NEVER CAME HOME.

Shannon News, 31 December 1926, Page 2

NEVER CAME HOME.

A VOLUNTARY EXILE. WENT TO WAE AT 15. i There is said to be but one permanent resident of Paris who can claim New Zealand birth. He is Mr Clari R. Tatton, son of Mrs Kate Tatton, of Great North Road, Avondale. Twelve years ago, a mere strip of a boy, he tried to bluff a recruiting officer in Auckland that he was of military age. The. bluff failed, and T.atton departed >for Australia, where he joined, up; and left very early in the war for Egypt. He saw service on Gallipoli and in Mesopotamia, later going, to France with the Aussies. During the war he met and fell in love with a Belgian nurse, a charming sister who had worked under the dircction of Nurse Cavell. A happy marriage gavp Tatton a permanent interest in France, and when the Hun was finally routed he took his discharge there. Since that day, Tatton has no't seen his beloved New Zealand. An old boy of St. John’s College, Taranaki, this voluntary exile is always overjoyed to meet New Zealanders who happen to be in ■ Paris. There is nothing he likes more than to spend an hour or so yarning about the places of his boyhood. • ■ The announcement in Parisian newspapers that Ted Scott, New Zealand lightweight boxer, was to figure in a bout, prompted Tatton to write a letter inviting the visilof to call on him. Scott, who was on the literary staff of the Wellington Evening Post for some years and later a reporter on the, staff of the Sydney Morning Herald, before he turned his pugilistic' experience to account and donned gloves as a professional, was delighted to know that an ex-Aucklander was living in Paris However, so far away from home, he felt somewhat dubious as to the validity of his correspondent's claim to New! Zealand birth, and was half prepared to meet an imposter. Tatton, likewise, had.it in his mind when he wrote his letter that this glove artist, billed as a New Zealander, might in reality hail from any old place at all. So each of the strangers in the far-awuy country met in a more or less reserved frame of mind. Each was prepared to trip the other up, if nossible, and prove conclusively that he simply couldn’t be a “dinkum” New Zealander.

At first glance, however, each recognised the other/as a New Zealande . There is no mistaking the colonial type From she first they were the best of friends. Tatton, who has done well for himself in the French capital, is secretaryvto one of the biggest firms of diamond merchants in Paris. He lives -in a pretty villa, situated in a fashionable suburb, and his home is always open to fellow New Zet landers whos-i acquaintance he makes in the gay capital . Tatton is a happy and prosperous man. The one big regret in his life is tbat he has not seen Maoriland since he left it as a youth of 15 years. His memories are all of Auckland' and the . seaside. suburbs where lie spent happy days as a boy.. v J (