1937 Plunket Medal

Scotney Wins at Last

The Plunket Medal Contest seems to crow more popular each year and the gymnasium was far too small for the crowd who attended. The committee did well to get so many in. but this scarcely excuses the delay in starting, a fact which aroused the ire of at least one distinguished visitor in the front seats.

At twenty-three minute past eight Miss Tossman took the stage and the sympathy of everyone was with her in her early difficulties. It was indeed bad luck that the draw made her the first speaker. She pluckily tried again at the end of the evening and gave us a well composed speech on Vincent van Gogh. With her sweet voice and winning manner she will be a strong competitor next year when we hope to see her again.

In spite of her fine stage appearance and studied delivery, there was a certain hesitancy about Miss Stock which made us feel her speech had been too well but not well enough prepared. She drew some vivid pictures of Mesaryk, the man of faith, who made a nation where there had not even been a geographical expression; but we do not think she was at her best this year.

Mr. Perry made an effective opening and gave us in his first few minutes a clear picture of his subject Nehru and of his own views on British administration in India. But his acid treatment now began to fall. The speech was well thought out, but the treatment was at once too cynical and not powerful enough for an oration.

Mr. McCulloch treated Napoleon in a new fashion—that superlatively bad man with yet an irreducible maximum of greatness The speech, a series of well-balanced sentences (some of which we seem to have heard before), would possibly have beaten the others on paper and, with more experience, its author will do well next year.

To many Mr. White's speech on William the Silent, must have beer, the most convincing of the evening. It was very well prepared—a good standard Plunket Medal oration. The matter may have smacked of the history book, but the delivery and platform manner were excellent.

Miss Shortall made contact with her audience immediately with her whimsical opening. In an easy conversational manner she led us through the simple story of Madame Curio and never failed to hold our interest. It was a bold experiment she made, and it was not surprising to find an infinitive split here or a sentence astray there. But it was an absorbing story, delivered in a most effective style and deserved the success it achieved.

Mr. Scotney's familiar figure at once drew and held our attention. A fine opening and a first class ending the only parts of his speech he had committed to memory, but the delivery was so good that even the Judges could not guess that this was so. There were fresh moments in the shooting of von Papen, and he made a pitiful figure of Hitler in the peroration. His experience stood him in good stead and he won the medal from Miss Short all because he kept to the time limit (or nearly so)-a trap into which she had fallen. Mr. Scotney's twelve minutes seemed shorter than anyone else's and this, as Dr. Booby said, made his speech stand out ahead as an oration.

We had a clear and accurate Portrayal of Robespierre from Mr. Andrews. His diction made him easy to listen to, but his rather poor pastures and tendency to wander about, rather spoiled his speech. Nevertheless, he must have been close up with the leaders.

The judges (Bishop Holland, Dr. Beeby and Mr. Rollings), in response to a wise request from the committee, had previously met to agree on the method of working the comptitors, and they were unanimous in placing Mr. Scotney first, just ahead of Miss Shortall.

These two were far ahead of the others, so the judges told us, and in this they were perhaps lucky with their judges. Last year's board, for instance, would have ruled the winner out if only for the treatment of the subject. Judges of other years would probably have preferred the prepared speech style and it is no reflection on the placed speakers to say that the result may have been very different in. other years. If we are right in this opinion, and bearing in mind the decisions and views of past judges, it is time the Debating Society, in fairness to future competitors, did one of two things:—

(a) Defined oratory for the purposes of the Plunket Medal;

(2) Asked judges to announce, well before the time of the contest, just what would be regarded as an oration for the particular year in question.

Mr. Scotney's win was popularly received and well deserved. To have tried for the sixth time, after coming third once and second twice, in determination if you like, and every he was delighted for him to win. Miss Shortall's success, too, was popular, for she has been a firm favourite with Plunket Medal audiences for two years.

Mr. Edgley, making his first presidential appearance, was a capable chairman and deftly got in a plea for the Building Fund. The blanks in the programme were ably filled in by Miss Combs, Messrs. P. Marsack and J. A. Carrod.