PREPARED AND IMPROMPTU SPEECHES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 134, 3 December 1929, Page 5

PREPARED AND IMPROMPTU SPEECHES

The Wellington Girls' College competition for prepared and impromptu speeches took place at the school last Friday afternoon. Miss Greig (headmistress) presided, and Mr. and Mrs. Campbell Spratt were the judges. The event is one .of several annual competitions intended to discover and develop talent among the girls, and is always most interesting to the audience, which, this year, as usual, included, parents and friends, as well as the senior classes of the school. The placings were: Nancy Owen, who spoke on "Helen Keller," 1; Nancy Caugliley, "Modern Prose and Poetry," 2; Grace Middleton, "Lord Roberts," 3. Other good speeches were made by Molly Neill,' on "Jan Smnts," and Marion Godber, on "Coleridge Taylor." The judge pointed out that as the subjects of the speeches were mostly men, what was wanted was some vivid and arresting study giving the spirit of the man, and the place he occupied in this world. He added that a speech was a work of art; it was not a mere catalogue, neither was it to be treated as a piece of dramatic frenzy. The old saying, "Begin low, speak slow, mount higher, catch fire, then expire," was good advice. Mr. Spratt complimented all the speakers on their purity of speech and diction.

The competition for impromptu speeches was heard privately. There were nineteen competitors. The winner in the senior division, for which the subject was "Babies," was Nancy Owen, and in the junior division, Nessie MacFarlane, who spoke on "C4ardens." The judge's criticism was both sympathetic and instructive. He told the girls that the chief power developed by impromptu speaking was the ability to think while on one's feet. He showed that the speech should possess form, as does a good essay, and gave some useful hints about the posture and address of the speaker.