu Evening Standard
New Zealand Herald
New Zealand Listener
New Zealand New Writing
New Zealand Observer
New Zealand Soviet Bulletin
Oriflamme
Otago Daily Times
Otago University Review
People s Theatre Magazine
Phoenix
Press (Christchurch)
Rostrum
Salient
Soviet News
Spike
Standard
Student
Tomorrow Waikato Times Workers' Weekly Union Record
Allen Bagley. Interview, 25 Apr. 1984
Rona Bailey. Interview, 3 May 1984
John Banks. Interview, 26 Nov. 1986
Shirley Barton. Phone conversation, 11 Sept. 1985
Doris Basham. Phone conversation, 8 Sept. 1985
Ron Bowie. Interview, 19 Nov. 1987
Eileen Coyne. Interview, 10 Sept. 1985
Mary Dobbie. Interview, 13 Sept. 1985
Jack Ewen. Interview, 26 Nov. 1986; correspondence, 12 Dec. 1986
Elsa Flavell. Interview, 8 Aug. 1985
Bart Fortune. Phone conversation, 7 Sept. 1985; correspondence, 10 Oct. 1985
Murray Gittos. Interview, 28 Nov. 1986
Ian Gordon. Interview, 9 Dec. 1986
George Gunn. Phone conversation, 27 Nov. 1986
Frank Haigh. Interview, 13 Sept. 1985
Ian Hamilton. Interview, 8 Dec. 1986
Eve Holland. Phone conversation, 10 Sept. 1985
George Jackson. Interview, 25 Nov. 1986
Arthur Jackson-Thomas. Interview, 8 Sept. 1985
Rodney Kennedy. Interview, 26 Jan. 1987
Jack Lewin. Interview, 24 Oct. 1985
Elsie and Jack Locke. Correspondence, 30 Mar. 1984; interview, 6 June 1985
Pat Lowe. Interview, 22 June 1984
Mervyn Lusty. Interview, 10 Sept. 1985
Ian McClymont. Interview, 8 May 1984
John McCreary. Interview, 24 May 1984
Pat Macaskill. Interviews, 7 June 1984, 26 May 1987
A.H. O'Keefe. Interview, 4 Sept. 1985
Roy Parsons. Interview with Jan Colosimo, 1980
Janet Paul. Interview, 23 Aug. 1985
Phyllis and Walter Powell. Interview, 22 Oct. 1989
Hugh Price. Interview with Jan Colosimo, 1980
Bert Read. Phone conversation, 1 Dec. 1986
David Reid. Correspondence, 2 Nov. 1985
Wolfgang Rosenberg. Interview, 13 June 1985
Renee Stockwell. Correspondence, 24 Oct. 1985
Cyril Walter. Interview, 1 Feb, 1987
George Webby. Interview, 7 June 1984
Armes, R., A Critical History of British Cinema. London: Seeker and Warburg, 1978
Beaglehole, A., A Small Price to Pay. Refugees from Hitler in New Zealand 1936-46. Wellington: Allen and Unwin/Historical Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, 1988
Beaglehole, J. C, Victoria University College. An Essay Towards a History.Wellington: New Zealand University Press, 1949
A History of the University of Canterbury, 1873-1973. Christchurch: University of Canterbury Press, 1973
Brasch, C. Collected Poems. Ed. A. Roddick. Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1984
Brasch, C. Indirections. A Memoir 1907-1947. Wellington: Oxford University Press, 1980
Colin McCahon: Artist. Wellington: A.H. and
The New Dominion. A Social and Political History of New Zealand, 1918-39. Wellington: A.H. and
Campbell, R., Cinema Strikes Back. Radical Filmmaking in the United States, 1930-1942. Michigan: UMI Research Press, 1982
Christoffel, P., Censored. A Short History of Censorship in New Zealand Monograph Series, 12. Research Unit, Department of Internal Affairs. Wellington: Department of Internal Affairs, 1989
Clark, J., et al (eds.), Culture and Crisis in Britain in the Thirties. London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1979
Curnow, A., Selected Poems. Auckland: Penguin, 1982
Curran, J. and V. Porter (eds.), British Cinema History. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1983
Dennis, J. (ed.), The Tin Shed. The Origins of the National Film Unit. Wellington: New Zealand Film Archive, c.1981
