WOMEN JUDGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27078, 12 May 1949, Page 6

WOMEN JUDGES

MISS NEW ZEALAND QUEST NAMES ANNOUNCED The two women judges in this year’s “Miss New Zealand” quest are to be Lady Miria Pomare, 0.8. E., of WeL lington, widow of the late Sir Maui Pomare, and Miss Nelle Scanlan, the well-known novelist, at present living in Palmerston North. Giving the names of these two judges to-day, the executive director of the quest, Mr K. W. Kilpatrick, said that negotiations were in train for the two men judges who would complete the panel of four. Lady Pomare has for many years been prominently associated with women’s organisations, including the Plunket Society, the Red Cross Society, the Mothers’ Helpers, the Girl Guides and the Victoria League, as well as with organisations working for the welfare of the Maori people. Miss Scanlan is known throughout the Dominion and in most Englishspeaking countries overseas for her many novels on New Zealand life. She was born in Picton and has been writing fiction since she was nine years old. Few, if any, New Zealand novelists have achieved the success she has won, not only in her own country, but overseas. In the course of her journalistic work, Miss Scanlan has travelled extensively in Britain, Europe and the United States, and it is expected that her knowledge of overseas conditions will be of considerable help in choosing a “Miss New Zealand ” who can worthily represent this country abroad.