RISE TO FAME.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 July 1926, Page 3

RISE TO FAME.

. “ MISS AUSTRALIA,” SYDNEY, July 8. Beautv in woman is sometimes regarded as a dangerous gift, but it would be hard to convince at least one voung lady of this in Australia today, for, by the attractiveness of her face and form, and also personality, she has emerged from the obscurity of a West Australian outback town to will a popularity and fame which would dazzle far greater mortals. She is Miss Beryl Mills, who travelled 2200 miles from Geraldton. West Australia, to win- the -‘Miss Australia’ competition, and to find her name on everyone’s lips, and her photograph m every shop window almost. Whether this unexpected fame, and the fuss that will inevitably he made of her when she reaches America, will turn her head remains to he seen. It is the proud boast of the newspaper which staged this competition that, after combing a whole Continent, they have found tho perfect Australian girl. Without, however, wishing to denthe beauty and the charm of Miss Mills, it is quite possible that others equally as charming would have been discovered if all the beautiful girls in Australia had felt courageous enough to enter a competition of this sort, and subject themselves to the limelight which it necessarily involved. Among women and girls who love to have an idol set up for them, the fuss that lias (>ecn made of Miss Mills in Sydney the last few days has amounted almost to idolatry. The Prince of Wales would probably wonder if his star had waned if lie could have seen it. Wherever she has moved in the city she has been followed by dense crowds, so dense in fact as to block the footpaths and the road in the neighbourhood of the shops in which she condescended to do business in Pitt street.

Many gifts have been showered on her.