NEVER CAME HOME.

Auckland Star, Volume 304, Issue 304, 23 December 1926, Page 10

NEVER CAME HOME.

A VOLUNTARY EXILE. J-JTENT TO WAR AT 15. AUCKL.ANDER WHO LIVES IN PARIS. , There is said to be but one permanent .resident of. Paris who can claim New Zealand hirth. He is Mr. Clari R. Tatton, eon 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 Tatton 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 with the Aussies. During the war he met and fell in love j. -th a Belgian nurse, a charming sister •who had worked under the direction of Nurse, Cavell. A happy marriage gave Tatton a permanent interest in .France, and .when the Hun was finally routed he took his discharge there. Since that day,''Tatton has not seen his beloved New Zealand. An old boy of St. John's College, Tamaki, this voluntary exile is always overjoyed to meet New Zealanders who . happen • to be in Paris. There is nothing be likes more than to spend an, ibour|.or s-ry_T_ing about the places of his boyhood. The announcement in Parisian newspapers that Ted Scott, New Zealand lightweight ..-boxer, was to figure in a bo.ut, prompted Tatton to write a letter, inviting, the visitor to call on him. Scott, iwho was on the literary staff of the Wellington "Evening Post" for some years, end later a reporter on the 6taff.of the, ■ISydney Morning Herald," before he turned his pugilistic experience to account and donned gloves as a professional- was delighted to know that an exAucklander was living in Paris. However, J lso far away from home, he felt somewhat dubious as to the validity of his correspondent's claim to New Zealand birth," and waa half prepared to meet an impostor. Tatton, likewise, had it in his mind when he wrote his letter that this jglove._rtist, billed as a New Zealander, might in reality hail from any old place at aIL So. each of the strangers in tbe far-away country met in a more or less reserved frame of mind. Each was prepared to trip the other up, if possible, and prove conclusively that he simply couldn't be a "dinkum" New Zealander At first glance, however, each recognised the other as a New Zealander. There is no mistaking the colonial type.. From.the first they were the best of friends. Tatton, who has done well for himself in the French capital, is secretary ..to one of the biggest firms of l (Liamond merchants in Paris. He lives in

a pretty villa, situated in a fashionable suburb, and his home is always open to fellow New Zealanders whose acquaint- J a'nee he makes in the gay capital. Tatton is a happy and prosperous man. The one big regret in his life is that 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 he spent happy days as a boy. There are, no doubt, some in Auckland who may remember Tatton, and from any of these he would be delighted to receive a letter. His business address is: Chez Alergant, 14, Rue Lafayette, Paris.