A NEW ZEALAND GIRL

Waikato Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2550, 25 May 1922, Page 3

A NEW ZEALAND GIRL

SUCCESS IN AMERICA MISS SCANLAN ABROAD The people of Palmerston North, who a few months ago rubbed shoulders with Miss Nellie Scanlan, will read with delight the following account of her doings:—• The story of Miss Nellie Scanlan, even in these days of unexpected careers, reads like a fairy talc. She was a typiste —yet an efficient one, be it said —in Palmerston North, New Zealand. The war gave her her opportunity, as it gave many other girls, and she volunteered for newspaper service. Raw at first, she was so adaptable that it wasn’t long before shq»|; was subeditor of the daily morning paper. On occasion! of stress, she produced the whole paper. At the end of last year, realising that her ability was larger than her environment, she decided to go to America, and instead of spending her time in California —as was her original intention—she pushed on to Washington. The capital must have a telegraph system similar to our own, because Miss Scanlan ’s telegrams to friends went astray, and, miserable and lonely, she was snowed up in a skyscraper for days. Eventually she became a member of the Pen women’s League, and one night at a social gathering, there was a request: “Come on, Miss New Zealand, tell us all about it!” Miss Scanlan’s impromptu talk was so successful that she was invited to speak at other places, and was well started on her career.

The conference was, of course, the only thing in Washington, and the capable girl from New Zealand was the only woman press representative from Australia in the press box during the sessions. With the Japanese and Chinese delegates she addressed a luncheon to 1000 women in the ball-room of one of the big hotels, and at once leapt into prominence* as a speaker. She was invited by President Harding to a big reception to the delegates, and such an impression has she made that the New York Herald sent a man specially to Washington to interview her. Her old editorial chief, who is at present occupied with press work in Sydney, says Miss Seanlan is Irish, and <‘has a way wid her.” It was on his advice that she spent the trip across the Pacific storing up facts and figures about tlio Dominion —statistics which have been of tremendous value to her in America. It. is Miss Seanlan’s intention to work her way through the .States, boosting New Zealand, and she recently delivered an address at Frcdricktown, with its memories of Barbara Freitchie. _______