The contest was for pupils in school year 5 to 8 primary, and year 9 and 10 students in high schools.
"While New Zealand may be worrying about the level of education slipping, it is certainly not in public speaking as the standard of speeches in this year’s contest was higher and we had more participation than previous years," Lions publicity manager Allan Prakash said.
"Most of the speeches were of a good standard and the topic of the speeches varied widely but all speeches showed that the students had prepared well on the topic of their choice," he said.
Mr Prakash said they had greater participation than previous years with 31 entries from 10 school.
He said the "most amazing part" was that they had more entries from those in years 5 to 6 than from years 7 to 10.
Mr Prakash said the judges, Faye Ormandy and Lions past district governor Derek Wardell, had "a hard time" choosing three winners from each group.
Each participant was given a certificate of appreciation for participating with prizes for the top three in each year.
The top three speakers in each group were:
Year 5: Jadean Hu 1, Hazel Faulks 2, Arabella Easton 3.
Year 6: Zehnayah Mahadurage 1, Hugh Newton 2, and Vidu Chadrasena and Harriet Easton equal 3.
Year 7: Pippa Robson 1, Sourav Kurup 2, Emma Hu 3.
Year 8: Amy Short 1, Zahara Zilang 2, Tilly Harnett 3.
Year 9-10: Catriona Schoneveld 1, Charlie Short 2, Erin Dee 3.
