HATRY TRIAL

Hokitika Guardian, 27 January 1930, Page 6

HATRY TRIAL

THE LAST SCENE. OF EXTRAORDINARY DRAMA. liATRY’S PAST RECALLED. [United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.] LONDON, January 25. The last scene of an. extraordinary drama of millionaire finance of a most sensational kind were staged at Old Bailey when Hatry and the others were sentenced. The scenes were played in a court that was packed with, business people and fashionable memheirs of society. Mr Justice Avory, like a figure of stone, spoke in his characteristic low, steel voice, which makes every word a whiplash. Hatry, pale and weary, with locked hands, behind his hack, rolled on his heels like a drunken man. As he heard the sentence, his whole face became transformed, and his palor was a grotesque contrast with the blackness of his small toothbrush moustache.

“Stay,” said the Judge, as ho turned to go below. Thus, Hatry had to hear another sentence of two years’ hard labour. When he had left the dock, the Judge said: “Bring him back! I had iurgotton the third indictment.” When the sentences had been imposed on the others, the curtain dropped on the worst financial crash in the city involving two millions sterling. Hatry’s downfall is the tragedy of a man who did not know where to stop He might have left the city, early last year with'a substantial fortune. He remained to gamble with fate for another half million, and he lost. “I could clean up over a million and a-half if I got out- now; but 1 want to reach the two millions and then finish,” he declared to a former associate ten months ago Even, three days before the crash Hatry did not admit defeat, though the city was full of rumours. •

When Hatry realised that he was losing home and wealth, and probably freedom, the showman in him dominated him. Throughout his remand period at Brixton prison, the eternal question on his lips was: “What are they saying about me ?” His career, even allowing for the closing chapter being at Old Bailey, is one of the greatest romances of the city. Starting from obscurity, he was a millionaire at thirty (as recorded in his story cabled on September 21). His ambition was boundless, but his motive was not so much the desire for money as an insensate wish to be regarded as the'financial oracle of the age. Outside business affairs lie had no dominating interests. He toyed with various tilings, such as newspaper ownership, yachting,, .and racing. He •acquired the famous yacht “Westward” for forty thousand sterling, and raced occasionally, but unsuccessfully. Even horse racing did not thrill him, though he won the Lincolnshire Handicap with Furious in 1920. Business pre-dominated. He frequently withdrew from' parties at' his West End; mansion to remain working till dawn. His magnificent mansion contained palatial white marble swimming baths on the first floor, where as many as twenty could engage in mixed bathing. The bottom was lined with long strips of varicoloured lights, in red, mauve and purple, giving the water the appearance of rainbow liquer. One room was converted in restful imitation of an old English ijin, with a stone floor, spittoons, beer, billiards, an old-fash-ionedl fireplace, brass candle sticks, and a cocktail and liquer bar. Outside was hung a sign: “Ye Old Stanhope Arms.” There also is a complete gymnasium, one of the finest and most attractive ballrooms, glittering with chandeliers; a musicians’ gallery, an organ, a'ucl an electric spotlight. lie had many great qualities as a man and a budue&s man. He was generous to a fault.

When lie reached his cell, Hatry turned l.» the gaoler, and said :' “Fourteen years! Well, that’s that! Airs Hatry, who has been used to every luxury that money can obtain, is left penniless!” He thereupon completely collapsed.

THE TRIAL EXPENSES. LONDON, Jan. 25. The cost of the Hatry trial police court proceedings is estimated at £25,000. They would probably have been from thirty-five to forty thousand sterling if the accused had persisted in the plea of not guilty, thus lengthening the proceedings. A DEFRAUDED MUNICIPALITY. LONDON, Jan. 25. Arisipg out of the default of the Corporation and General Securities, td., one of the Hatry group of companies ,the Wakefield Afunicipal Corporation, has applied for Parliamentary powers to raise a loan of £325,000, in order to replace the misappropriated subscriptions to 'the original loan.