BRITISH UNIVERSITY DEBATERS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 166, 10 April 1926, Page 9

BRITISH UNIVERSITY DEBATERS

A party of four English and Scottish University students, who have been touring the Empire for the past three or four months, will reach Wellington and engage in public debates next week. The team is at present in Dunedin, where the final debate is being held to-night. The members of the party arc Messrs. Molson, of the Oxford Union, McDonald, of Edinburgh University, Reed, of London, and May, of Manchester. These men were selected as representive of the students in English and Scottish Universities, and some indication of the capacity in debate may be gathered from the fact that, out of twenty debates in which they took part while en route to .New Zealand, the visitors were adjudged winners on all except three occasions. In the two debates to be held here some of the visitors, together with some representatives of the Victoria College Debating Society will speak on each side. • The subject for the first debate was suggested by the visitors, and the issue will be whether the tendencies towards the disruption of the Empire are to be “viewed with concern.” The affirmative will be taken by Messrs. Molson nnd McDonald, together with Mr. A. E. Hurley, of'Victoria College. The negative view will be presented by Messrs. P. Martin-Smith and J. W. G. Davidson, of Victoria College, and Mr. Paul Reed (London University). The final debate, to be held in the Main Town Hall on Saturday next, will bear on what promises to be a topical subject, viz., Bible-in-schools. The case for religious instruction in schools will be presented by Messrs. McDonald and Reed, of the visiting team, and by Miss Mary Coolev and Mr. J. T. V. Steele, of the Victoria College Debating Society. The negative will be taken by two visitors, Messrs. Molson and May, together withgttwo local students, Messrs. W. P. Rollings and R. Al. Campbell. A vote of the audience will be taken immediately after the debates in both cases. Seats in the large Town Hall may be reserved at the Bristol.