ANOTHER TANGNEY TANGI

NZ Truth, Issue 881, 14 October 1922, Page 5

ANOTHER TANGNEY TANGI

PURSUIT Of MJOLDEN fLEECE i • ■ .: • ■ The Mysterious Maurice FINANCIER FLINGING FORTUNES FREELY

Who is this Maurice Tangney : wl^o advertises thusly m Wellington's best and oldest (and o.nly) evening daily?: £1000 REWARD. i ; I wish to inform my clients that I have resumed business again after an extended holiday. \ I hereby offer and agree to . pay interest at the following. I'ates: — £1 to £50 limit, 20 per cent.;" £50 to £100, 15 per- cent.; £100 to £500, 13 per cent.; £500 to £1000, 12 per cent.; £1000 to £5000, 10 per. cent.; over £5000, and up to.£lpO,ooo, from 6 to 9 per cent., according-sto the security demanded and the term of loan. Terms from 6 months to 5 years, with interest adjusted accordingly to . suit investors, • payable '< monthly, quarterly, or half-yearly. I can afford to pay. these high rates of interest as I can do all my 'own legal work absolutely and . no" fees to pay of any description, nor commissions. I hereby offer 'and agree to >pay £1000 reward to any client who can prove any false declaration m ,my agreement dr. efbrVespondence during 1 the past 8 ,years:in..;business m N&w Zealand. This offer ought to -be .sufficient to clear the 'atmosphere of any suspicion or rurii'o'rirs which l am not going to tolerate. . Any loan off ers !! indispensable and thankfully received.- ■ . • ■ LAND AGENTS NOTE.— That my property at No. 6 Hadfield Terrace, Kelburn, is not for sale under any circumstances. . MAURICE TANGNEY, Wellington Financier, . 6 Hadfield Terrace,.. Kelburn. To "Truth" the name .seems 'quite familiar, but the Maurioe Tangney this

office knew was no. financier, but was some kind of a land agent, neither did he go out from these parts "upon any extended holiday, for the . Maurice Tangney, land agent, that we think back to was sent away — he did not go — by Magistrate Hunt last April to the Terrace Gaol-, or some place like it, for SIX MONTHS OF THE HARDEST. , If this Maurice ; Tangney is the same man then surely something should be done to brush up New. Zealand's prison system. Reformation is recognisecl" as ■being the modern aim m. prison work, but to turn, a gaol into a pleasure resort — as Maurice evidently found it, if he be the same main- is going far too far. . • It may be of interest to recall just what was the particular trouble of the Maurice Tangney "Truth" is thinking of. . In the early end of this year strange complaints began to pour m to the Central Station and to police and detectives of the actions of some pest to society who made' a practice of . ■ INTERFERING WITH- WOMEN ' FOLK m the sti'eet, bumping into them as he passed by and behaving m a wild and woolly and altogether unpleasant and unpopular manner. For some time the police had had a shrewd enough idea as to who that cheerful idiot might be, and kept their eyes open when he showed up and about, but nothing came of their quiet shadowing for quite a spell. Complaints showered down from Kelburn, and kept on showering, and then Maurice happened, along to the Race Club -ball .and was thrown out upon his neck, so to speak. Mention was made to the. police of that fact as well, together with mention of certain little happenings inside the Town Hall just before the chucker-out got really busy. Upon- that, or very shortiy afterwards, the police went one. further, and m place of kindly worded warnings handed out to Maurice an oblong bit of blue paper of a sort that simply cannot be overlooked without a risk of .very serious trouble to follow. Serious trouble was to follow m any case, and it did, with a sickening wallop for Tangney. The case came on early m April, and Sub-Inspector McNamara, now Inspector at Jnvercargill,. was there to state the case as the police and their witnesses knew it.j He; Had not many compliments to hurl at Maurice, us far as his private carryings on were concerned, but was silent ; on the .virtues of the man as regarded business as a land agent— "Truth" is certain that. he was no financier at that time — and started off with heavy gun fire as' follows: "This man is . : A MENACE TO SOCIETY: and a menace to the public of Wellington. ' Your Worship knows that when I say that I mean it. He has been a menace to society for a long, long- time. My file dates back for nearly a. year. Women cannot walk along- the, street, especially if they are good-looking or well-dressed, without this man following them up" 1 , bumping against them, breathing on them,

1 coughing,- squealing or .behaving m ' sonic such objectionable manneri" Not a very long intro. but a sweeping one, a' little narrow, some may object, as only one side of 'perhaps a very worthy character was touched on, but . still the police were concerned "mostly with that aspect of the Maurice Tangney then before the Court, Tangney the land agent, not the financier. Of ; course,. the Sub could not carry along the whole proceedings on his own, , and therefore had the first witness m the box and duly sworn m. She was a doctor's wife, and she refhem'bered a bright and breezy day away back m February when she met with Maurice m Upland Road. It was not her fault that she met him, for when she saw him first he was on the far sid-e of the road, but immediately he made a DIVE ACROSS FROM HIS SID.E, brushed against her, coughed and touched her with some force. The Maurice Tangney ""Truth" is thinking of made some showing of cross-examining, the witness.. and amor® other questions asked her if .she happened to know; just whai; an assault might really be, whereupon Magistrate Hunt called a temporary halt and expressed his willingness to e-iscuss that question with the- accused man a little later if needs be. . Tangney — do not confuse him with the financier Tangney — did not wait for the other witnesses to be called, but reckoned on discounting the story so far told. by a tale of his own. He had seen the witness most every day as far as he could remember; but bump into her, brush up against her, breath into Her face, no sir, certainly not. Upon these points his conscience was .a . perfect ■ and absolute blank. Why, he had- never had the slightest cause to wish to assault her, an:l an assault must surely toe an assault and done deliberately. 'Twas absurd, ridiculous. ... '■■-.. • ■ Mr. McNamara asked a question or two of Tangney — for heaven's . sake don't confuse them — and wanted to know whether the summons was a dreadful shock. It was.: Whether he hacl- been used to : visits from policemen. He was 'not Whether away back m January he had not been told, to -give over his little habit of breathing on womenfolk. He had. : . Exactly, said the Sub., and then paused a while to take a breath before, hurling over, the next Mills bomb:/ Were you at the Race Club ball? — I was.' „..■.:. Were you thrown out? — I was, asked to leave. v Why?-^I don't know. Because, you were pinching women? —The secretary told me that the rea« soft was that there was some trouble over my ticket. Is it, not a fact that you - : CREPT UP BEHIND SOME CHAPERONS who were sitting- on a sofa and pinched their — elbows? — No. Here^ there was a pause while the Court did- its best /to smother up „a laugh, and m the end- gave up the attempt and , had its laugh out heartily. : You deny that — Yes, I was having supper. i 'Magistrate Hunt: Where did you get your- ticket?, — I paid £2 10,s for. it, bought it from a ,man. It was only Worth two guineas, too. I've been going^ to the ball for -five years. The Bench: I'm thinking- you won't go there again. ' Another attack from the Sub: Do you deny that you have been a menace to the people of Wellington? — Most certainly I do. Qne might m the early part of this month you were kneeling outside a private hospital m Abel Smith Street and looking through a window at a lady m bed? — No, I was not. Well, I was there and saw you, and will go. into the box and, swear it! . Another dainty- morsel stepped up ami took the Bible m her right hand and- thereafter told another little tale of a chance encounter with the doughty Maurice, the land agent fellow, m Lambtoh Quay. He had made a leap at her and frightened years, of growth ' away for keeps. -, "Another Kelburn Miss told of still another wild and unexpected adven=ture on the highways of the altiiud-in-dus suburb, if it is a suburb, and then .the fourth damsel m the case recounted a walk and a talk she had had with a friend past Stewart Dawson's corner and the boorish and idiotic inter- ' ruption by Tangney. The Bench picked up its pens ' and> papers and prepared to write words and phrases upon the ease, but the Sub " butted m again: These cases have been brought TO RID THE TOWN of :a. menace to society. With this man about no respectable woman, young or old, can walk along the street m safety. Sixty others could come into the box and tell your Worship similar stories to those already told to-d-ay. ■ Maurice tried to have the last word with a general survey of what the shock had been like as far as he was concerned, but the Bench came m; You are going- to have another shock m about a. minute. Six months' hard labour. . ' Whether the financier fellow is the same as the one-time land agfent who could not keep his eyes off women who knocked one of the leading commandants kite high on many occasions when neighbours' wives chanced to be abroad, remains to be seenNow, having discussed the extreme unlikelihood of the two Tangneys being the same, man, let's take another, look at the wealthy offer made By the • financier .fellow. Twenty per cent, does, sound good,, doesn't it, and 15 per cent, is not so bad either m these times; and. even 13, 12, 10, 9, risjht down to 6 per cent., look like thundering: good business for someone. The financier gets his pull over others, according to his advert., from the fact that he does his own legal work and pays no fees or commissions. What- a shameful slur upon those who have the hide to charge for legal filligrees and disguise their profiteering under the guise of genuine commissioning! Anyhow, what a g-oorl thing Tangney must be on to be able to afford 20 per cent, downwards on some spec, and still look for a div. above the lot. Pity that he did not pass on the tip direct to the publicand save them the trouble of pestering 1 " him with business worries altogether. Still, the next paragraph of the advert- sounds big: ■ I hereby offer and- asree to pay £1000 reward to any client wl:o can prove any false declaration m my agreement or correspondence touring the past eight years m. business m New Zealand. This offer ought to be sufficient -to clear the atmosphere of any 'suspicion or rumors which I am not going to tolerate! Then he adds another paragraph which rather spoils the bright effect: Any loan offers indispensable, and. thankfully received. That sentence does not seem tc mean much whichever way one looks at it, except that it gives the show away' that the money was not exactly pouring m when that advertisement was passed across the countar. There must be money m HU9>h & scheme for someone. ,