WANDERING GIPSIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 159, 26 September 1927, Page 13

WANDERING GIPSIES

PARTY ON NIAGARA DOINGS IN SYDNEY That seven men and five women were living in one tent at a gipsy encampment near Liverpool, was the allegation of the health officer in Sydney last week. The gipsies concerned are included in the party which arrived in Auckland on Monday en route to Canada. The health officer said there were two gipsy encampments in the district. “The gipsies stop people on the road, and tell their fortunes,” said Aid. Batline. “People who tell fortunes in private houses are prosecuted, yet these gipsies do it openly, I understand the authorities wink their eyes, at it. “A protest has been made at the local school about gipsies up to 18 years of age attending school, and being put in classes with young children. If there is any way we can move them from the municipality, we should do so.” Aid. Fitzpatrick: I understand they are British subjects, and are renting the land on which they are encamped. I don’t think we can move them. The council decided that, as the camp was outside the municipality, it could take no action. George Sterio, 20, boxer, whose arrest was responsible for an attack on the Liverpool police, at Prestons, Sydney, was fined £2, or seven days, on a charge of having used indecent language. When the police arrested the gipsy, who struggled and shouted for .assistance, several men and women members of a gipsy band rushed the police car, and, standing on the running board, endeavoured to free the prisoner. Three of the band clung to the car, and it was not until it had attained a speed of about; 25 miles an hour that they fell to the roadway.