WITNESS PRIZE TALE COMPETITION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2181, 19 December 1895, Page 17

WITNESS PRIZE TALE COMPETITION.

TO THE EDITOB OF TBE "WITNESS. Sib, — Having been requested by you to select the three best Btories for the Witness Christmas Prize Competition, I forward you herewith the selection I have made. In my judgment the order of merit is as follows :—: — First Prize.— " The Thirty-second Share." By Asterisk; Second Prize.—" The Howies of Belleknowes.'By A. li. O. C. Third Prize.— "The £>ake on the Plateau." By Wairua. There were in all 115 stories, and it was inevitable that many should differ but little in merit, but I do not think there is much room for doubt in connection with the prizetakers. Without attempting to particularly explain the principles that guided me in the selection, I may say that I held it as a first and essential condition that there should be a story to tell and that it should be told in such a way as to engage the interest of the reader. It is necessary for me to say this because I have found the prevailing fault to be that the writers had no special story to tell. Apparently their experience of life had furnished them with no incidents on which a tale could be founded, and there was not sufficient imagination to take the place of experience. Many stories well enough written were wholly lacking in incident, and were rejected on that account. On the other hand, crudeness was a very common fault. I should judge a considerable number of the stories to have been written by very young persons of both sexes who had no experience of life, no invention, and no conception that there was any art whatever in telling a story. I think that the three to' which prizes have been awarded are free from most of these faults. The first is interesting throughout ; it is told with much simplicity and directness ; in its fidelity to life it bears evidence of a good deal of sharp observation ; and a pleasant touch of humour is not lacking. I think lam justified in saying that here and there there is about it the flavour of genuine literature. The second story is also in my judgment simple and interesting and true to life. The third has improbabilities which give a sense of unreality to the tale ; and the author adopts the time-worn device — for which there is high authority, however — of telling a, story within a story, and thus somewhat breaking the continuity. But it is brisk narrative, and ifc was only after some hesitation that I gave it the third rather than the second place. 0 Having been requested by one of your correspondents to give the names of a dozen or so of the stories next in order of merit to the prizetakers, I should select the following : — 1. "THE ABDUCTION OF DR. FALCKE."— By IGNOTUS. 2. " HIS LIFE'S IDEAL."— By KOBEKT GEOKGE. 3. "JOYCE GRANGER."— By HILARY. 4. "MARIE VASELLIS."— By J. S. 5. " THE GREENSTONE CROSS." 6. "BARRAVALE: A NEW ZEALAND STATION ROMANCE."— By MATAI. 7. "A HOLIDAY FRAGMENT."— By VOILA TOUT. 8. "THE TRANSLATION OF THE REV. JOHN LANE."— .By ARCH. BOLD. 9. "A STRANGE AFFAIR."— By ELECTRA. 10. " THE CAP'EN."— By OUBLIEZ. 11. "THE TALISMAN."— By LA. MASCOTTE. 12. "MR GOLDIE'S DAUGHTER."— By KOROMIKO. I do not undertake to say that the above are placed in their exact order of merit — except the first, which seems fb me the best of the twelve. I need scarcely add that the authors are wholly unknown to me. — Yours faithfully, M. J. SCOBIE MACKENZIE.