UNIVERSITY DEBATERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 226, 24 September 1929, Page 6

UNIVERSITY DEBATERS.

Our University debaters are to be congratulated on winning their debate with members of ! the Sydney University Union. The subject chosen was that the emergence of woman from the home is a depressing feature of modern life, and our ' team took the affirmative. In this they were I fortunate, because the negative side would not ihave lent itself so easily to that lighter type of ! speech which is now considered appropriate to these contests. Some people complained when the I Oxford University team visited us that the (speakers treated their subject with undue levity, i Humour, however, is generally looked for in the i union debates at both Oxford and Cambridge, ; and from the statement that in the debate with j the Sydney University speakers the subject was (discussed with a certain amount of humour it j would seem that our debaters are learning to i take themselves less seriously and to treat their | audiences to those lighter touches which often (make a point more telling than a more serious | treatment would. A great defect in many of our j inter-collegiate debates of the past has been a I tendency for the speakers to prepare elaborate I essays on the subject set for debate and to deliver these essays in a monotonous and uninspired voice. This has reacted on the audience, which has soinetimes endeavoured to supply the lighter touch by noisy interjections and an occasional hurling of ripe and over-ripe fruits of the earth. A man may easily be a good debater without being a first-class platform orator. The essential thing in a debate is to take up the argument of an opponent and show its weakness, while adding convincing arguments of your own. The refutation of points made by the other side is made more convincing if these'points can be shown to be ridiculous or absurd, and this is frequently done by analogy treated in a light and humorous style. Some American teams of debaters take themselves extremely seriously, and train for an important contest after the manner of a Greek athlete. The consequence is that they are often wholly uninspired, and unable to exhibit that ready wit which, must be prompted by the occasion and the moment if it is to be really effective. Their success at Sydney ought to encourage our University debaters to match themselves against other teams and win further honours. —W.M.