Devanny, J. Point of Departure. The Autobiography of Jean Devanny. Ed. C. Ferrier. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1986
Eagleton, T. Literary Theory. An Introduction. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983
Eagleton, T. Marxism and Literary Criticism. London: Methuen, 1981
Edmund, L.(ed.), The Letters ofA.RD. Fairburn. Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1981
Evans, P. The Penguin History of New Zealand Literature. Auckland: Penguin, 1990
Flanagan, H., Arena. The History of the Federal Theatre. New York: Benjamin Blom, 1965 [1940]
Forty Five Years of Repertory. [Wellington]: National Repertory Theatre Society Inc., [1971]
Writers and Partisans. A History of Literary Radicalism in America, New York: Wiley, 1968
Glover, D., Hot Water Sailor 1912-1962; &Landlubber Ho! 1963-1980. Auckland: Collins, 1981
Gloversmith, F. (ed.), Class Culture and Social Change. A New View of the 1930s. Sussex: Harvester Press, 1980
Grant, D., Out in the Cold. Pacifists and Conscientious Objectors in New Zealand during World War II, Auckland: Reed Methuen, 1986
Gray, O., Exit Left. Memoirs of a Scarlet Woman. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin, 1985
Haese, R., Rebels and Precursors. The Revolutionary Years of Australian Art. Ringwood, Victoria: Allen Lane, 1985
Harcourt, P., A Dramatic Appearance. New Zealand Theatre 1920-1970. Wellington: Methuen, 1978
Head, B. and J. Walter (eds.), Intellectual Movements and Australian Society. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1988
Hodges, S., Gollancz. The Story of a PublishingHouse 1928-1978. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1978
Laqueur, W. and G. Mosse (eds.), The Left-wing Intellectuals Between the Wars, 1919-1939. New York: Harper and Row, 1966
Lawlor, P., The Caxton Press. Some Impressions and a Bibliography. Wellington: Bel thane Book Bureau, 1951
Lewis, J., The Left Book Club. An Historical Record London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1970
The Left Bank. Writers, Artists, and Politics from the Popular Front to the Cold War. London: Heinemann, 1982
McDiarmid, L., Saving Civilisation. Yeats, Eliot and Auden Between the Wars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984
McNaughton, H., New Zealand Drama. A Bibliographical Guide. [Christchurch]: University of Canterbury Library, 1974
Macaskill, P. (ed.), Ako Pai. A Special Issue to Celebrate the Centenary of Wellington Teachers College 1880-1980. Wellington: Price Milburn for the Centennial Committee, Wellington Teachers College, 1980
Mason, B. and J. Pocock, Theatre in Danger. A Correspondence. Hamilton: Paul's Book Arcade, 1957
Unity Theatre Presents. Wellington: Unity Theatre (Inc.), 1966
Collected Poems. Introduction by A, Curnow. Christchurch: Pegasus Press, 1962
Mendelson, E. (ed.), The English Auden. Poems, Essays and Dramatic Writings 1927-1939. London: Faber and Faber, 1977
Modjeska, D., Exiles at Home. Australian Women Writers 1925-1945. London, Sydney: Sirius Books, 1981
The Oxford History of New Zealand Wellington: Oxford University Press, 1981
Olssen, E., A History of Otago. Dunedin: John Mclndoe, 1984
Radical Visions and American Dreams. Culture and Social Thought in the Depression Years. New York: Harper and Row, 1973
Pimlott, B., Labour and the Left in the 1930s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977
Co-operative Retailing in New Zealand [Wellington]: New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, 1969
