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Southland Times, Issue 22499, 8 December 1934, Page 17

An example of the ignorance prevailing in America as to the whereabou of New Zealand was given during a speech by Mr J. W. Collins, Trade Commissioner to Canada and United States, at the luncheon of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce last week. He had occasion once to hand in an important cable to the Dominion at an office in Washington. The girl on duty, who had graduated from Columbia University two years before, with geography as one of her subjects, asked Mr Collins where New Zealand was. He told her that the cable could wait for a few hours, and advised her to investigate its position. Meanwhile he reminded her that Lovelock, the athlete, whose record-breaking feats were being featured in the Press at the time, came from New Zealand. She iemarked that she had thought that New Zealand stood for Nova Scotia. Returning later, he asked her if she had found New Zealand, to which she replied, “Yes, Mr Collins, I found it on page 228 of the telegraph regulations.”