A SPLENDID BAKRUPT

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8294, 24 September 1903, Page 4

A SPLENDID BAKRUPT

Mr ErnestTerah Hooley ,is going to apply for his discharge from bankruptcy.after the long vacation. At these proceedings, he declares, the transactions whicn formed the subject of an action in the Law Courts, and upon which Mr Justice Darting based severe criticisms, will be fully explained, and Mi" Hooley's own side of the case will be made public. There is another side, and Mr Hooley, seen by a London Daily Mail representative, did not hesitate to voice his indignation at the fact that he should have been censured without the opportunity of reply. Mr Hooley states that in five years he has paid to creditors £92,850 16s 4d, and declares that all his business transactions are justifiable, and straightforward. His financial statement is as follows : Per Annum. Hotel expenses ... -•• £1,300 Cost of living 676

Total ... ... ...£1,976 Money earned and paid to creditors in five years, £92,850 16s 4d. •Mr Justice Darling expressed surprise that "at a place like the Albemarle Hotel," where one of the witnesses said Mr Hooley had a suite of rooms, "an uncertificated bankrupt should carry on such a business." It is perfectly true that the financier, who describes himself as "down on his luck," is staying at the Albemarle Hotel. It is also true that he transacts a considerable amount of business there. "But," he said, in the course of an interview, "I pay only £25 a week for the rooms, which include the one in which you are sitting, and where I receive callers, a small room on your left for the clerk and typist, a little waiting room, and a bedroom for myself." This is probably a new use for one of the West End hotels. And to the ordinary observer it must seem strange that some of the best rooms of a fashionable arid imposing hotel should be utilised for such business as that in which Mr Hooley engages. _ The suite of rooms which he occupies is.on the first floor, and is approached by and richly-carpeted staircase, on either side of wSchlresfcubs and ferns, while servants, both on the ground f^f ± p next floor, are ready where Mr Hooley's secretary and Mr Hooley himself can be seen. "No 12" is not a large room, and has been transformed into something of the appearance of an office. There are the inevitable typewriters and rows of japanned and white-lettered boxes, such as one is accustomed to meet in a solicitor's office arranged against the wall. Leading out from JNo 12 " though with another and independent, entrance from the hall, is what Mr Hooley describes as his reception room. Here are two large iron safes, but beyond this there is nothing suggestive of gold mines and big Mir Hooley is not apparently less busy now than in the days before misfortune overtook him. He has many callers, and the interview was punctuated by telephone calls and intimations of waiting visitors. Mr Hooley justifies his expenditure by the fact that he is paying off o-u creditors and at the same time is maintaining a family ot five grown-up daughters and two sons in a way to which he considers them entitled. "I hold," said Mr Hooley with emphasis, as he paced the room, "that a man who calls his creditors together and does not afterwards try by every means in his power to pay his chandler, grocer, butcher, and baker is a blackguard. lam working night and day without a holiday, and. I will tell you what I have paid to old creditors.' He opened the room door and again summoned his secretary, instructing. him to bring a book containing a summary of his transactions. „■,.,-!• Referring to Mr Justice Darling s description of the Corundum Mine transaction as "a fraud and nothing else.' Mr Hooley became angry. "If it is a fraud," he exclaimed, dramatically; "if it is a fraud," he repeated, striking the table, "why am I not in a criminal court? It should be Mr Justice Darling's duty to instruct the Treasury to prosecute me. Then I would vindicate myself." • , . ~ Mrs Hooley's name was mentioned in the Law Courts, and Mr Hooley makes'no secret of the fact that Ms wife transacts her business through him. "She buys property and shares," he said, "the procerus of which are devoted to paying my private creditors, who are only too pleased to get -»e money thus rained. At the same time, I must do something to keep and to educate my family. That surely, will not be denied me. AU this," he said, pointing to a newspaper account of the proceedings, "is nothing but persecution." "I shall b& forty-five years of age next. February," said Mr Hooley. He certainly does not look it. Dressed in a blue serge suit,, with no jewellery, and wearing- a leather watchguard, but certainly preserving that air of smartness one associates with City men, he gives the impression that he win fi>ht to the bitter end, if indeed the end is to be bitter. "I tell you,' he explained, "I will not be rebuffed. I shall continue to go on as I have been doing. My hands are clean."