N.Z. Girl and Husband Win 33,000 Dollars

Chronicle (Levin), 13 November 1948, Page 5

N.Z. Girl and Husband Win 33,000 Dollars

Eeeeived Friday, "Z.15 p.m. ' ' NEW YORK, Nov. 11. A 33,000-dollar first prize in a puzzle contest will be used in part to finance a trip to New Zealand of a New Zealand girl and her American hushand, James 'Nickerson, and their five-year-old daughter, of Port WaShington, New York. Mrs, Nickerson was Kathleen Gordon Smith, of Jubilee Road, Khendallah, Wellington, and she married Mr. Nickerson following visit to Amerfica in 1940. Mrs. Nickerson was presented with ^he cheqrte today by General Jonathan Wainwright, hero of Bataan and National Commander of the Disabled American Veterans' National Service Foundation which sponsored the' contest. Mrs. 'Nickerson told the Australian Associated Press tonight that she had ^ot yet worked out the details of the trip because of "the suddeness of it all. ' ' She said : "I am just trying to decide how to tell mother the good news. I don't want to eable or telephone her because she has a bad heart. ' ' A Wellington Press Association message states that Mrs. Nickerson rang her mother at Khandallah from Port Washington to tell her the good news about 4 p.m. yesterday. "She was very thrilled," said Mrs. Smith, "but no more than we were." In a letter from Mrs. Nickerson details of the competition had been given and they. revealed that this was no "pushover" but a trial for particularly agile mirds. Identification of rare flowers and animals and the solving of highly involved anagrams were included in the contest. At one stage When Mr. and Mrs. Nickerson knew that they were near the finals they thought that disqualification was eertain through a supposed mistake by Mrs. Nickerson. Considering all the hard work they had put into the task Mr. Nickerson had taken this quite calmly and had jocularly informed his wife that he would he ahle to hold it over her head for the rest of her life that her mistake had cost them 30,000 dollars. However, as the results showed, Mrs. Nickerson was far from wrong and all their toil had not been in vain.