The Christmas Number

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 543, 21 December 1928, Page 8

The Christmas Number

Over 1,000 Manuscripts Received For Literary Competitions List of the Successful Entrants WITH to-day’s issue we present to the Auckland public the Christmas Supplement of The Sun which contains the result of our annual literary competitions, open to all New Zealand writers and poets. This year a spate of manuscripts poured into The Sun offices. Over 1.000 contributions were received. Of these, close on 400 were short stories. There were 321 contributors who sought honours in the verse section, and-the Limerick competition—involving less effort—proved extremely popular.

AS in our previous competition, entries were received from every province in tile Dominion and from outlying islands. The work of reading and judging these manuscripts proved arduous but, from the hundreds of efforts submitted, we have been able to select material for a Christmas Number which we confidently issue to our public as evidence of the talent that exists in the Dominion; talent that requires only such stimulus as the competitions promoted by The Sun to find full expression.

unquestionably of a high standard will be of genuine interest to our readers The first prize for the best shortstory this year goes to Mr. C. R. Allen. “The End of the Quest” is a carefully polished little story, gracefully told and marred hy no false note. Mr. Allen is a son of Sir James Allen and is blind. From time to time articles from his pen have appeared in The Sun. The second prize is awarded to Miss Iris Wilkinson whose pen-name “Robin Hyde” is well known to Sun readers. Mrs. C. E. Gilbert, of Auckland, is commended for a story that shows literary ability and a fine restraint. With this number we introduce a new contributor. Miss Betty Knell, whose poem “Yesterday,” secures for her a first prize. This excellent verse has charm, freshness and simplicity. Miss Knell is not only able to write good vers Hire, but also has marked gifts for the rhymed forms, as will be indicated in a second poem, “Evolution,” which finds inclusion in this number. The Sun thanks all contributors for the interest they have shown in its literary contest and trusts that those who failed to secure mention this year will be among the competitors for its 1929 Competitions. »

This is not intended to be a Christmas Number in the old-fashioned sense of the term, with hoary jests about Christmas Stockings, Reindeer, Mistletoe and the delights of promiscuous osculation. There will be found in the supplement no pictures of ancient Maori crones smoking pipes. To those who demand, as their Christmas fare, Maori crones, with pipes, and hoary jests about mistletoe we express our contrition. At the same time, we feel that in producing this number we are definitely playing our part, as we set out to do, in bringing out and developing the talent that has been lying untapped in this country. We feel sure that the creative work of young New Zealanders —and some of it is