A CHILD-HEIRESS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8435, 6 May 1907, Page 7

A CHILD-HEIRESS.

HER STRANGE ADVENTURES, j "'" (Press Association.) MELBOURNE, May 4. i It is stated that the little heiress Dorothy Knipe is on her way from Vancouver in charge of her father. THE PURSUIT. A couple of months ago London papers told of the frantic efforts of Mrs Roderic Knipe, of Melbourne, Australia, to discover, in London, some traces of her kidnapped nine-year-old daughter, Muriel Doris "**JSaipe. According to the accounts, the child, who is heiress to a considerable fortune, has been "twice carried off, upon a flight of twelve thousand miles on each occasion—once from England to Australia, then J from Australia to England. Now she has disappeared upon a third wandering, tho ultimate end of which has yet to be discovered." In December, 1904, it is added, Mrs Knipe and her husband and child came to London. Amid disagreements, which ensued, the father removed the girl from the mother's care. Mrs Knipe began legal proceedings, through her solicitor, the Hon. Charles Russell, to regain access, and the father, who was ordered to produce the child, also employed a firm of solicitors and resisted the mother's claim. After six or seven months of/Chancery litigation, Mr Justice Bikkley ordered that the mother have access to her daughter, and that the father pay the costs; but this was ineffectual, as the child vanished before the decision was given. ' , • , Mrs Knipe, hearing by cablegram that the father and the child had reached Melbourne, followed immediately and found them. The child had come to London originally with her parents in ' the luxury of the P. and 0. saloon. She had been taken back in the lesser comfort of the Orient Steerage. A truce was agreed upon, and lasted a few months. But another flight across the ocean was awaiting the little heiress. One September morning mother and child disappeared from Melbourne, and sailing by a Blue Anchor liner, via Cape Colony and Las Palmas for England, reached London on November 13th. The husband pursued the fugitives. Suspecting this would happen, Mrs Knipe was laying plans to eJucate the child in the security, of a convent known only, as she hoped, to herself. In consulatation with her solicitors she decided temporarily upon Worth- ' ing, and the school which is con- •' trolled by the Sisters of Notro Dame de Zion. The husband, to get a clue, kept a watch on Mrs Knipe's tankers in the city, knowing she would have to come there for money. She came, and was told by one of the officials that Mr Knipe had been seen outside the bank. She hailed a hansom and drove away, changed to another hansom on the way, stopped at Marshall and Snelgrove's, hurried through the shop and out by a different door, and drove to the Queen's Gate Hotel, The track, if it had been found, was undoubtedly lost. Mrs Knipe subsequently went to live herself at Worthing, and took there, from Bournemouth, her mother, as an additional sdntry over the child. But Mrs Kniue thinks the transference of the mother, who must have been under surveillance, gave the pursuer his clue. A few days afterwards, at noon, the little girl camo gleefully out of the convent school to meet her grandmother. A tall man, in a motor cap, and heavy overcoat, with its collar turned up to the ears, suddenly pushed the elderly lady aside, and exclaiming. "Come, Muriel!" lifted the child, ran with her to the waiting landau, in which was a woman dressed like a widow, and the three were driven away. When the affrighted grandmother reached the corner of the road she saw the vehicle going at a .rapid pace to Shoreham. The cabman has given his name and address, and stated that he discharged his fares at'Shoreham Railway Station. Since then Mrs Kaipe has not seen her daughter. So the above cablegram, if true, marks another stage in this world-pursuit.