PLUNKET MEDAL

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 148, 26 June 1933, Page 10

PLUNKET MEDAL

ORATORICAL CONTEST

AWARD JO MR A. KATZ

The Plunket Medal oratorical contest, now in its twenty-seventh year, has lost none of its popularity with the general public and constitutes, after almost a generation, one of the principal links between Victoria University College and the general life of the community. This annual event, held in the Concert Chamber of the Town HaTl, reveals on the platform the prowess of selected students of the college in one of tho higher departments of the art of public speaking, the delivery of an oration on the life of' some notable figure in past or contemporary history, each speaker choosing his or her own subject. Though there is a time limit .of twelve minutes to each oration, there are ampie opportunities for originality in treatment and presentation.

Tho coiitest on Saturday night was well up to the high standard of the past, and the large and representative audience, which filled the Concert Chamber, followed the successive speakers With the keenest interest and appreciation, and the award of places and. tho comments of tire judges,^ 'the Eev. W. Bullock, Mr. P. Frascr, M.P., and Mr. A. F. TV Chorlton, met with general approval. Two orations, by Mr. A. H. Scotney on Cecil Rhodes, the Empire builder, and by Mr. A. Katz on John Reed, an American journalist, who died of typhus in Eussia in. 1920, stood out above the others, and the judges were unanimous, giving . the first . position, carrying with it the Plunket Medal, to Mr. Katz, and the second to Mr. Seotncy. Mr. K. J. Scott, who" spoke on Dr. Albert Schweitzer, and Mr.» J. H. Foster, whose subject was Julius Caesar, were bracketed third. The other speakers were Mr. G. Crossley (Leonardo da Vinci), Mr. Kingi Tahiwi (To Eauparaha), Miss M. PrideauxPridham (Sir Walter Raleigh), and Mr. C. G. Watson (Karl Liebkneeht). In the main the speeches followed what has apparently come to be accepted as the traditional style of Plunket oratory, a set speech with formal opening, sonorous language, and impressive peroration delivered in the manner of declamation rather than oratory. It -was the striking departure from this traditional manner that gave Mr. Katz, dealing with the difficulty of a character quite unknown to the vast majority of those present, including, the judges, an instant grip of his audience which was retained by the natural enthusiasm of the speaker with most effective repetitions and salient aspects of the man and his life right to the end. It was as if he had introduced a complete stranger and. made him like a lifelong friend, as, in other . words, the judges, in their comment, remarked. As an original effort Mr. Katz's was one of the best in the long series of Plunket orations. Under normal conditions Mr. Scotney, with his powerful, robust, and effective oration on the romantic career of Cecil Ehodes, would have undoubtedly won the coveted medal, for his work was an excellent example of the traditional style, competent, clear, and cogent. Those who prefer this type of oratory would possibly disagree with the award of tho judges, who, however, were of the opinion, expressively voiced by Mr, Bullock, that it was desirable to break away from traditional, formal methods and encourage more originality in mastering and making the subject of discourse their .own. •.. ■■ "', *• Of the' Other speakers Mr. Crossley was doubly unfortunate in haying ,to lead off the series, and in his choice of such a shadowy character as Leonardo da Vinci. Ho never succeeded in making Leonardo real, and there was a minor fault in his pronunciation of one or two words, including the Italian C. Mr. Kingi Tahiwi was similarly nebulous in his presentation of Te Eauparaha, but his rather brief effort -was relieved with ' some fine phrases,. like summer lightning on the horizon. He received just praise from the judges for the possession of the most melodious voice of the evening's speakers. Miss Prideaux-Pridham's Sir Walter Ealeigh was a very creditable oration in the stock'manner, well constructed, but delivered in the rather monotonous manner of a recitation.

Mr. Foster took a new dine—hardly, one believes, supported by the records — on Julius Caesar as soeiai reformer. It was this that probably won him third position on the list with Mr. Scott, for otherwise his oration lacked light and shade. ' , . / ■

Mr. Scott gave a praiseworthy account of the1 noble career of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, who gave up a brilliant, career at a European University to minister to the negroes in the steaming jungle of the French Congo. A slight hesitancy, in speech was noted'by .the judges. ,

Mr. Watson's Karl Liebkneeht was used more as an engine for a propagandist speech than the. subject of an oration, but the speaker'got away with it well, and no doubt achieved, as Mr. Bullock pointed out, what he wanted to do. But for this obvious trend of the discourse Mr. Watson might well have been in the running for a higher place.

The duties of chairman at the contest were ably carried out by Mr. B. E. Diederich, and in the interval, while the judges were consulting, several interesting vocal and recitative items were given., by the students rounding off a most enjoyable evening's entertainment.