MR HOOLEY'S FINANCES

Otago Witness, Issue 3030, 10 April 1912, Page 25

MR HOOLEY'S FINANCES

LIABILITIES OVER £250,000. LONDON, April 6. E. T. Hooley, when publicly examined, admitted that his liabilities were £252,173 and his assets nil. He had given hie wife £79,000. Towards the end of February Mr Ernest Terah Hooley, the well-known financier, was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment in tlie second division for fraud. Mr. Hooley's offence lav in securimr cheques to the value of £2OOO from Air Tweedale, a young Rochdale- engineer, as a doposit for the sale- of part of an ©state whioh Mr Hooley declared was unencumbered, whereas in fact there were thro* separate charges upon this part of the estato. Mr Hooley. who has just celebrated, hir fifty-third birthday, is of humble origin He was born at dneinton. Nottingham, hi( being a lace hand who prospered, and became a manufacturer. After receive ing a fragmentary education not unusual in those pre-Board Sbhool days, the bo» helped at his father's business, attaining the proficiency of a twist hand. Of a musical turn of mind, he became a useful member of the Long Eaton Baptist Chapel, at which he played the harmonium. For these services, and. doubtless, as nruci for a.spotless reputation as a non-drinker, non-smoker, and non-swearer, he was presented by the congregation with a handsome clock. Mr Hooley flashed into the first flight of finance in 1894, when he was only 35, and a rich man in much more than the paper sense. From then, until ho filed his petition in June, 1898, he promoted 26 com' panies with a nominal capital of nearly 19 millions sterling l . The gross profit wa» £5,000.000, but of this, said the Official Receiver, ho seemed to have disbursed over £4,000,000 in "promotion expenses." The first stupendous venture was made iq association with Mr Martin Rucker, and was the beginning of the arreat cycle boom of 1894. No less than 15 cycle companies were promoted by Mr Hooley, the nominal capital amounting to over £10,000.000. Some of these undertakings are now huge successes. But by the end of 1897 he was in the doldrums. Dividends were failing-, distinguished friends falling- away, legal proceedings threatening. In the summer of 1888 the bubble burst, and he filed his petition in bankruptcy. There were over 400 creditors, and the publio examination closed on November 18, 1898. The Official Receiver, in his report issued in 1899, enumerated several offences against the law, of which he alleged Mr Hoolev was guiltv: but *be Public Profe-utor took no rcfion. Tba unsecured creditors received 4« 4d in the pound. Mr Hoolev was allowed a miserable stipend of £2O a week Mr Hooley, though living the life of a oountrv squire without, seeking- the glamour of publicity since be became bankrupt, hne come into notice more than onoe during th« last dozen ye-ars through his business activities. In 1904 he had to face the terrors of trial at the Old Bailey for alleged fraud; in connection with company promoting, hi* co-defondant being Mr H. J. Lawson. Mr Hooley, who had the advantage of havinir f<V his advocate Sir Rufus Isaacs (then Mrl. waa acquitted. Lawson was sentenced fo 12 months' hard labour, after a 21-days' trial