DEBATING TOURNAMENT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 311, 25 September 1908, Page 8

DEBATING TOURNAMENT.

THE FINAL CONTEST. WIN FOR VICTORIA. COLLEGE. , There was only a small attendance in the Municipal Concert Chamber last- evening, win the final round of the debating tournament was contested between tho Kent Terrace and Victoria College Literary and Debating Societies. The subject of debate was: "That tho expansion of the British Empire is due rather to colonising power tlian to military prowess." Kent Terrace took the affirmative side, and Victoria College tho negative. Mr. Granville Hunt was judge.

Mr. A. H. Casey, chairman of the Wellington Literary and Debating Societies' Union, who presided, referred briefly to tho keen interest taken in the debates, for which ten teams had entered.

Mr. E. C. Jack, who spoke first for Kont Terrace, dealt with expansion under two main heads, territorial and commercial. He referred to the Briton's love of adventure and qf freedom, and' submitted that military prowess was but the servant of colonisation. He would have little difficulty if ho were asked to prove that gold had done more for commorce than had diamonds,, and he urged that theso commodities were fair emblems of colonisation and warlike spirit. He went back to the origins of the British race, and to the Cabots, and other early explorers to illustrate his arguments with regard to British character and colonising influence. Peaceful colonisation, he declared,' accounted' for the settlement of seven-eighths' of the Empire, and it had been.the greatest factor in the development of , military prow.ess. . Mr. Jack, who commenced to speak with some hesitation, gained confidence as he .proceeded, and spoke freely, but without ,impressiveness.

Mr. M. H. Oram, in opening for the negative side, undertook to treat the subject in a more comprehensive manner than his opponent. His historical arguments went back to tho.lJunic Wars,.when the military power of Romo overthrew the colonising state of .Carthage. He .urged, that if Napoleon had been successful in the battle of Waterloo, the' British 'colonies would have been blotto dout. Many nations had made colonies which they had been unable to retain through lack of military prowess. In all the stages of colonisation, warlike 'strength was necessary He urged that military prowess had done at least as much for the'expansion'of'tho Empire as had colonising power,- a.nd this was all 1 his side was called upon to prove. Ho refened in detailto the loss of their colonies by France. Spain, Portugal, and other countries, and the acquisition of those territories" by Great Britain, after successful wars. The speaker's delivery was confident and good, but ho stumbled unfortunately in his final sentence summing up the argument. Mr. C. Falconer, of Kent Terrace', pointed out that 110 reply had been made to the contention that seven-eighths of the Empire had been gained by' peaceful colonisation. Ho urged that England had gained her first footing in India, as elsewhere; 'b.v means of her peaceful colonists, and the-military power was called in only ' for protection -of the trade established. • The first footing in India was gained one hundred' years before tho first fight occurred with its natives. The speaker's dictum was persuasive, rather than emphatic, and his manner and gestures wereweak... .. ~

■ Mr. G. H. Gibb, for the college, said that the Other side' had ignored the point that England went r into ■ her wars of the 17fch century with hardly any over-seas -posses-sions,-and came out of .them with extensive colonies. Referring to India-he 1 denied that tho first traders had extended colonisation beyond a small strip of coast'jvhich was afterwards lost. Capo Colony was first'taken from tho Dutch for strategic reasons during Napoleon's wars. Mr. Gibb's language was occasionally ambitious, but sometimes he faltered rather badly. / Tho speech of Mr. F. Eraser, who concluded the affirmative argument, was .vigorous and dramatic, but marred by faulty constructions. His reference to the "Carthaginian Empire, risen from the ■'ashes of tho Phoenicians," was the bright gem of the debate. . ~. . Mr. J. M. Hogben summed up effectively on the other side.; • , ,

Tiio. judge awarded the victory to Victoria College,-with 224 points, 1 as against 211 scored by Kent Terrace. He allotted individual marks as follows:—Mr. Jack, 60; Mr. Falconer, 67; Mr. Fraser, 66; Mr. ; Oram, G4j Mr. Gibb, 74; and Mr. Hogben, 68.. His criticism of the speeches was in the main not complimentary. ' Tho proceedings closed with congratulations and'votes of thanks.