Publication of Results.

The prize-winners were announced over the air, the Australian Broadcasting Commission very kindly allowing us a short evening session for the purpose. Mr. FitzHenry, the late Sir John Dunningham (who was the Minister in charge of the Celebrations) together with myself attended at the studio on the arranged date, and actually opened the sealed envelopes containing the rightful names of the winners before the microphone, Mr. Dunningham (as he then was) announcing the names and congratulating their owners on behalf of the Government and Council.

The competitions brought entries from every State of the Commonwealth, from New Zealand, and from New Guinea, and many islands of the Pacific. The winners, too, were finely representative of the entries in their cosmopolitanism. The prize for the full length play was won by a well-known West Australian writer; the second prize-winner came from Manly, near Sydney, the third and fourth from Tasmania. The winner of the short stories could not be definitely resolved—the judges finally divided the prizes between ten competitors, whose entries came from all the States of the Commonwealth and New Zealand.

And so with the other sections—further evidence, if such were needed, of the widespread appeal of the whole affair.

The Commonwealth Prize was dealt with by a sub-committee of three, and the final decision went in favour of a novel by Xavier Herbert, of Northern Australia, which was also the venue of the story. It was entitled “Capricornia” and, while its tense realism may be found objectionable by some readers, there can be no question of its strength, its sincerity or its value as a study of life in the somewhat primitive conditions obtaining in the locality wherein its scenes are laid.

It only remains to add that as a result of the competitions most of the prize-winners have seen their entries published and/or staged in a manner compatible with the importance of the event which called them into being.

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