HEENEY'S FAME

NZ Truth, Issue 1190, 20 September 1928, Page 6

HEENEY'S FAME

Dominion Ambassador To America

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Auckland Rep.); Tom Heeney is without doubt • the finest advertising agent New Zealand has. ever had abroad. The famous All Blacks, the cricket tour last year and the Olympic team have all done their bit m making known the fact m .distant lands that New Zealand is definitely on the map of the world. gUT it has remained for bluff, rugged, hard -hitting Tom Heeney, the man with the heart of a lion and the courage of a stoic, to blazon the name of this Dominion m letters of gold across the whole civilised world. For New Zealand he has punched his way into the front seat of world fame and has never failed to show with pride the flag of the country of his birth. . . Nowhere m the world was New Zealand less known or appreciated than m America. . It ..'ls', not too much to say that before Tom Heeney burst upon the United* States his challenge for world supremacy m boxing honors, -thousands who knew not of its existence now know that there is such a place as New Zealand — and that this little country breeds real he-men, as exemplified m Tom Heeney. ... .. If there was one country where Dominion advertising was needed, that country was the United States of America. '•; And Tom has not only proved., himself a wonderful exponent of the boxing art, but a great ambassador as well. For what he has done for the country of his birth, the whole Dominion' owes him a debt of gratitude. He has done more m a few months than the best advertising scheme could have done m a decade.. • • -. .. ■■'■.-■_:./.... ■- Listen to what his oharmlhg American bride, who stepped ashore from the Aorangi. at Auckland the other day, has to say about her husband. ; Mrs. Heeney stated on her arrival that Tom had introduced into the United States something of a permanent flavor of New Zealand. PUBLICITY COUNTS "Tom so much used the words: *Kia Ora' over there, that a silk manufacturer is styling a brand of his products by that name." : Think of it— and its possibilities! How many business magnates from the Dominion have done as much m ten years of hard battling m the States? It is safe to say very few, If any. . ' • ■ America is the land of mass production. The silk manufacturer is probably turning put silk stockings by the thousands 'of gross. .

"Try the 'Kia Ora' brand, miss," "Truth" can hear the shop assistants advising their customers. . And then the answer: "What is Kia Ora?"

"Oh, that is a popular saying m New Zealand — Tom Heeney's country, you know." And so ■ the good word will go round America. •

Y^s, New Zealand owes a good .deal- to its national hero. He has not' only punched his way into the very forefront of boxing fame,. But he has made the name of his. own country ring from one end of the globe to the other. :,".!.

-Tom loves the American people. -and. they think he's 7 no end of a good -fellow. ■■■-.- ■ • ■ • ■■'■■•■:;

One thing; he has shown, the Americans—that New Zealand* though it is a li'l ol' country, 'way down, the Pacific, sure knows how to turn out a great boxer.

And that cuts more ice m America than- all the publicity booklets on the fauna and flora of these little islands that ever found their way from the printing press.