SYDNEY SCENE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 220, 16 September 1940, Page 5

SYDNEY SCENE.

THE WRONG BABY? HALF-CASTE'S FAIR CHILD. ;(By Air.) SYDNEY, Sept. 14. A half-caete woman at Mount Isa, Queensland, believes that a baby she brought home from hospital four years ago is not hers. She says she hae the child of a Finnish woman who was in hospital at the same time, and that the Finnish woman hae her baby, a halfcaste. In the meantime, the Finnish woman has gone back to Finland, taking the half-caste 'boy with her.

The half-caste mother, Mrs. Condon, who is known locally as "Half-caste Kate," eaid that on July 27, 1936, she gave birth to a 'baby boy in Mount lea District Hospital. At the same time a Finnish woman also had a son in the hospital. Mrs. Condon eaid that when she left the hospital she was given a fair-complexioned, blue-eyed boy. The baby's hair was brown. Later it turned red, and then flaxen.

Mre. Condon said that before she left the hospital she pointed out to a doctor that the baby had fair. colouring. The fioctor said it would be possible for her to have a fair-skinned child. She was not content with this explanation, and asked that a blood teet be taken, but this was refused. Mrs. Condon is married to a vhite man, aged about 70, She has seven other children. None resembles the blonde four-year-old boy.

It is alleged that the mix-up caused the separation of tbtt Finnish woman and her husband. When tlie Finnish woman took the half-caste baby home from hospital, it ie stated, her husband refused to accept it as his child. The husband is also a Finn. He has left Mount Isa, and compatriots in the town do not know where he is.

Three weeks ago a blood test showed that two mothers took the wrong babies home from Mount Isa District Hospital -j May last year. After the test had shown tnat a mistake had been made, the mothers exchanged babies. Police Hunt For Italian. . A police hunt over mountainous country for an Italian alleged to have wounded a miner on August 29, ended when he was found hanging dead from a projection on a ciiff face. This was revealed when Sergeant A. E. Koop returned to Alice Springs, after a search of 100 miles to the north-east for Apostollo Gasparollo, a miner, who was alleged to have wounded Innocent Vendramini with a razor.

After bringing Vendramini to hospital, Sergeant Koop set out with Constable Lulfitz and two trackers to find Gasparollo, Who was 'believed to be mentally deranged. The fugitive cunningly avoided all tracks and animal pads, but at intervals the trackers found signs of his passage.

On September 5, Gasparollo was found dead, held upright against a cliff face by a rock splinter, which had caught his cardigan. ■ A belt hanging from an adjacent tree indicated that Gaeparollo liad hanged himself by jumping from the I cliff, but the belt had slipped off some time after death, which was estimated to have occurred a week previously. There was £100 in his pockets. His father and eisters are in Italy. Sentry Shoots Fisherman. A eentry on Parraniatta River ehot an Italian fisherman through the left leg early on morning. The fisherman, Giovanni Capilli, 46, is in. a ■serious condition in Balmain Hospital. Doctors map have to amputate his leg. With two other Italians, Guiseppe Vitto, and John Feidi, Capilli was returning from prawning in his rowing skiff about 2.40 a.m. He was sitting in the etern near a lantern. The fishermen claim that in reply to the sentry's challenge, Capilli shouted: "We are fishermen." A shot was fired and Capilli fell to the bottom of the boat, wounded in the knee.

Capilli'e daughter said her father had been in Australia for 20 years. He was not naturalised. He had a fishing "He has been passing the spot where lie was ehot almost every night/'

she said. "Shortly before, a police launch examined the boat and nets arid gave them an 0.K." Half-castes Strip Women. Women passengers by Qantas flying boats have complained that they have been stripped and searched by Javanese half-caste women at Sourabaya, where the flying boats make an overnight stop. It is admitted that this is occurring, but passengers and crews by Dutch airliners are apparently subjected to the same treatment, although Sourabaya is Dutch. A Dutch airline official said the j searching was done under the Netherlands Indies Security Regulations to prevent the smuggling of currency. He said English people regarded half-castes ae inferiors, but in the Netherlands Indies they had full status and many of them occupied high Government posts. £3,000,000 Graving Dock. With the arrival in Sydney this week of Major P. H. Thome, work on Sydney's £3,000,000 graving dock will begin immediately. Major Thome represents Sir Alexander Gibb and ..Partners, engineerconsultants to the Federal Government. He was working on a £2,000,000 harbour construction at La Guaira, Venezuela, which has been stopped because of the war. He eaid the dock would have a number of improvements on the Singapore dock. These were naval secrets.

When Constable Pike, of Liverpool, went to the ecene of a car and motor cycle smash on the Lansdowne Bridge, Liverpool, last Saturday night, he found that his own brother had been killed. The brother, Roger Leslie Pike, 22, of Roscoe Street, Bondi, had been eo severely injured that it was an hour before Constable Pike recognised him. The dead man's fiancee, Miss Ellen Dand, 21, also of Roscoe Street, Bondi, wae hurled into George's River, but was rescued. Pike wae riding a motor cycle, with Miss Dand on the pillion. At Liverpool police station later a man was charged with having driven a car whilst under the influence of liquor. If the New South Wales Learn-to-Swixn Campaign Committee, is allotted an appeal day in Martin Place next season, it will give practical demonstrations in a glass tank. Application for permission to etage the displays has been made to the Chief Secretary's Department. The tank wilt, be of reinforced glaes to give the public a full view of stroke technique. The idea has used in America. and on the Continent.