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Plunket Medal, 1931

The twenty-fifth Plunket Medal Contest was noteworthy for the excellent orations of the two lady contestants.

Mr. Reardon spoke of Ramsay MacDonald and was disappointing. He did not speak with the warmth and fire which we expected, and what might have been an oration was partly a reading, partly an address.

Mr. Bishop gave an excellent talk on Robert Louis Stevenson. It was a pleasing study of considerable literary merit, but could not be considered an oration.

Mr. Riske gave a talk on the marvels of modern science, based on Sir Ernest Rutherford's work, but his speech made no pretensions to oratorical merit.

Mr. Crossley gave an interesting account of the life of Colonel Lawrence. His voice and dic-tion showed him capable of better things.

Mr. ChorIton was, in the writer's opinion, the only man whose style approached oratroy. His speech was evidently ill-prepared and had many faults, but it revealed the real feeling and the sense of effect which are essential for an oration.

Miss Forde gave an admirable speech on Henry Grattan. She had a fine sense for effect and her voice displayed a very fine range of tone colour effects. The criticism the writer would like to make (with all due humility) is that Miss Forde's technique was a trifle too apparent, her gestures rather obviously studied, and her changes of mood made a little too obviously. The result was that Miss Forde claimed the admiration of her audience, but failed to move them as deeply as the winner. Her performance, however, must rank with the outstanding Plunket Medal performances.

The winner delivered a very fine oration. It was a speech of distinct literary merit, delivered with an almost faultless technique and an artistic restraint, yet so coloured with real sympathy and deep feeling that it was of Toussaint L'Ouverture and not of Miss Henderson that the audience thought.

The judges—Mr. Justice McGregor, Professor von Zedlitz and Mr. H. E. Holland, M.P.—were unanimous in awarding Miss Zenocrate Henderson the medal and in placing Miss C. S. Forde s:cond and Mr. Crossley third. Mr. W. J. Mountjoy, Jr., was Chairman.