PERSONAL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21242, 24 January 1931, Page 12

PERSONAL.

Ministerial. The Prime Minister (Mr G. W. Forbes) left Wellington for his home at Cheviot last evening. He will'return to Wellington next Wednesday. The Attorney-general and Leader of the Legislative Council (Sir Thomas Sidey) left Wellington for his home at Dunedin last evening. Mr J. H. Duncan, manager for Messrs H. L. Tapley and Co., returned to Dunedin yesterday morning from a business visit to Auckland. The Rev. J. R. Blanchard, vicar of St. John’s (Wellington), left yesterday by the Ulimaroa for Sydney (states our Wellington correspondent). Mr Eric W. Bierre left Wellington by the Ulimaroa yesterday for Sydney to take up an appointment with the box Film Corporation. The Loder Cup Committee has appointed Dr J. E. Holloway and Messrs H. L. Darton (Christchurch), and James Speden (Gore) judges for the Loder Cup Competition of Collection of New Zealand native plants at the Dunedin Horticultural Society’s Jubilee Show, which will be held on February 25 and 26. Mr Albert H. West, a graduate of the Auckland University • College, and a former master of the Auckland Grammar School, has been successful in gaming a doctorate of the University of Pam, with very honourable mention. In 1928 Mr West was granted a French travelling scholarship by the University of New Zealand. He has continued his studies in French for two years- at the Sorbonne in Paris, working in the department of comparative literature and writing a doctoral thesis under the direction of its founder, Professor Fernand Baldensperger. Mr West also followed a course of practical work at the Institute of Phonetics, and gained a diploma certifying successful work. He will leave France this month to return to Auckland. . , Miss Blackmore, the newly appointed headmistress of St. Hilda’s Collegiate School, is expected to arrive in Dunedin on March 21, when she’ will be the guest of Bishop Richards and Mrs Richards until she takes up her duties after Easter. She is possessed of high qualifications for the position she is to occupy, holding the B.Sc. degree of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, and having had 11 years’ experience at the well-known and beautiful school at Abbots Hill, Hemel Hempstead, Herts. She is a woman of wide and generous sympathies. During the war she acted as V.A.D., ana she is keenly interested in the Girl Guides movement, in whch she has held the ranks of captain and division secretary. The Selection Committee, consisting of Dr Bickersbeth, of Canterbury, a chaplain of the Chapel Royal, Miss Kingsford, of the Church Teachers’ Fellowship,_ and others, was unanimous in the choice of_ Miss Blackmore, who, in the _ committee a opinion, possesses 'outstanding qualifications. She comes to New Zealand with the highest commendation from the Bishop of London, Miss I. M. Boys (headmistress of St. Margaret’s, Bushey), and Miss N. M. Baird (former headmistress of Abbot’s Hill), while Lady Marjorie Dalrymple, the present headmistress, and formerly headmistress of Woodford House, Havelock North, after speaking of her in the warmest terms, says: “Her high ideals lead her to expect much from those with whom she comes in contact, and her cheery optimism carries her through difficulties with a good courage. ... I shall be infinitely sorry to lose her. . . . At the same time, as I know a little of New Zealand and her schools, I could not think of withholding anyone who, in my own mind. I was convinced, would bo suited to the conditions out there.”