MONEYLENDER'S SUICIDE BOOK

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 179, 27 January 1912, Page 8

MONEYLENDER'S SUICIDE BOOK

i KING OF USURERS DEAD. ; | BLOODSUCKER AND LEECH. John Kirkwood, the so-called King »f . Usurers, whose extortions secured the passing of the Moneylenders Act into law, has just died at Crowborough, Sussex, at the age of 60. He came into prominence during the sittings of the i Moneylenders Select Committee, over which Mr. T. W. Russell presided, in / 1897. Stories had come before the committee illustrating the capacity of this man, whom the Pall Mall Magazine had described as "one of the most obnoxious bloodsuckers and leeches that ever 1 fastened on human misery." He had • also .been described by Truth as "that i infamous bloodsucker." i 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 lent £3OO, and who was forced to pay £714 in principal and interest within three 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 up by Mr. Ashcroft was that of a lady who had borrowed £6O, and then found herself l faced with a demand for £689, 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 for 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 1 Speaker, to obey the orders of the House. When the Committee next met he sent a medical certificate, but at the succeeding meeting lie turned up, and had to submit to a searching cross-examination 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 liim by Mr. Ashcroft, and his only reply was that people were so dishonest in tryimg to get out of their legal obligations. It was that there were many cases of his having had to pay damages for i obtaining bills of sale from persons by fraud. Jn one case the bill of sale was set. aside, and he was ordered to pav £SOO damages. Another case put to him by Mr. Ashcroft was that of a lady who had borrowed £4OO, and had to pav £1260 within 18 months. Tile revelations made the passing of the. Monevlenders Act an easy matter, but it did not put a stop to the doings of John Kirkwood.