HARBOUR BOARD'S GERMAN EMPLOYEE

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 38, 13 August 1915, Page 8

HARBOUR BOARD'S GERMAN EMPLOYEE

Mr. B. Fletcher, M.P., late Chairman of the Wellington Harbour Board, drew the attention of The Post to the saau of a German still employed by tii* board, about which there 1 is some misapprehension. He is certainly & German by birth, and is not natnraliaed as a British subject; but in a statement to the secretary of the board (Mr. Nichollsj. of the truth of which there is no doubt, the man explains : — "I was not aware when I landed in New Zealand, and «aa forty la&t birthday, I was not aware until tide awful calamity broke oat th.it to be a British subject I should have to he naturajiaed. Having grown up and schooled in the Dominion I thought myself such. I also thought by my father being naturalised it included his family, but to my sorrow I have learned differently. On account of my having left homo prior to my father being natu rahsed', 1 am not included. When I found thw out and wished to becomo naturalised I was too late. I can assure you I had no object in not being naturalised. , i might s state that > I have to report myself once a fortnight, and 1 feel my position keenly. I cannot speak, write, or read the German language. I have never received correspondence from nor aent any to Germany in my life. I have not left New Zealand since I was brought here a child. I might also 6tate that my mother is not German, but Swiss by birth." Mr. Fletcher may bring Wolf's case before Parliament.