SPEAKERS AND ORATORS
Sir,-"Sundowner’s" comment on the rate of speaking is interesting."I suggest that Lloyd George’s recording so slowly in 1934 was purely a matter of age-he was in his seventies. I several times reported him and would be surprised to hear that he did less than 100 words a minute. As Churchill said, he had a beautiful speaking voice and he spoke the King’s English without the slightest accent (an NZBS production some months ago had him cast tragically as a stage Welshman). Asquith was by nature a slow, deliberate speaker, always mindful of tis printed word, by which Victorians placed more stcere than they would in. these days of immediate access to audiences of millions. They were more after literature for posterity to read than oratory on the spot. Has. broadcasting of Parliament speeded up the average rate of speech? For many years Sir Joseph Ward was considered our fastest speaker. He was reputed to attain, and even to maintain, 150 words a minute. Certainly he hesitated rarely, but he was prone to repetition and adding unnecessary phrases.
GUY H.
SCHOLEFIELD
(Wellington).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19561026.2.12.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 899, 26 October 1956, Page 5
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184SPEAKERS AND ORATORS New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 899, 26 October 1956, Page 5
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