The House of Reed. Fifty Years of Publishing. Wellington: A.H. and
Frederick Sinclaire. A Memoir. University of Canterbury Publications, 33. Christchurch: University of Canterbury Publications Committee, 1984
Kennaway Henderson. Artist, Editor and Radical University of Canterbury Publications, 39. Christchurch: University of Canterbury Publications Committee, 1988
New Zealand and the Soviet Union. An Historical Account of the NZ-USSR Society. Auckland: New Zealand-USSR Society, 1979
The Life and Death of Official Social Research in New Zealand 1936-1940. Occasional Papers in Sociology and Social Work, 7. Wellington: Department of Sociology, Victoria University of Wellington, 1987
Remedy for Present Evils. A History of the New Zealand Public Service Association from 1890. Wellington: NZPSA, 1987
Samuel, R, Theatres of the Left 1880-1935 Workers' Theatre Movements in Britain and America. London: Roudedge and Kegan Paul, 1985
Sargeson, F., Sargeson. Auckland: Penguin, 1981
Searle, G., From Deserts the Prophets Come. The Creative Spirit in Australia 1788-1972. Melbourne: Heinemann, 1973
Sendy, J., Melbourne's Radical Bookshops. History, People, Appreciation. Melbourne: International Bookshop Pty Ltd, 1983
Shuker, R., Educating the Workers? A History of the Workers' Education Association in New Zealand Palmerston North: Dunmore Press, 1984
Sinclair, K. (assisted by A History of the University of Auckland 1883-1983. Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1983
Sinclair, K., Walter Nash. Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1976
Stott, W., Documentary Expression in Thirties America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973
Strahan, L., Just City and the Mirrors. Meanjin Quarterly and the Intellectual Front, 1945-1965. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1984
The New Zealand People at War: The Home Front. Wellington: Historical Publications Branch, Department of Internal Affairs/Government Printer, 1986
Thomson, J., New Zealand Drama, 1930-1980. An Illustrated History. Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1984
Tregenza, J., Australian Little Magazines, 1923 -1954. Their Role in Forming and Reflecting
Literary Trends. Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1964
Trussell, D., Fairburn. Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1984
Walker, D., Dream and Disillusion. Canberra: ANU Press, 1976
R.A.K. Mason. Wellington: Oxford University Press, 1977
New Zealand Journal of History, Oct. 1988 (v.22, n.2), pp.152-68
Sites, 16, Autumn 1988, pp.6-18
Bookseller, 3418, 26 June 1971, pp.2594-7
Bertram, J., 'Robin Hyde: A Reassessment', Landfall, 27, Sept. 1953 (v.7, n.3), pp.181-91
Collected Poems of Education, July 1963 (v.12, n.6), pp.16-18
Carter, D,S., '"History was on our side": Memoirs from the Australian Left', Meanjin, March 1987 (v.46, n.1), pp.108-21
Chapman, R., 'Fiction and the Social Pattern', Landfall, 25, March 1953 (v.7, n.1), pp.26-58
Collins, GW., 'John Harris—Valedictory', New Zealand Libraries, Dec. 1948 (v.11, n.11), pp.269-72
'Communist Party of New Zealand—the first ten years', Socialist Politics, 81/2, pp.9-16
Cutler, A., ' Tomorrow Magazine and New Zealand Politics 1934-1940', New Zealand Journal of History, Apr. 1990 (v.24, n.1), pp.22-44
Comment, 23, May 1965, pp.10-11
Folster, F., 'Progressive Books', Craccum, 15 Mar. 1976, p.7
Geraets, J. '"Landfall" 1947-66: Foundation &: A Supplement', AND, 3, Oct. 1984, pp.98-110
Geraets, J., 'The New Zealand Anthology—initiating an archaeology', AND, 1, Aug. 1983, pp.66-73
