THE RAPHAEL TUCK COMPETITIONS.

Evening Star, Issue 9830, 19 October 1895, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE RAPHAEL TUCK COMPETITIONS.

The results of the literary and painting competitions initiated by Raphael Tuck and Sons, the well-known art publishers of London, have been published, and it is satisfactory to note that this colony gains a fair share of the honors. The task of judging was entrusted to a committee whose names are a guarantee of absolute fairness and correct judgment. At the head of the literary committee stood Sir Walter Besant, and Mr" Marcus Stone, E.A., presided over the painting committee. The latter says in his report: "' The competition just closed shows an appreciable advance upon its predecessors, the immense number of entries exhibiting in the majority of cases careful study and, in many of them, real merit. The door panel competition shows the greatest advance, some of the work entered in this section being particularly good; the children's competition for coloring outlines gives considerablb promise." Over 10,000 competitions for the literary prizes were sent in, and of them Sir Walter Besant writes: "This great number of competitors came from every part of the United Kingdom, from India, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and all our colonies, and from foreign countries, as France, Germany, Austria, South America, and even China, lliere are fourteen different competitions. The number in each competition varied, as might have been expected. Those which were of a religious character attracted by far the greatest number. And, in these competitions, I would venture to speak in commendation of the true religious feeling which possessed most of the competitors and was Bhown in the selection of the texts and the spirit which they breathed. In the poetical the Committee were much impressed by the wide reading displayed. In some cases the use of a selection from an anthology was manifest, but there were others in which the Committee are convinced that the replies were based upon personal knowledge of the poets quoted, the passages chosen not being in any anthology. I think these competitions, carried on honestly and intelligently, and without using an anthology as a 'crib,'ought to exercise a considerable educational influence. For instance, the rendering into prose of Longfellow's 'King Robert of Sicily' is an exercise calling for the most careful study of the poem and the story, and the apprehension of the many points in that poem which a merely careless reading might easily pass over. I beg to bear my testimony to the very thorough and appreciative treatment which the papers have received at the hands of the committeemen. Thousands of papers have passed through their hands. They selected the best of these without doubt and difficulty, and sometimes putting forward half a dozen between which it seemed difficult to decide. In these cases we took counsel together. Lastly, my opinion of the average English and colonial rtader is greatly raised by bis papers. I see that his standards in poetry are high, that his reading is wide ; and in religious matters I see that the good old fashion of private judgment and free thought are by no means extinct among us." The following New Zealand names appeared among the prize-winners:—Literary: Kitty Hounsell, Alice B. Hansell, Nelson; Harriet CawkelL Mabel Herrold, Auckland. Painting : Ellen M. Cheeseman, Emma Chceseman, Bertha M. Wood, Auckland; Kate Barker, Edith Johns, Nelson; M. Bauchop, Port Chalmers; M. Blundell, Dunedin.