GERMANS IN NEW ZEALAND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1698, 14 April 1917, Page 3

GERMANS IN NEW ZEALAND.

AX EXTRAORDINARY ADVERTISEMENT. Marlon, April 12. The German residents of ilalcombe and Marlon districts have no reason to complain of the treatment they receive under the Hag of liberty, tml marvel is that the authorities permit Germans meeting en masse and bidding services in German, as was done at Halcomhe at Easier. The extraordinary and mysterious part of the business is that an advertisement was published staling that services would be held in German in the morning, and English in the afternoon, when intercessory prayers would be offered up for “our soldiers and the British army." In view of the fact that the participants of this service were Germans, the Halcomhe Germans need not be surprised to learn that not a few people have interpreted the advertisement to mean that at. the morning service the prayers would be for the German soldiers (the advertisement specified “our soldiers"), and in the afternoon, when the service was in English, the prayers would be for the British army. This may. or may not, be the correct interpretation, but as it stands the position is unique. Here, in a British Dominion, where every elfort is being put forward to defeat one of the most savage foes that ever took up arms, representatives of that race are permitted to carry on in our midst their own schools, and likewise hold their own services in their own language. The contrast between the position of the Britisher in Germany and the German in Xew Zealand needs no comment. At the same time it seems odd that while we arc losing no opportunity to encourage the German in Xew Zealand to propagate his race we are spending at the rate of over u million pounds per month in sending the ilower of our manhood to assist Britain and her Allies to destroy the enemy at the other end of the world. —Wangam'ii Chronicle.