Glover, D., 'Typographical Printing Today', in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand Wellington: Government Printer, 1966, v.2, pp.871-2
Gordon, L, 'In Memoriam "NZNW", New Zealand Listener, 21 Jan. 1984 (v.106, n.2293), p.31
Islands, June 1980 (v.8, n.2), pp.142-64
Herlinger, P., 'A new direction for "the New"?', Australasian Drama Studies, 8, April 1986, pp.97-112
Hingley, B., 'Bookmarks', New Zealand Listener, 10 Dec, 1977 (v.87, n.1981), p.80
Holloway, R., 'Remembering Bob Lowry', Landfall, 69, Mar. 1964 (v.18, n.1), pp.54-8
Horrocks, R., 'The Invention of New Zealand', AND, 1, Aug, 1983, pp.9-30
Horrocks, R., 'No Theory Permitted on These Premises', AND, 2, Feb. 1984, pp.119-37
Hughes, P., '"Sneers, Jeers . . . and Red Rantings". Bob Lowry's Early Printing at Auckland University College', Turnbull Library Record, May 1989 (v.22, n.1), pp.5-31
New Zealand Monthly Review, Nov. 1975 (v.16, n.172), pp.1-2
Lusty, M., 'The Community Arts Service', in R. Boshier (ed.), Towards a Learning Society. New Zealand Adult Education in Transition. Vancouver: Learningpress, 1980
Mcllroy, K., 'Sinclaire Revisited', Comment, Feb. 1977, pp.24-6
Mason, B.j 'C.A.S. Gallant Service', in Alexander Turnbull Library newspaper articles: theatre, v.8, p.117
Mason, B., 'Founder-producer of Unity Theatre Dies in London', Dominion, 18 Nov. I975, p.4
Mason, B., 'New Stages in Theatre', New Zealand's Heritage, part 95, pp.2644-51
Mason, B., 'Wellington's Unity Theatre', Landfall, 34, June 1955 (v.9, n.2), pp. 153-9
O'Neill, J,B., 'Community Arts Service Drama', Landfall, 26, June 1953 (v.7, n.2), pp.133-7
Openshaw, R. and R. Shuker, 'Silent Movies and Comics', in The American Connection. Wellington: Allen & Unwin/Port Nicholson Press, 1988, pp.52-65
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Plumridge, L., The Necessary but not Sufficient Condition: Christchurch Labour and Working-Class Culture', New Zealand Journal of History, Oct. 1985 (v.19, n.2), pp.130-50
'Landfall, 99, Sept. 1971 (v.25, n.3), pp. 222-42
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Stevens, J., review of Collected Poems, New Zealand Listener, 7 Sept. 1962 (v.47, n.1199), p.35
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Atkinson, L., 'Unity Theatre and Wellington'. Unpublished chapter (consulted with the permission of the author)
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Colosimo, J., 'The Wellington Co-operative Book Society'. Research essay, History, Victoria University of Wellington, 1980
Cuder, A., 'Intellectual Sprouts. Tomorrow magazine 1934-1940: a cultural, intellectual and political history'. MA thesis, History, University of Canterbury, 1989
Newman, D., 'Can the view that the "Weekly Reviews" were cut because of political bias be substantiated by fact?'. Research essay, History, Victoria University of Wellington, 1984
O'
A.H. and
Aid for Russia Committees, 19
Aimers, Jack, 75
Airey, Willis, 16, 91, 112, 127, 218
Alley, Rewi, 140
Amey, Sunny, 220
Angry Penguins, 49
Appleton, W., 199
Ascent of F6, The (Auden and Isherwood), 203-4
Ashton, Beatrice, 217
Associated Booksellers of New. Zealand, 44, 108
Auckland Drama Council, 224
Auckland Little Theatre Society, 175, 177
Auckland People's Theatre see People's Theatre (Auckland) Auckland Repertory Theatre, 177
Auckland University College, 3, 42-3, 91, 112, 114, 203; Labour Club, 178
Auckland WEA Dramatic Club, 95, 175-8, 185
Australian New Writing, 150, 152-3
