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Carl Theodor Heine
(11 June 1912 – 9 April 1994)

It was with great sadness that the family and friends of Carl Theodor Heine gathered on 14 April 1994, in or outside St Paul's Lutheran Church, to take part in the Funeral Service, and later to lay his earthly remains to rest in the Heine Family Plot in the Churchyard at Upper Moutere.

For several years it has been possible to enjoy the Sunday TV programme Praise Be and thrill to the knowledge that the bell ringing as the credits roll is the bell 'Anna', which calls the faithful to pray in the Lutheran Church in Upper Moutere, and that the man ringing the bell was Carl Theodor Heine.

The bell 'Anna' was specially cast in Germany, following the completion of St Paul's Lutheran Church in 1865 in the German Village of Sarau. It was a tribute to the wife of Pastor John Heine, Anna nee Benseman, Carl's grandmother. The congregation collected £25 and commissioned a bell foundry in Germany to have the bell cast with the name Anna on it. Installed in the spire of the first church and that of its replacement, the bell has been rung for all religious occasions since. In recent years it had been Carl's duty to ring the bell and the family connection with St Paul's was strengthened in recent years with Carl taking charge of the care of the church and its furnishing. He was the Senior Elder of the Church and assumed the duty of caring for the Church silver and regularly trimmed the candles.

On the evening of Saturday 9 April he had been to trim the candles and fix a door lock in the church an hour before his sudden death from a heart attack in his home nearby.

It has been the privilege of those interested in matters historical to have had Carl available for assistance with research on the Nelson Province. He had a deep knowledge of the district's history and the German Settlers and their activities in the New Zealand Company's Second Colony, Nelson, in the 1840s and the years since, especially those of his own illustrious ancestors.

Nelson and a wider world bid a sad but fond farewell to a fine friend and gentleman.