OUR PUBLIC SPEAKERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VII, Issue 2004, 21 June 1870, Page 4

OUR PUBLIC SPEAKERS.

To the Ediror of the ErpaLD. SIE, —While listening to one or two of •'.!■: speeches lately delivered before Aucki i audiences, I could not help thiuving th ; i tho reporters of the daily papers were to r. .■ • down verbatim el lileratim the words as :'..-* fell from the lips of our oratjra in Parliament or public meeting assemblies, the result, in i majority of cases, would neither be very instructive to the public, nor gratifying to tht speakers themselves. A3 it is, I can fa:.._-v that many of the reported must hare g.-..w difficulty in recognising in the neatly K[M?«e] sentences in their morr.ing'i paper the haltering maumderings in which they hiJ indulged the previous ereniug. The proudest boast of the United States ii that any free-born American citizen may a'.tih to the highest dignity in the laud, aud era fill the President's chair; and to a great ntent, it is the same in these colonies, uiicU-r t';» liberal Constitution with which we hare been favored. All offices, except those of the Queen's representative, are open to colonisti, and that being so, taken in connection with the immense power a fluent ar. i practised speaker has over any assembla.;?. it certainly is matter for wonder that so few of our public men can express themselves in Kα:!-a-dozen consecutive sentences in such a way as to be satisfactory to themselves and agretable to those who listen. Many men who can think and write on any ■ given subject in a style above nicJiucri'y, ' no sooner get on their fegs to are 1 utterance to the result of their eo;ila- ' tioes than they seem lost, the r.xin: and the audience swim before them, tho;r ' ideas elude their grasp, the right worii will not come in the right place, and after 1 floundering away for some time, they sit ■loTrn 1 with painful consciousness, not o:iiy of their ■ having failed to say what they intended, bat ' also, of having made an exhibition of them- ' selves — oue of the most trying of a'l ' experiences to a well regulated British mini. With some this is the result of constitutional s nervousness, but with the great majority it , arises simply for want of practice. It is it? : duty of every man to be able, when caUe.l > upon, to give public expresion to his view.- on public questions, and orators, like otner ) jjeniuses, are oftener made than i> >'=. . I believe it would be a step in the njr'- [ direction, if we were to esiabh?U_ a , Parliamentary Debating Club in our \ in which the future public speakers of ta? ', province might, so to speak, ;erre an [ apprenticeship. The discussion of all subject! atTectinj our [ interests as citizens and colonists, wou.d w . the means of elicit inz, and imparting a i great deal of information that would otherwU? j lay hid, and the exchange of i'icas woa.-t , expand our minds, and tend in a rrr-A ; measure to dispel the contract.d and narrowL minded views held by many on bucli siil:j>"';'; - from similai- societies in the \;n.ui ■■■'■■[ . country, and through the experiri-.ee am [ practice derived therein, Uriuii'. ci= , obtained her greatest orators, and t'ae 110 '. Common; its most briliant d.batus. ! " Reading," says Lord Bacon. '• mii» a full man; writing, an exact u'-» a • l and speaking a ready ui-ui," th.' ii*t b. T E ° . meansan nuimportantqualificati'jnie-ra'jvnra I who has tj make his wav in the wor.'d i:i this latter lialf of the enlightcne.l .m.i g--'- . head nineteenth century. I do nut think that there H ::ry ''™ { . : ' r sp-.-ial ]i:i.adiug to make out a u> .• i c.i't'f.T , the. establishment of su:h a • -if - .* :ij I -^ ,e indicated. Kvery youiiK man w T : • ':.;- a spark >■: a:n.. - tiouin him aud whois l.okiugforward ? ■ >' : ' r ; - later to take some more or less active p-ir: u'.- : -_* councils of city or state, should see :t t.> ~~ i:t'-'rest from everv point of view, inciu.il-. v a—• materially, to enrol himself as a member— auJ not young ~.e:i only, but every man »:;>' w= * stake in the country, or desires to ta'k ■ a l in municipal i)roceedings, local > r "emrai politics, in parliament or at publicim-eim^-.^ The success of all such societies dep.-n '-'• 'J| a great measure, upon the numerical which they receive, —all need not. and not be speakers, yet all may derive bc:io!ilistening to others, and may correct careful observation) their own iaiilts o; : '■'- ter, manner, or stvle of =pta!;iiu. I shaU be glad to co-cp-.-ra'e _v.i!:i gentlemen «ho may desire to ske t!: , "''-- j tian thrown out carried into esevuti '-'••■■ enclose inv card. —I am, &<.:. Mc\rv [Our correspondent's plan n a P-' ""'.' but we tru.-l that it will always be ivh:im:i.' that oratorical brilliancy is by n" !i ~i::~ f] desirable as a curt method of expresri ■"■ *- a habit of saving what isreallv reii'iisile. :>::■' - more.—El'.'jS'.Z U.]