WELLINGTON-NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 October 1929, Page 2

WELLINGTON-NEWS

■M r,.' "; ■' ■ ot» ——l W/ \ ' 4/ . ‘ f •-;/■. SENSATIONAL FINANCE. ' ' '/■ .V' '''• ---V- •’ w-. ■ j/ f/' 5 ■ S , < <(Special Correspondent,).a - n » Wellington; September 27. ' . It' seenia i London . 'money “-market, like all other markets, is.treat-' ’ed to financial crashes that have repre--cussions of more; or v less .magnitude.' The latest of such financial 'crashes is that, burnished by,' ‘Clarence Charles liatry, the “ jCroeSus, of .Finance,’’ -as. his friends. dubbed;him. , Hefgraduated_ i ' from, insurance clerk /to •financier, ' but . - like most of his Iclass he was not - .always? . successful. ; The .present; -trouble flp-. pears to be , .due to oyer, speculation - “ Which again is/due to over |-. When the latter takes possession 'Of:,.n : financier or speculator all-his geese are swans, and-he. deludes himself with the;, idea that he cannot go wrong, and .the flattery, of, friends - and'financial,Jihrasites rather confirms him in'his? mis-- ’ taken belief. -.Now Hatry' with his f “ associate directors, Daniels, Dixon, and -Tabor, are- under' arrest, and-that; bail was refused them is an indication the charges ..pending are of a ' very serf-’ ‘ ous character. The charge will, eveptually prove to be v financial fraud of-a '.- complicated character.-: It--would notmatter very much if a high- financier crashed, ; r but unfortunately •' ‘ these crashes drag others in, and already _a , finance and trust company) lms ' badly hit. It will probably be, some > days before, the losses incurred by tliis' latest financial crash are known.'. • History of the paat; few years record? many; such;'crashes, 'and- fundamentallythey were all “due'-to the, same cause.of over speculation:-- .The earliest, collapse that the writer can call to mind, is that of Jabez Balfour,'who Worked with;the ' ‘ fuhds of the Liberator Building Society and overran the constable. He skipped to South America, and it was some, time before his identity was detected. He was extradited, and it was Detective Tunbridge'who brought him back in custody. Tunbridge was later Commissioner of our own police force. „ Then there was Ernest Ter ah Hooley,; who was known as the Jubilee Plunger. He was a brilliant star in the financial firmament about.the. , time • of Queen Victoria’s' Diamond ‘Jubilee, hence- his title. Hooley exploited the pneumatic tyre, then quite new, and was' very successful, and -np doubt njade. a good . deal of money. ,- Hooley.’s fort Waß company flotation, .and; he, was;,A great, believer, in. having good, mSiines in the ' front page of a- prospectus. <He liked v to have peers among ;tl^.provisional directors. ■ Hooley had ..an idea about New Zealand’s frozen meat trade and made an offer through , a Wellington; solicitor , to buy one or more companies which he intended to refloat- in London ' with an inflated capital. Hooley’s offer, however was turned down. Hooley fin-, ished ~up 'LiV' Career ratfier t baldly. Whittaker Wright' wns v pefH()ips not •to brifliant ns Hooley, but he waß certainly clever at financial jugglery. Wright,' however, ventured beyond his depth and was forced to take a long f rest at.the expense of the State.. The 1 above were the pre.-war'finljiiiciHl stars, and cannot, be compared to the brilliancy of the post-war comets. ;v.One ctf the' earliest* of these! was .Gerald 'Lee Be van, who manipulated insurance; 'particular* / ly the Equitable Insurance and left his financial and other friends and skipped 1 by the'light of the moon. . However;, the arm of the law reached him in time; , and he finished up in the usual place. About two or three years ago “Jimmy” White as he was' known by his intimates, over speculated and when hnrdpushed suicide rather than face the ordeal. Jimmy was very popular and very generous and openrhanded. He is supposed to have abandoned bricklaying-for finance and had a good .... following, many,men in high stations with titles accepting him as their financial, guide. The case of Captain Alfred Loewnstein will be fresh m, the memory of most ’readers, for he accidentally or otherwise dropped out of an aeroplane when crossing - the English Channel. Loewnstein was the of a imal banker in Brussels and became a n.ei ; i« her of the Stock Exchange. Nothing much was known about him until t.-Ht-r the war when his star'began to sl-ino wr.h great brilliancy, and he a quire 1 an international reputation. He was principally concerned with trail iport, light and power undertaking. He was associated with Dreyfus Brothers, Swiss chemists, who held control on the technical side. Hp quarrelled with his associates and they set to work to bieak him and eventunjly succeeded. A mure recent case was that of Bradrsch, Ihe chairman of a company. He was more a muddler than a, financier, and badly targbnl up the affairs of his company. He tried to get away but failed and his present address is H.M. gaol.

What will bo the outcome of the Hatry smash it is difficult to say, but ss•;.* that gaol awaits some of the specula* ff 'tors seems certain. The investment trust business appears to have been abused in this case. .