KING OF USURERS DEAD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1099, 27 January 1912, Page 4

KING OF USURERS DEAD.

BLOODSUCKER AND LEECH

John Kirkwood, the so-called King of Usurers, whose extortions secured the passing of the English Moneylenders’ Act into law, has just died at Crowborough, Sussex, at the age of 69. He came into prominence during the sittings of the Moneylenders Select Committee, over which Mr T. W. Russell presided in 1897. Stories had come before the Committee illustrating the rapacity of this man, whom the Pall Mall Gazette had described as “one of the most obnoxious bloodsuckers and leeches that ever battened on human misery.” He had also been described by Truth as “that infamous bloodsucker.” He had traded through the medium of a number of so-called “banks.” Kirkwood was very unwilling to unfold to the Committee the story of his “good deeds” and

THE PERSECUTIONS which he had undergone. The first case put to him was that of an Irish landowner, whom he had lent £ 3OO, and who was forced to repay .£714 in principal and interest withinjtbree years. Then he was taken in hand by Mr Ashcroft, K.C., M.P., who had been carefully coached by Mr Farrow. The first case brought by Mr Ashcroft was that of a lady who had borrowed and then found herself faced with a demand of principal and interest, which she had to pay. Kirkwood bullied and hectored before the Committee, but Mr T. W. Russell reported him to the Speaker lor refusing to answer questions. He was summoned to the bar of the House of Commons, and then he promised, after some fencing, in which he was sternly cut short by the Speaker, to obey the orders of the House. When the Committee next met he sent a medical certificate, but at the succeeding meeting he turned up and had to submit to a searching crossexamination by Mr Ashcroft. He was asked about HIS SUICIDE BOOK,

which kept an account of the number of people who had been driven to suicide. He denied that there was such a book in existence, and the information was volunteered that “only” three persons had killed themselves through him in seven years. Many cases of this sort were put to him by Mr Ashcroft, and his only reply was that people were so dishonest in trying to get out of their legal obligations. It was shown that there were many cases of his having had to pay damages for obtaining bills of sale from persons by fraud. In one case the bill of sale was set aside, and he was ordered to pay £SOO damages. Another case put to him by Mr Ashcroft was that of a lady who had borrowed and had to pay ,£1260 within x 8 months. The revelations made the passing of the Moneylenders’ Act an easy matter, but it did not put a stop to the doings of John Kirkwood.