HOOLEY’S SCHEMES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1687, 29 June 1904, Page 2

HOOLEY’S SCHEMES.

THE NOTORIOUS COMPANY PROMOTER.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, May 14

Mr E. T. Hooley, of company-promoting notoriety, was arrested tins week on a charge of conspiring to defraud. The action of the authorities seems to have taken the financier completely by surprise, and to have upset him considerably. Interviewed by a press representative after his release on bail, Mr Hooley showed in every word that he was completely depressed. “I never thought it would, come to this,” he said. “I -don't mind for myself—l can meet any charge —but it's my, wife and children that I feel for so acutely. There is my boy at - the University; it will blast Ins career. And my daughters—it's too dreadful. I feel convinced,” he added, “that I can refute every charge against me; but, of course, you'll say everyone says tuat when he is brought up on a charge. 1 m,ust confess I was taken by surprise. I never expected it after four years' time. Still, I have to have my say yet.” The arrest of Mr Hooley and Mr Harry J. Lawson caused only a mild sensation in city circles, for the erstwhile “great financier” ceased to be a public figure when ho became bankrupt, and Lawson, though a company-monger of some considerable notoriety, was never a “man of the moment” lilco his friend Hooley. Moreover, for somo time pastel forts have been made to bring Mr Hooley into the dock. Only in February last application was made at Marlborough street to obtain a summons against him for obtaining large sums of money from Mr Paine by false pretences, but the Magistrate came to the conclusion tliat there was not sufficient information to justify him in issuing any process. .Previous to that Mr Brougham, the Official Receiver in Bankruptcy, had reported that Mr Hooley had been guilty of fraud, but the Directors of Public Prosecution could uot get sufficient evidence to justify a prosecution. Meanwhile Mr Hooley has been “living in clover,” in. spite of his bankruptcy, at, it is alleged, the rate of <£15,000 a year. Probably this figure is an exaggeration, but it is quite certain that Mr Hooley lias not found it necessary to practise petty economies since he became bankrupt. Mr Harry J. Lawson’s career as a company man has extended over a much longer period than that of Hooley. His most active period was in the early nineties of last century, and like Hooley his interests as a promoter were of a very varied character. Banking and nigger minstrelsy were all one to him. but in recent years the cycle and motor businesses have absorbed most of his energy. The companies with which he has been most prominently associated have not as a rule proved “goldmines” for investors. Mr Lawson, by the way. claims to bo the inventor and introducer of the safety bicycle of to-day. In a elm rack-rid ic autobiographical note written in 13DG ho said: —“Twenty years ago 1 riven'- ,; and introduced the .first f-vv.vce- or day- - ing. Cany sc/ ave: "• .• ; <■". can nee tod vri: e •’

of the second great industry of motorcarriages and motor - cycles, which will have more subsidiary trades than even the cycle itself, so that I feel I have already done enough for one lifetime.” A good many people are in cordial agreement with Mr Lawson’s sentiments as expressed in the last eight words of nis note. It may, by the way, be interesting to recall some of the promotions of Mr Ernest T. Hooley during his meteoric career. From the observations of the Official Receiver it transpired tnat from April, 1896, to the date of the receiving order in Juno, 1898, he promoted the following companies:—

Gross profit Nominal on ". capital, promotion. Name of Company. £ £ Trent Cycle 100,000 80,000 Cycle Manufac- / turers* Tube ... .250,000 112,862 Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre ... ... 5,000,000 1,700,000 Swift Cycle 375,000 100,000 Singer Cycle . ... 800,000 Dunlop Pneumatic (France) 650,000 226,000 Clement Gladiator and Humber ... 900,000 Schweppes 1,250,000 239,000

Bovril 2,500,000 468,000 Blaisdell Pencils ... 100,000 Dee Estates - ... No particulars T r a fiord Park Estates ... ... No particulars Raleigh Cycle ... 200,000 Humber (America) 75,000 Humber (Russia) ... 75,000 Humber (Portugal) 100,000