A PARLIAMENTARY inquiry into allegations of forced adoption in Tasmania received a surprise submission yesterday.

While the inquiry will focus on the experiences of birth mothers, Lester Hammond, of Lenah Valley, told the joint select committee past practices had denied him a relationship with his daughter for 19 years.

Mr hammond said that one day about nine years ago he received a phone call which changed his life.

A daughter he did know existed was on the line.

Mr hammond said he was not told of a former girlfriend's pregnancy and he knew nothing of his child's birth or the adoption that followed.

"it was all hidden," he said.

Mr Hammond said he had not seen his daughter, now 29, for two years because he did not know how to relate to her.

He said the devastation he felt ruined his relationship with his three other children.

"I just retired fromt he world," he said.

The joint select committee inquiry into adoption in Tasmania from 1950 - 1988 comes three years after The Sunday Tasmanian exclusively revealed that up to 50 babies had been taken from their mothers, many of whom were told their children had died.

A report by independent Ann Cunningham to then Community and Health Services Minister Peter McKay said public recognition was needed for immoral, unethical and possibly illegal practices in Tasmania's past.

A submission by Origins - a support group for people separated by adoption - called for the abolition of adoption and its replacement with a system of guardianship, under which children could retain their names and have contact with their natural families.

The submission made serious allegations about the treatment of young single mothers by medical staff, welfare officials and religious orders.

Claremont woman chris Burke told the inquiry yesterday she was pressured to give up her daughter at Elim, the Salvation Army's Home in Hobart, in 1968.

Mrs Burke,49, said she was offered no choice but adoption, and was prevented from reading the documents she signed.

The Salvation Army released a statement yesterday which sympathised with the difficulties faced by young unmarried mothers at the time.

"They did not always receive support from their families and society generally treated them harshly," it said.

Heather Rivers, of Hobart. who did not want to provide her age, said she was 14 years old when she was adopted by her 59-year-old aunt and 89-year-old unlce and packed off to Sydney.

her younger brother and sister remained with her natural mother in Hobart.

Ms Rivers said she knew nothing of the adoption until she was standing in an office in Hobart, where the papers were signed.

She said she walked out of the office an only child, with a new name and new parents.

"The feelings of loss and pain and rejection live with me still," Ms Rivers said.

The Inquiry Continues: