THE ABDUCTED CHILD HEIRESS

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 65, 16 March 1907, Page 5

THE ABDUCTED CHILD HEIRESS

AGAIN ARRIVES IN AUSTRALIA.

THE -ADVENTURES OP MISS MURIEL KNIPE. Miss Muriel Doris Knipe, the little Australian heiress, nine years old, who has attained a world-wide celebrity as the subject of parental contention, in the stress of which she has already travelled 48,000 miles, pursued backward and forward between Australia and England by each parent alternately, yesterday morning once more arrived in Melbourne per mail steamer in custody of her farther, Mr. Roderie Elyard Knipe, says Thursday's Melbourne "Age." The scene in the drama, of which the fair-haired little Muriel, heiress to £40,000, is the heroine, alternate between London and Melbourne, and the child seems to be continually peregrinating between the two cities. The first knowledge that the public of Melbourne received of the ease was in a cable message from London published on January 28, stating that the child, while on her way to a convent school in London, had been stolen and taken away from her mother's care. The abduction was 'the subject of much interesting comment in the London papers, and to a representative of the "Daily Mail," which published a photograph of the child, Mrs. Knipe related a history of her daughter's romantic travelc Mrs. Knipe is the daughter of the late Mr. James Service, one time Premier of Victoria, and under ids will the child on her mother's death becomes heiress to the sum of £40,000, the interest of which goes to Mrs. Knipe during her life. The question as to which parent shall personally control the little one's' destiny is the cause of all the trouble. According to Mrs. Knipe's story, she and her husband in December, 1904, went to England with their daughter, and in the following month Mr. Knipe suddenly disappeared, taking the child with him. Mrs. Kn ; pe remained in England for nearly a year trying, without success, to find her child, who, with her father, was known to be in England. Legal proceedings were then- commenced by the mother to regain access to the child, but just before the Judge was able to pronounce his decision—which was in favour of the mother—Mr. Knipe left England, taking the child with him. The mother's claim, strenously fought by the Hon. Charles Russell, was strenuously resisted by the father, and the matter was slowly fought out in Chancery for seven months, and before the question was settled the child vanished. The Judge finally decided that Mrs. Knipe should have access to her child; that there had been contempt of Court, and that the father should pay the costs. Mrs. Knipe, hearing by cable that her child was in Melbourne, followed, and an arrangement was arrived at whereby the mother should have control of her daughter so long as she remained in Melbourne, both parents living apart; but a few months afterwards Mrs. Knipe fled to London without her husband's knowledge or consent, taking her daughter with her, and arrived in London on November 13, where they were met by representatives of a detective agency, and every precaution was taken to prevent the little girl being interfered with.

Mrs. Knipe, 1m leaving Melbourne, had been furnished with advice concerning the safe disposal of her daughter, but this was disregarded, and the little one was sent to a convent day school at Worthing, and escorted to and from school by relatives. On January 23, while being escorted to school by her grandmother, Muriel was snatched up by a man in an overcoat with the collar turned up and a motoring cap, placed, in a landau and driven away to Shoreham Railway Station, where she disappeared.

When Mrs. Knipe with her daughter left Melbourne via South Africa last September by the Blue Anchor line, she booked as "Mrs. Were and child," and travelled first-class. Yesterday Mr. R Knipe arrived as "Mr. B. W. Armstrong and child." The little heiress appeared on the steamer's deck at Port Melbourne dressed in a pretty red dress, and was met by two ladies with whom she went below, and reappeared in a blue costume, and was taken away by train to Melbourne and then to Kew. Mr. Knipe ief t the boat some time later. Mrs. Knipe is on ber way to Melbourne in order, it is believed, to prosecute her claim to the custody of her daughter.