SOCIAL AND PERSONAL.

Wanganui Chronicle, 15 December 1949, Page 9

SOCIAL AND PERSONAL.

Miss L. Bishop, of the teaching staff of the Girls’ College, has left to spend the school vacation at Hamilton. Mrs M. A. Archibald has returned after visiting New Plymouth. Miss S. Ashmore, Wanganui East, and Miss C. Cassels leave today for Wellington and will sail tomorrow for Sydney. While In Australia Miss Ashmore intends to take a course in floral work. Miss Margaret Cooper, who is private secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr S. G. Holland, is a Taranaki girl. Miss Cooper, who was born at Eltham and attended the primary school there, was later educated at the New Plymouth Girls’ High School. Before becoming private secretary to Mr Holland Miss Cooper was in the office of the Australian High Commissioner and the Consul for the Netherlands at Wellington. Politics have been “in the family” so far as Mrs Robert. Menzies, wife ol the Prime Minister-elect of Australia, is concerned. Mrs Menzies is the daughter of the late Senator John William Leckie, who was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Victoria as a Liberal in 1913, when Mrs Menzids was a young girl. He held office till 1917, when he resigned. At the general election of 1915 Senator Leckie was elected to the House of Representatives in the Federal Parliament. He became a Federal Senator for Victoria in 1934, holding that office till 1947. Added to her father’s political background, Mrs Menzies has already experienced what it is like to be the wife of a Prime Minister, for her husband became Prime Minister of Australia on April 26, 1939, holding office till 1941. As Miss Pattie Leckie, she married Mr Menzies in 1920. There are two daughters and a son. The family lives in Melbourne. Gifts for the Book Lover If you have book-loving friends or relatives on your Christmas list, any one of them will welcome James Barke s book, “The Wonder of All the Gay World,” A. J. Cronin’s “Shannon’s Way,” or Nelle Scanlan’s “Rusty Road.” Excellent reading, too, is “Big Fisherman,” by Roy Douglas (this is a best seller in America). For readers interested in world affairs the book “Behind Europe’s Curtain,” by John Gunther, will appeal. For those favouring a mystery book there is “Dark Wanton,” by Peter Cheyney. All these volumes are procurable at Rowell’s Book Shop. Books men will will enjoy reading are “Blue Water Dwelling,” by Humphrey Jordan, also “The Sea Chase,” by Andrew Geer, a story founded on fact, and “Infantry Brigadier,” by Major-General Sir Howard Kippenberger.*