The Russell McVeagh Hawke’s Bay Regional Schools’ Debating Championships were held on Sunday 9 May at Karamu High School. Eight teams competed on the day: Lindisfarne College, Karamu High School A and B, Te Aute College, Napier Boys’ High School, Campion College, the recently selected Central North Island regional team, along with a ‘Russell McVeagh invitational’ team.
The Hawke’s Bay regional competition is a new and developing one. 2003 was the first time a regional competition had been held since the early 1990s. It was pleasing, in 2004, to see schools who had entered last year returning, as well as new schools as well. In particular it was great to see schools like Campion College in Gisborne being prepared to travel long distances to debate!
Teams debated both sides of the prepared motion ‘That Maori should get special treatment’ in the first two rounds of the day. After lunch and one hour of preparation time, teams debated the motion ‘That we should see more of New Zealand on Air’.
Karamu High School A then debated Lindisfarne College in the well-attended final of the competition. The motion was ‘That we should abolish our nuclear free policy’. Karamu affirmed and Lindisfarne negated. After a good debate, the adjudicators were unanimous that Lindisfarne College should be the Hawke’s Bay regional champions for 2004. The winning team was Brad Richards, Jordan Williams, and David Hooker.
The Russell McVeagh regional team, to represent Hawke’s Bay at the National Championships in August was then named. The team was Brad Richards (Lindisfarne College), Pei Huang (Karamu High School) and Jordan Williams (Lindisfarne College). Reserves named were Russell Kale (Karamu High School) and Paul Smith (Napier Boys’ High School).
Many thanks to the adjudicators who came up with me from Wellington or traveled from Palmerston North: Kevin Moar, Sarah Barnett, Gareth Richards, Zach Ward, and Chris Pearce. Particular thanks are due to Jill Allan and Karamu High School for helping to organise the venue and for ensuring the smooth running of the competition on the day.