WEALTHY BUT SLOW

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 186, 24 August 1937, Page 8

WEALTHY BUT SLOW

Our Own Correspondent.)

An Impression oi New Zealand A RUSSIA'S CRITICISM

'(•From

INVEECAEGLLL, Last Night. Various parts of New Zealand have Teminded visitors of various parts of their own eountries, but it lias fallcn to tlie lot of M. Alexander Levitoff, manager of tlie Don Cossack Choir, to discover a resemblance between this conntry and Palestine. The xesemblanee, however, was a matter of economies rather than of geography. "This is the first country in tho world, apaTt from Palestine, where I have found no unemployment," M. Leyitoff told a xeporter. On being assared that New Zealand was not without its nnemployment problem M. Levitoii exelaimed: "Poufl It is everywherel But Fr&nee has 2,000,000 unemploycd, the United States 11,000,000 and there axe millions in Gormanyl Everybody in New Zealand has a good salary. You are a rich people!" However, in spite of the riches of New Zealand M. Levitoff found certain features not altogether to his likh-g, and among these he deplored the lack pf eentral heating. "Civilisation is wery slow to move in New Zealand," Ee deelaTed, "and it is a pity, for it is important that a country should progress. I go to a hotel, and I ask what heating arrangements they have. They tell me I can have a bottle in my bed! and M. Levitoff laughed, but not m amusement, "No eentral heating, ' ' he said, "no eleetric radiators, and no fires. but I can have two bottles! Poufl" * Wellington the Exception. M. Levitoff confessed that he had ex-. pected such conditions in New Zealand, however, for Anua Pavlova, the famous ballerina, had warned him of New Zealand hotels 10 years ago, and in that time, he realised, they had not changed. "This country is stagnant, ' he said* "What they have had in the TJnited States five or six years ago you aTe only just getting here." In his critieism of hotel accommodation in New Zealand, however, M. Levitoff made one exception, and that was Wellington, whieh he admitted was abreast of the times. "You have very nice ghops," Ee said, "and very nice food, but ohl you are slow, so slow!" Having unburdened his soul on the •ubjeet of temperature control indoors in New Zealand M. Levitoff paid a gen•xous tribute to the musical appreeiation of New Zealand audiences. " I can see," he said, "that you like good musie and perhaps next year I will bring the big Russian opera company of 110 people from Paris. I do not know yet if it can be arrangcd, but I am hoping to bring this opera out. In our season in Wellington we sang to full houses, and we had full houses in the big town hall in Dunedin. Christchurch was not so good beeause people were going to the xaces and they did not have time for our concerts." M- Levitoff numbered among his friend3 the incomparable Pavlova, two of whose tours he managed, and his brand of clgaTette carries the legend "Anna Pavlova." This fact was disclosed when he offered his caso to the interviewer,. who aceepted from it a brown papered cigarette with a distinativ® flavour. "A Very Clever Man." One of the company 's fellow pas•engers on the boat bound for New Zealand was tlie Prime Minister (Mr. M. J. Savage). "A very nice and very clever man," was Mr. Levitoii 's commentary on New Zealand 's Prime Minister. M. Levitoii found in tlie Maoris a very musleal people who, like tlie Russians, were able to aehieve remarkablc effects without the assistanee of musical instruments. The voiees of the Maori women were different from anything else he had heard. All ihe members of the choir are now "naturalised Czeehoslovaldans, their native country, Russia, being the one land in all the world where they dare not venture a foot. "We are not White Russians or • Reds, ' ' M. LevitofE said, * 4 but we are not Bolsheviks, and for tbat reason we are exiles. ' ' The name Don Cossacks is not a mere assumption, as all the members of the company are genuine Cossacks hailirig from the region round the Don river. The company will remain another four weeks in New Zealand and then visit Australia, India, Java, China, Japan, . Canada and the United States. As the interview concluded M. Levitoii handed the reporter his card, with a cordial invitation to come and see 15m sonie timo. Tho address was 'Paris, 3, Hue Boudreau. Opera 58-25."