Top beauty award to Aucklander

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 1

Top beauty award to Aucklander

Tania Clague, aged 18, a model, of Auckland, was last evening crowned "Miss Universe New Zealand” in the James Hay Theatre in Christchurch.

One of the first persons to congratulate her was “Miss Universe” Lorraine Downes.

Susan Hooper of Christchurch was second, and Brenda Thompson of Auckland, third.

Miss Clague said afterwards that she did not feel under too much pressure to follow Miss Downes’s example of winning the international beauty contest. “Lorraine has given me the inspiration to really do well,” she said. Miss Downes’s win last year would help future “Miss Universe” entrants. “Now that she has won it, people will recognise New Zealand from now on. They know we can do it,” said Miss Clague.

The new “Miss Universe New Zealand” also attributed Miss Downes’s win to the lack of protesters who had plagued previous competitions. “People have begun to realise that a girl can gain an advantage in the modelling circuit if she wins a contest like this,” she said. Miss Clague was confident she would be able to handle the security entourage, and pressures that were evident for Miss Downes if she were to win the “Miss Universe” title. She was “surprised and happy” at winning the “Miss Universe New Zealand” contest.

Miss Clague is studying pyschology at university and is also interested in creative dancing. Next year she hopes to become an airline hostess. The “Miss Universe” contest will be held in Canada in July.