Ayo, Ella see Stewart
Bailey, Rona see Meek Ballantyne, D.W., 156
Barr, Margaret, 187
Barrington, A.C, 95
Barton, Shirley, 180
Basham, Doris, 26, 90, 111, 131
Basham, Jack, 26, 68, 88, 90, 111, 133, 180
Beams, Nat, 217
Bell, Muriel, 96
Bensemann, Leo, 100
Bertram, James, 2, 32, 44-5, 46, 140
Birchfield, Connie see Rawcliffe Black, Letty, 210
Blair, Ernest, 179
book selling and publishing (general), 80, 87, 98-100, 133-4, 135-7, 157-60, 165, 166, 169
Brasch, Charles, 1, 2, 4, 33, 44, 56, 126-7, 190, 191, 232
British Drama League, 176, 190
Broughton, W.S, 174
Brown, S., 180
Cadman, Nan, 208
Campion, Edith, 220
Canterbury University College, 2, 35, 42, 106, 114, 203; Radical Club, 203
carpenters' union, 90, 97, 110, 179, 226-7
Cartmill, Frank, 179
Caxton Press, 3, 29, 121, 140, 141, 159, 160, 165, 168, 169, 185
censorship, 39, 43-4, 80-2, 90, 129-30, 131-2
centennial publications, 3, 121, 158-9
Central Labour Bookshop (Dunedin), 95
Chapman, R., 45
Chapman, Rita, 180
Chapman-Taylor, Ray, 143
Chew, Rona, 196
China Society, 136
Christchurch Co-operative Book Society, 87, 100, 102-10, 112, 118, 123, 124, 128, 133, 134-5; clientele, 106-7; and Communist Party, 94, 104, 109; demise of, 137; finances, 107-10; and labour movement, 104-5, 109, 162; membership, 92-3, 105, 109; origins of, 92-3; and Progressive Publishing Society, 140-1, 149-50, 153, 162; publications, 140, 170
Christie, Travers, 93
Clarte Book Room, 93
Communist International, 9, 10, 13, 17
Communist Party of Australia, 14, 18
Communist Party of Great Britain, 9-10, 14, 64, 81, 85
Communist Party of New Zealand, 12, 14-16, 17-19, 20, 21, 35, 36, 54, 87, 157, 227-9; and co-operative book movement, 90, 92-4, 95, 99-100, 104, 109, 112, 117-18, 126, 135; and Left Book Club, 72, 82-3; and Progressive Publishing Society, 148-9, 162; and theatre, 181, 187, 192, 194, 196, 199-200, 208, 210, 211, 216, 228. See also Unity Centre (Christchurch), Unity Centre (Wellington)
Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 11, 22
conscientious objectors, 40, 81
consumers' co-operative movement, 96-8, 174
Contemporary Art Society (Melbourne), 49, 128
Cook, Eric, 33
Co-op Books, 96-7, 98, 100, 107, 118, 133, 142, 145, 150, 152, 153, 155, 160
Co-op Bookshop (Christchurch) see Christchurch Co-operative Book Society Co-operative Book News, 96, 100, 101, 103-4, 104-5, 106, 108, 119, 142, 144, 155
Country Library Service, 3, 80, 112
Cowan, James, 158
Coyne, Eileen, 11, 129, 168, 180
Critic, 42
Crosse, Catherine, 217
Curnow, Allen, 1, 2, 5, 33, 45, 46, 47, 56, 57, 58, 147, 148, 152, 153, 159, 165, 167, 173, 190, 191, 222, 232, 233
Current Book Distributors (Sydney), 86, 142
Delahunty, Jim, 217
Delahunty, June, 217
de Maunay, Francois, 210
Devanny, Jean, 13, 24, 105, 130, 229
Devereux, Selwyn, 102-3, 107, 123
Doig, S., 77
Douglas Social Credit movement, 32, 33, 74, 103
Downstage Theatre, 222
Dronke, Maria, 244
Duncan, Ken, 196
Dunedin Co-operative Book Society, 95-6, 125-7, 135, 141, 162, 170
Dunningham, Archie, 72
Edwards, Les, 143
Eiby, George, 219
England, Maud, 94
Evans, Doug, 208
Evans, Judy, 227
Fabian Society, 142
Federal Theatre Project, 24, 181, 224
Fellowship of Australian Writers, 13
Fenton, Harold E., 66
, 92, 93, 104, 140, 141, 164, 166, 163, 167
Ferguson, Jean, 117
film, 6, 16, 19, 22, 33, 50, 70, 162, 203, 227
Finlay, A. Martyn, 16, 32, 33, 75, 76, 77, 79, 117, 224
Finlay, Jane, 143
Firth, Cedric, 180
Firth, Clifton, 112
Flannery, Ann, 220
Fortune, Bart A., 43, 93-4, 95, 117, 120
Frankl, Otto, 75
Fraser, Peter, 4, 42, 81, 159, 192, 197-8
