GOLDEN RULE FOR PUBLIC SPEAKERS: “MAKE IT SHORT”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22816, 10 December 1948, Page 4

GOLDEN RULE FOR PUBLIC SPEAKERS: “MAKE IT SHORT”

“Two things strike me as I stand here and look around me. The first is that this is the biggest visible congregation I have had for some time,” remarked Canon A. F. Hall, speaking to pupils of the Gisborne High School and their parents and friends, who filled the Army Hall to capacity for the annual break-up ceremonies last evening. “The second point is that it is a great privilege to be allowed to .stand here at all,” continued the guest speaker. I am fully aware that since it was known that I was to address this gathering, everyone concerned has had three words in mind: ‘Keep it short!” (Laughter.) He confessed that there was a certain satisfaction in remembering his 10 years as a pupil of Dulwich College, where once a year he had had to listen to long-winded speeches by “stuffy old men,” and of how the tables were now turned. He warned his audience that some day perhaps some of them might in turn occupy the seats of the mighty at similar functions, and that one of them might then be trying to do what he had undertaken to do. He hoped that that person would not feel as nervous as he did about the undertaking. (Renewed laughter.)