Tribute

It is therefore a tribute to Mr Waddle's voice, his manner and particularly to his experience, that he could win the contest when for 12 minutes he told the audience that they were, as members of humanity, murderers, rapists, thieves and brutes. His theme was 'The Brutality of Man" and the whole picture of a callous, stupid race of men was skilfully portrayed—particularly the peaceful opening description of a mother playing with her child in Hiroshima, three minutes before the atom bomb fell, while Daddy was at the factory making guns to kill New Zealanders.

Beyond this description the assumption is that there was, underneath it all, a plea for a reform of our nasty habits, but this was not the central theme of his speech. Mr Waddle's was the best presented, most skilfully prepared, most experienced address, and it deserved to win. It was not, however, oratory.

Brutes as we are, Mr Hendrikse, who was placed second, thought that we could do well to sit back and allow our imaginations to show us the way to future greatness "To Dream" as he put it. A much more subdued Mr Hendrikse from last year's Mahatma Ghandi, he told the audience how great events had occurred, and the very course of history had been altered because of visionaries like Ghandi, Joan of Arc, the St. Lawrence Seaway builders.

This was cool, thoughtful and impressive, but the audience, at least this member of it, had the feeling that he was being told something which he could take or leave as he liked.

This failure, or perhaps near-miss, to get audience involvment, meant that Mr Hendrikse, again, did not win the contest but was possibly closer than the judges said he was.