French Maid Coffee Bar, 212
Friends of the Soviet Union, 12, 14, 15-16, 19, 90, 92, 93, 99-100, 101, 116, 135
Garvey, Lee, 208
Gawith, Cazna, 208
Glover, Denis, 1, 2, 3, 5, 16, 29, 30, 33-4, 35, 43, 45, 46, 47, 56-7,159, 160, 174, 190, 191
Goff, Ken, 75
Gollancz, Victor, 61-2, 63, 64, 66, 85, 117
Goodwin, Arnold, 175-6, 177, 178, 179, 224
Gordon, Ian A., 140, 150, 153, 155, 156, 161, 168
Grafton Shakespeare and Dramatic Club, 177
Gray, John, 213
Gray, Oriel, 213
Grierson, John, 6
Griffin, Gerald, 13
Group Observation Fellowship of New Zealand, 78-9
Haigh, Frank, 91
Hall J.W.D.,77,82
Hamilton People's Theatre, 193-8, 205, 206, 214, 225
Hannan, Ruby, 74
Harding, Guy, 227
Harris, John, 72, 96, 125-6, 157-8, 159
Hartley, Dennis, 210
Hayward, Edna, 194
Hayward, Rudall, 227
Henderson, Andrew Kennaway, 27, 28-9, 30, 31, 38-9, 42, 45, 87, 100, 140, 170
Henderson, Hubert, 75, 92, 143
Henderson, Louise, 75
Herring, Horace, 19
Hirschfield, S., 143
Hislop, T., 199
Hoerr, George, 208
Hoerr, Vivian, 208
Holland, Sid, 199
Holmes, Cecil, 21, 227, 248 n.28
Holmes, Paul, 180
Hunter, Ted, 16
Hyde, Robin see Wilkinson, Iris
Ikin, Sam, 72
Industrial Worker, 227
International Bookshop (Christchurch), 68, 92, 105, 135
International Bookshop (Wellington), 93-4, 117, 120, 135
International Brigade, 11, 12, 52, 150-1, 185
International Publishers (USA), 94, 142
International Writers' Association for the Defence of Culture, 12-13
Jackson, George, 112
Jackson-Thomas, Arthur, 86-7, 91, 95, 112, 136, 142, 151, 153, 154-5, 171
Jacoby, Peter, 75
Jorgensen, Hein, 208
Kennedy, Rodney, 72
Kerridge, J., 76
Kisch, Egon, 13
Labour Bookroom (Wellington), 93
Labour government, 3-4, 37, 41, 223-4
Labour Party, 14, 15-16, 18, 20, 36, 70, 74, 76, 82, 93, 104, 112, 162, 178, 179, 184, 192, 199
Labour Representation Committees, 104, 109, 119
, 131, 192
Langley, Frank, 104
Lawrence and Wishart, 94, 110, 142
Leathern, Samuel, 91
Lee, John A., 5, 42, 148, 158, 199, 201
Lee-Johnson, Eric, 218
Left Book Club (England), 1, 61-5, 68-9, 85, Left Book Club (New Zealand), 37, 44, 61, 65-87, 92, 95, 99, 101, 126, 182; arrival in New Zealand, 65-6; and Communist Party, 82-3; demise of, 85-6; drama groups, 71-2, 83, 95; membership, 66, 68-9, 84, 86; 'New Zealand Left Book Club' (1949), 86-7, 171; New Zealand Left Book Club Association, 66-8, 81-2; publications, 77-8
Left Book Club Theatre Guild, 65, 181, 187
Leonardo Bookshop (Melbourne), 128
Locke, Elsie see Freeman
Lowry, Robert, 3, 159, 168, 180
Lusty, Mervyn, 224
McAra,W.P., 119
McCahon, Colin, 5, 48, 72, 128, 212
McClure, Alex, 16
McClymont, Ian, 210
McCombs, Elizabeth, 16
McCreary, John, 199, 201, 204, 211, 217
McGillick, Tony, 70
McGowan, Elizabeth, 16, 95, 100
Mackay, Ian A., 139, 140, 143, 145, 162, 166
McKenzie, Jim, 194
Mackie, John, 194
Manawatu Co-operative Alliance (Auckland), 97
Mann, Q, 99
Martin, Bili, 208
Martin, Henry, 205, 206, 208, 210, 211, 213, 217, 229
Mason, Bruce, 204, 208, 214, 220, 222
Mass Observation Movement, 78
Meek, Ron, 143, 145, 147,150, 168, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 199-202, 204, 209, 211, 213, 215, 217, 226, 228, 240, 244
Meek, Rona, 208, 209, 217, 210, 243, 244
Metropolitan Co-operative Alliance, 174
Milner, Ian, 32, 33, 34, 52, 54, 57, 58, 75, 76, 140, 224
Modern Books (Dunedin) see Dunedin Co-operative Book Society
Modern Books (Wellington) see Wellington Co-operative Book Society
Moore, Merrill, 147
Moreton, M., 94
Movement Against War and Fascism, 13
Mulgan, John, 5, 42, 47, 65, 191, 202
