MAKING MILLIONS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5393, 27 February 1929, Page 2

MAKING MILLIONS.

IS IT REALLY AYO RTH WHILE I

ITS PLEASURES AND DRAWBACKS.

Is the; making of a. big fortune ieally wtorth while ? Is the millionaire fundamentally happier than the young man with hardly a pound t.o bless himself with ? Can wealth, and the gaining of wealth, become a burden ?

I am often asked, these questions (writer Sir Joynton Smith, Australian newspaper magnate, in the “Daily Chronicle’’). They are a problem which excites the curiosity of most people, whether they be rich '<&• poor. Here is a man, once a poor, lad, who had: made a fortune;; is he really happy with it ? Was the fight worth while ?

In the fundamental things, I doubt if one is happier, for the fundamental happinesses are not those which, require great wealth for, their enjoyment. The enjoyment of health, education, and nature, and the country and kindred simple tilings, f:pir example, one does not need) to be rich to enter into these, l know one thing. I would willingly forego this wonderful wealth to be; just 25 again. At 25 I was only beginning, although at 28 1 had made £10;000 : , and foolishly wasted it on a racing system of my own in England.

Wealth can be a burden, once it becomes an obsession, as invariably it does. You must always go on and on ’ making more, once you have started. It is not sufficient to make, say, £50,000' out Pff a business and the;n ray: “Tha.t will do.” You cannot stand still. When you have made a good thing out of one business you are impatient to start with the next.

And in the following of this obsession, remember, you inevitably forgo many of the simpler happinesses which might be yours ; there is no. ether way of winning; through, and keeping there. A man with a pound in his pocket, can sleqp soundly ; a man with £lOO in his bolt migjit deep soundly ; but a man with thousands and millions finds it »more difficult. He must fqr ever be up and doing, lest in the end he fails. Once he is on the roadi to. success, he does not want to fail ; he wants to go to greater triumphs. He simply must go on.

Some fall, cif course. Disraeli was consumed alwmys with an everbearing ambition—and he succeeded. On the other hand, one knows of politicians who might have been brilliant men of the very flrßt ranks,’but they became; absorbed by the flslipots ; maybe they took a seat in the Lords and just settled comfortably down. Some people may think they were the wiser, after aill, in stopping to enjoy life while they were still young enough to do so. Some people may think the millionaire who makes work and wealth tiuch an obsession, that it dominates Jjim to the exclusion of most other t'jiing.s is the real failure, since for hinu the means have obscured the end. I do. not know, it is for qach man to say'. It depends on the individual temperament. There is no hardi-and-fast principle which can be applied. All I know is, once the urge to be successful takes hold of you it becomes an irresistible g'ame which yPlu feel you must go an playing. Here I am, at the end of it all, back in my native London, enjoying life in my way. But ]. know very well 1 could never sbttle her.e. Evem now I am all agog, to get bac& to Australia and into harness again, to be at grips with work once more, to resume the old light, to g,o on achieving, success where ethers have encoiftiitered failure.

Whether it maltes; one happier in the end or not doejs , n ot really matter. As 1 have said, I doubt, if it doee. But the fight is worth while fpir its own sake—especially if yzm can spice it with a s.ense of humo-ur, and. get f.un out of it, and at. the tiaune tiime feel you are creating emplp ymejnt, and by that way benefiting ot. hers. In conclusion, my greatest p leasure is to blaze a new trail and p; teate employment where previously it .ididu’t exist.