HOLIDAY CONTEST WON

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 30, 6 January 1939, Page 23

HOLIDAY CONTEST WON

»Mr. A. S. Hely, of Palmerston North, Wins Columbia ba ar ° 4a o.,e "Ideal Leaves on Fortnight’s Free Holiday Next Week-end COLUMBIA PICTURES’ "Ideal Holiday" competition has been concluded and, after a lot of thought, the judges have awarded the prize of two weeks’ holiday, plus expenses ond several other awards, to Mr. A. S. Hely, of 40 Te Awe Awe Street, Palmerston North, who was judged to have written the best essay on the subject of an ideal holiday. Mr. Hely will leave this coming week-end for Rotorua, where he will spend his holiday. — . He will stay at the Armidale Guest Heuse.

, 4 -_o~" O the competition ends. For entrants, judges, and, it is to be hoped, for the general public as well, it has been full of interest from start to finish. While it was only to be expected thai there would be plenty of New Zeasianders who would leap at the opportunity of a free holiday, the number of entries received surprigéd everybody. , fne standard of essay submitted was, on the whole, very goed. it was obvious that some . entrants were not exceptionally wll versed in the skilled trade of putting one’s thoughts down in writing, but there were very few who did not have definite Ideas about, their ideal holiday. Winning Essay essay submitted by the winner, Mr. Hely, gives a vivid picture of the ideal holiday he would spend. He gives sufficient detail to make it a definite conerete objective, but he does not crowd it with details end facts to the point of making y it a timetable or just a concise guide to a holiday resort. What facts he does give us to . ponder over are marshalled neatly. His whole essay, moreover, has style, that rather indefinite quality which can mean all the difference between indifferent and good writing. So to Mr. Hely goes the prize. While the judges are not nearly so optimistic as to expect that their verdict will win complete approval, they are confident that the award will be generally applauded.

Congratulations then to Mr. Hely, and here’s hoping that his fortnight’s: holiday at Rotorug, will come close to his ideal. We reprint below Mr. Hely’s essay:To passengers sitting in the comfort of the north-bound express as it’ breasts the long climb that lies between the plains of the Manawatu and the deserts of Waiouru, where the lonely winds whisper through the tussock grass, and Ruapehu stands white and calm under the frosty sky, Ohingaiti is just another wayside station, a blur of red-brown buildings, of red and green lights. To

motorists in their super-stream-lined cars, roaring through on their way from the commercial offices of Weélington to the fishing lodges of Taupo, Ohingaiti is but another of New Zealand’s architectural mediocrities-hotel, post office, general store and the ubiquitous service station-set down aimlessty in the centre of a long, white dusty road and imprisoned by the bleak majesty of burnt and tor-

tured hills. To me, however, Ohingaiti is the spot for a perfect ‘fortnight’s holiday. A few feet away from the white road, through the tangle of dusty scrub where in the spring ‘the kowhai’s gold makes a blaze of colour and the starry faced clematis drifts across the tea-tree ‘bushes, one comes with startling suddenness to the sheer cliff edge and gazes down past clinging ferns, stunted mountain flax and the feathery spray of. leaping cascades to where, two hundred feet ‘below, the Rangitikei River flows in wide and lazy sweeps between its canyon walls. On the river flat where green sward slopes to silvery sand | would raise my tent "a sail above an oar" and for two weeks | would swim in the cool green pools where the willows rustle softly in the breeze and the sunshine filters through the pattern of the leaves like golden dust; | would climb the soaring cliffs and broken hills past startled sheep and stiff-legged mountain yearlings who gaze with red-eyed suspicion at the intruder before, snorting, they wheel and lumber away, till at last, ! reached the windswept ridge from which, looking north, one can see Ruapehu standing up white and clear in the sunshine and, looking south, one can see through the tangle of hills and valleys and purple haze, the rolling plains of the coast and the blue green shine of the Tasman; 1 would canoe upstream past racing shallows and calm deep stretches where the willow fronds droop to the water and kingfishers dive like spears of purple flame, dropping back to the camp in the evening when the river lies black and still in the shadow of its canyon walls and the moon rises over the shoulder of the Ruahines. Under the blazing arc-lamps at Nuremberg Hitler may arouse the passions of the Nazis, the fears of the world; under a Mediterranean moon, swift shapes may he bearing death and destruction to a

Spanish town; in the great cities | of the world may be unemployment, sickness, uncertainty; at Rotorua the gay crowds may celebrate the New Year while Maoris | without conviction commercialise the culture of their ancestors; but at Ohingaiti the sun shines, the river murmurs over its gravel bars, the trees whisper in the breeze, and all is calm and peace. ‘ ; er oe | by

| Holiday Essay — _ Competition | HE competition was divided into 10 weekly stages, and from the semifinalists, the final winner. was selected. _ First prize includes:- _ . (a) Return rail. fare- to Rotorua. a (6): A smart travelling case presented by Nash’s Leather’ Arcade, only address 133-135, Cuba Street, Wellington. (c) One new season’s model "Cutie" bathing suit presented by Lane, Walker, Rudkin Ltd., manufacturers of "Canterbury" woollen goods. (d) A Slazenger "Match Point" racquet donated by Slazenger (Australia) Pty,, Litd., Sydney. (e) An Ensign Gamera donated by H. E. Perry Ltd., N.Z. Distributors for Selochrome Films. (f) Fortnight’s free accommodation at Armidale Guest House, Rotorua.