Munro, Hector, 194
Munro, M., 94
Murdoch, P., 94
Nash, Walter, 80, 93, 96, 132, 133, 199
National Library Service, 4, 223
New Poems (Glover and Milner ed.), 57
New Theatre Company, 222
New Theatre Group (Auckland), 187, 209
New Theatre League (Sydney), 24, 181, 197, 213, 221
New Writing, 150
New York Group Theatre, 23
New Zealand Best Poems, 35
New Zealand Co-operative Alliance, 94
New Zealand Co-operative Book Society, 94
New Zealand Co-operative Publishing Society see Progressive Publishing Society New Zealand Drama Council, 176, 224
New Zealand Federation of Co-operatives, 97
New Zealand Fortnightly Review, 35
New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 139, 141, 158
New Zealand Library Association, 109, 132
New Zealand Listener, 39, 46, 147, 160
New Zealand Literary Fund, 4, 158, 223
New Zealand Mercury, 35
New Zealand New Writing, 5, 47, 150-6, 159, 160, 161, 167, 168
New Zealand Public Service Association, 21
New Zealand Society for Closer Relations with Russia, 19-21, 69, 107, 162, 206, 208, 209, 220, 229
New Zealand Soviet Bulletin, 19
New Zealand-USSR Society see New Zealand Society for Closer Relations with Russia Nunes, Ray, 118, 125, 211, 216
O'
O'Reilly, Ron, 72
pacifists, 18
Paine, Haswell, 194, 196, 240, 241
Paine, Lesbia, 194
Paris, Percy, 20
Parker, Hamilton, 74
Parry, Evan, 94
Paul, Janet see Wilkinson
Paul's Book Arcade, 3, 66, 140, 141, 169, 170
Peacock, A., 245
Pearson, Bill, 152
Pelorus Press, 3
People's Theatre (Auckland), 175-93, 206, 220, 225; demise of, 193; formation of, 175, 177-8; membership, 179-80, 193, 203; productions, 181-6, 192, 193
People's Theatre Magazine, 181, 182, 186
People's Voice, 12, 14, 18, 19, 81, 93, 173, 185, 190, 191, 194,199, 202, 208, 210, 228, 229
Perkins, Christopher, 6
Phoenix, 2, 4, 7, 33, 35, 43, 46, 58-9, 66, 233
Plischke, Ernst, 97
Popular Front, 9-25, 53, 230, 232
Potter, Nance, 243
Powell, Eric, 74
Prichard, Katharine Susannah, 13, 48, 52, 87, 152
Progressive Book Society (Auckland), 89, 101, 110-15, 120, 123, 127-8, 131, 133, 135;
clientele, 111-13; and Communist Party, 112,115; demise of, 136; finances, 113-4, 170; and labour movement, 110-11, 115, 120; membership, 91, 111-2, 114, 115;
origins of, 90-1; and Progressive Publishing Society, 140, 141, 142, 161-2, 164, 170
Progressive Bookshop (Dunedin), 95
Progressive Drama Group (Christchurch), 229
Progressive Publishing Society, 3, 95, 97, 113, 116, 121, 125,126, 139-71, 174, 226, 233; criticism of, 148-50, 152-5, 164-6, 168; demise of, 161-4; finances, 160-4; formation of, 140-1; membership, 140, 143; publications, 145-8, 150-2
Rackley, Alan, 74
Rawcliffe, Connie, 93
Rhodes, Harold Winston, 7, 11, 15, 16, 20, 27-8, 29-36 passim, 44, 48, 54, 140, 156; and Christchurch Co-operative Book Society, 92-3, 97, 102-3, 107, 112, 123, 130, 132,134; and Left Book Club, 61, 68, 71, 72, 75, 81; writing in Tomorrow, 25, 39-40, 45, 47-60, 225, 230-2, 234
Richards, Bill, 72
Robertson, William Lewis, 96-8, 104-5, 135, 140, 143
Roscoe, Stan, 75
Sargeson, Frank, 1, 3,16, 33-4, 45, 46, 47, 112, 129, 147, 148, 151, 153-4, 156, 165, 174, 177, 184, 191, 192-3, 218, 231
Savage, Michael Joseph, 199
Seers, Dudley, 170
Shankland, Tahu, 143, 208, 210
Shaw, Helen, 152
Silverstone, Harold, 199
Silverstone, Mark, 96,125
Simmance, Owen, 72
Sinclaire, Frederick, 27, 28, 29-30, 31, 36, 39, 45, 47, 49, 51, 147, 165
Smart, Doris, 194
Smee, Eileen see Coyne Smith, Arnold T., 68, 194
Smithyman, Kendrick, 152
Social Research Society (Christchurch), 79
