BAND OF GIPSIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 164, 12 June 1926, Page 8

BAND OF GIPSIES

RETURNED FROM AUSTRALIA, MEMBERS OF ONE FAMILY. [By Telegraph. —Special to Standard.] AUCKLAND, June 11. A party of 19 gipsies who arrived by the Aorangi front Sydney on Monday and were refused permission to land by the Customs Department, returned to Australia by tho Mararna. The Customs Department decided to permit nine members of tho party to land, but they preferred not to separate, and all decided to return to Sydney. The members of the party all, bear the same name and am really members of one family, which consists of tho mother and father with their children and grandchildren. A party of gipsies of the same name arrived at Wellington last June and travelled to Auckland, loading a camp life during the greater part of the time owing to the difficulty of obtaining hotel accommodation. While at Greytown the party became involved in troubles with the authorities, and they finally sailed from Auckland in July. As the result of tho trouble which arose, the Customs Department issued instructions that in future parties of gipsies bearing the same name as those who toured the Dominion last year should not he permitted to laud pending instructions. It was for this reason that the party was not allowed to land on Monday, and their return to Australia followed. Tho gipsies denied that they were the same partv as that which toured tho Dominion last year, dint they were not in a position to disprove it. The nine members of the party who could have landed had obtained unconditional permits to land in New Zealand from the Government’s agent in Melbourne. and the Government decided to honour these permits. However, all the gipsies returned to Australia preferring to stick together.