That is because English-born Mr Harry (85) has been living in the city for the past 60 years, almost all of it with his wife, Anne Harry (nee Clarkson).
‘‘Great. I’m elated but I’m very relaxed about New Zealand now,’’ Mr Harry said about his citizenship.
‘‘I’m comfortable about the easy way of life in Dunedin.’’
‘‘It’s a compact city.
‘‘Everything is close at hand.
‘‘Being from Cornwall, it’s nice to have the sea around us — we live out at St Clair,’’ he said after the ceremony yesterday.
Mr Harry is a former corporal in the Royal Engineers, and, in the 1950s, served in several countries, including Cyprus, Libya and for some time in Egypt during the 1956 Suez Crisis.
Mr Harry later hitchhiked through 10 countries—starting with France, Switzerland and Italy and later moving on to Turkey, Pakistan, India, and what was then Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) before travelling by boat to Freemantle, with his brother, Roy.
Mr Harry later arrived in Auckland, in 1960, moving to Dunedin in 1961.
Mr Harry met his wife-to-be — a New Zealander living in Dunedin — at the Royal Overseas League in 1962.
They were married the next year.
‘‘She liked me at first because I looked over at her and winked,’’ he said.
These days Mr Harry has three siblings also living in Dunedin — Roy, Nigel and Margaret Saunders (nee Harry).
After a few earlier thoughts on becoming an official citizen, spread over decades, he looked round his growing extended family, and thought ‘‘the whole family are New Zealanders — I’m the odd ball out’’.
‘‘I’ve been here for 60 years and I’m part of the furniture — I might as well become a Kiwi,’’ he said with a smile.
He has had plenty to keep him busy over the years, initially as a supervisor at H.E. Shacklock, and later under Fisher and Paykel ownership.
He later operated his own factory in Kaikorai Valley from 1986 until retiring in 2009, at the age of 75.
‘I’m very happy,’’ Mrs Harry (81) said yesterday.
‘‘I’ve regarded him as a New Zealander for years.
‘‘It’s taken 60 years to get around to it.’’.
Other new citizens.— Svetlana Stanislavovna Barlow (Russia); Gerald Joseph Fuss (Canada); Eva Gereb, Eva-Noemi Gereb (Romania); Emily Rose Goodwin (Britain/Zimbabwe); Spencer Hon Fan Ho (Britain); Sun Mi Hwang (Korea); Shimran Swastika Lal (Fiji); Siobhan Eleanor Place (Britain); Antony Philip Plant, Jane Mary Plant, Katherine Mary Plant, Emma Jane Plant, Philip Harvey Plant (Britain), Michael John Shortt (Britain), Malek Taha, Buthaina Taha, Sara Taha, Mohamad Taha, Hala Taha, Mustafa Taha (Syria); Eldrin Carl Natividad Tanada (Philippines); Sobie Brown Dela Cruz Tenebro (Philippines), Roeland Louis Tobias Wijland (Netherlands); Gehui Zhao (China); Vincent Noel Haidekker (Germany); Damian John Wheeler, Sandra Kym Wheeler, Rhys Hayden Wheeler, Owen Troy Wheeler (Australia); Beatriz Nehrer Fernandes Andrews (Brazil); Evelyn Barbosa de Araujo Tenorio (Brazil); Sara Rhian Millband (Britain); Mirco Kai Turtshchi (Switzerland).
