A BLOOD-SUCKER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1180, 16 September 1885, Page 6

A BLOOD-SUCKER.

/The writer of " Melbourne G-ossip " in the " Sydney Mail has the f6ll,owing interesting paragraph :—": — " Wben Antonio asks the Venetian usurer: ' la y&ur gold i and Bilver ewes and rams ? ' Shylock make's answer : ' I cannot tell ; I make ,it breed as fast.' And this must be'the case with some of the Melbourne money-lenders ; one of whom, who is also of th*e. t Hebrew persuasion,)^ was examined '% the Insolvency" Court the other day in connection with certain pecuniary transactions he had had with a grazier of Narree Warren, to whom he had advanced £500. Eor this the witness, David Henry by name, admitted that he was to recover £1500, being at any rate 300 per cent. The man attempted to justify these exorbitant terras by stating that they covered the risk, as well as the bonus and interest. When asked what special risk there was in this particular case, tbe money-lender was driven to acknowledge that he did not know of any. Harpagon and Sir Giles Overreach still flourish in the midst of us, and the men portrayed by Moliere and Massinger have their little prototypes; in this city, and cover their wives and ■ daughters with diamonds paid for out of money wrung from necessitous borrowers of money at rates of interest which are simply appalling in their magnitude,"