Social Science Research Bureau, 79 socialist realism, 22-5
Society for Closer Relations with Russia see New Zealand Society for Closer Relations with Russia Somerset, H.C.D., 148, 151
Souter, Bruce, 29-30, 32, 71, 77, 92
Souter, Jane, 140
Souter, Ralph, 31
Soviet News, 12, 15, 16, 19, 50
Spanish Civil War, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 33, 36, 63-4, 226
Spanish Medical Aid Committees, 14, 16-17, 69, 70, 112, 185
Spiller, Tom, 76
Stagecraft Theatre, 222
Stanley, Tom, 91
Stead, Robert, 206-8, 207, 209, 210, 216-7, Stewart, Ella, 94
Sturmer, D. von, 94
Sutch, Morva, 26
Texidor, Greville, 1, 150-1, 168, 218-9
Thorn, A., 95
Till the Day I Die (Odets), 197-8
Tilly, Grant, 220
Tomorrow, 1, 4, 5, 11, 12, 14, 25, 27-60, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 79, 84, 98, 99, 101, 122, 132, 142, 183, 184, 187, 192-3, 224; circulation, 31; content, 32-5; contributors, 31-4; establishment of, 27-31; and Labour government, 37, 40-2; philosophy of, 35-40; suppression of, 40-2; Winston Rhodes in, 39-40, 47-60, 230-32
trade unions, 14, 16, 21, 70, 71, 73-4, 75, 173-4, 226-7, 229; and co-operative book movement, 91, 99, 104, 106, 109, 110-11, 112, 119, 131; and Progressive Publishing Society, 162; and theatre, 178,179-80, 192, 187
Turnbull, Michael, 217
Turnovsky, Fred, 75
Unicorn Press, 3
Unity Centre (Christchurch), 104, 227-8
Unity Centre (Wellington), 206, 216, 220, 224, 227-8
Unity Theatre (London), 23, 24, 181, 187, 195, 206, 220
Unity Theatre (Wellington), 24, 101, 205-22, 224, 225, 226, 229; and Communist Party, 208, 211, 216; demise of, 222; membership, 206-8, 211-12, 216-19, 220; origins of, 205-6; productions, 208-9, 210-11, 213, 214, 220-1
University of New Zealand Press, 3, 169
University of Otago, 42; Dramatic Society, 203
Verrier, Robert, 184
Verse Alive (Glover and Rhodes ed.), 56-7
Victoria University College, 2, 35, 42-3, 120; Debating Club, 120, 202; Dramatic Club, 202-3; Extravaganzas, 198-202; Free Discussions Club, 2, 43, 93, 120, 202; Tramping Club, 202
Vogt, Anton, 33, 143, 147, 151, 204
Wadman, Howard, 243
Waiting for Lefty (Odecs), 23, 71, 83, 175, 177-8, 180, 192-3, 197, 203
Walter, Cyril V., 106
Webby, George, 220
Wellington Co-operative Book Society, 87, 89, 98, 100-1, 102, 115-25, 127-8, 129, 131, 132, 134, 135, 199, 205, 216, 218; clientele, 124; and Communist Party, 116, 117-18; demise of, 136-7; finances, 124; and labour movement, 116, 119, 131; membership, 94-5, 119-20; origins of, 93-5; and Progressive Publishing Society, 139-41, 161-2, 164, 165, 166, 170; publications, 139-40, 159, 170-1
Wellington Repertory Theatre, 204, 219, 220
Wellington Teachers' Training College, 120-1, 122, 217; Drama Club, 203-5
Wellington Thespians, 204, 220
Whitcombe and Tombs, 99, 107, 114, 159-60, 162, 166, 169
White, Dorothy Neal, 96
Wilkinson, Iris, 5, 33, 35, 44, 90, 129, 191
Wilkinson, Janet, 143
Williams, P., 26
Williams, S., 243
Wilson, Ormond, 16, 26, 40, 94
Wolfskehl, Karl, 218
Wood, Pearl, 210
Woollaston, Toss, 5, 45, 48, 231
Workers' Art Club (Melbourne), 28
Workers' Art Theatre (Sydney) see New Theatre League (Sydney)
Workers' Educational Association, 14, 69, 80, 104, 107, 112, 120, 134, 178, 182, 187, 227. See also Auckland WEA Dramatic Club
Workers'
Weekly, 12, 14, 15, 66, 76, 82, 84, 173, 184, 198, 227, 228
Working Woman, 35
Worthington, George, 72
Writers' Association (Sydney), 13
Writers' International, 13
Writers' League (Sydney), 13
Yearbook of the Arts in New Zealand, 35, 215
Young Communist League, 178
Young People's Club, 107