The Richest Men in the World

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 381, 3 July 1889, Page 6

The Richest Men in the World

'Ak Interesting aiticle '* appears . nJpffcHe'' current issue of the ' Revue 5 ' de'd^Oeux;-'"-Mondes 'on « The » Richest, .Men r*i^4*-M I VV orld. ' ,The , writer , is M v de -^N^i|u { y, v £ > who has. been (doing a series, of 'pajierj^jjn ' , similar subjects for the popularjinciernational magazine, and won a, right, tfojyjJe -, considered, ,an authority on, Crjop^uses,. generally. He declares t thoie are^^he world about 700 people each of^wjiom, ' possesses a capital .equivalent £o ; nofc ?less' than a, million, sterling. Of, these favoured • indhiduals Great Biitain, contains' 2ob, the United, States lOC, France 75,, and allVtlier countries smaller numbers or, none.".' The richest man of all is the American road king,' Mr Jay Gould, ) ( began li/e as the son of a small Ne,w.'York faVmer,and who owe* his huge fortune entirely f to his own exertions and abilities.^ 'His^capital, when he left homo at the age ( of 12, consisted of a suit of clothes and ba]f-a-dollar. Ib s is now said to\ be, no/ less than 300.000,q00d015., or £60,000;000' .sterling • and his annual income is about £2,800,000, or nearly £B,ooo' a day. .One^'of his exploits, carried out with Mr James Fi?k, in 1869, was to create a ' corn^r-i' in ' goldin New York, and, in Jittlp more' th,an a week, the firm cleared £2,200,000/ Next to Mr Gay Gould in wealth fctands another American, Mr J. W. Mackay, who enjoys a capital of £50.000,000, and an income of £2.500,000. The English representative .of the house of r Rothschild comes third with a capital of £40,000,000. After ' these Croesuses come, according to those who'profess to know — MrAstor £38,000,000 Mr Vanderbilt 25,000,000 Mr J, B. Jones 20,000,000 Duke of Westminster 16,<i00,000 Mr Russell Sage 12,000,000 Duke of Sutherland 6,000,000 Mr J. Gordon Bennett 6,000,000 Duke of Northumberland 5,000,000 Marquis ox Bute 4.000.000 Mr A. Belmont 4,000,000 Mr R. G arrett 4,000,000 Mr P. Morgan .5,600000 Mr Sidney Dillon 2.000.000 Mr Cyrus Field 2,000,000 But it is tolerably obvious that a good many millionaires, such, for example, as afc least two members of tho house of Rothschild, Heir Bleichroder, the Baroness Bprdett Coutts, and a dozen or more Englishmen are omitted from the list. Nor,,ca.n the" figures in any case be accepted as absolutely accurate; for, probably, ,no millionaire, no matter how systematically he may keep his accounts, can tell at any given moment what lie is worth ; and, if this be so, certainly no one else can. Some curious calculations have been made relative to Mr Jay Goulds alleged fortune of £60,000,000. If it were changed into £5 notes, and the notes were fastened end to end, the strip ot paper would be long enough to reach, unbroken, from London to Moscow ; or, if the notes were sewn,together, they would form a , sheet large enough to cover, an area half amilelong and over a quarter of a mile wide. If, again, the fortune were changed into sovereigns, the coins, piled singly one upon another, would reach to a height of nearly 73 miles. The weight of the column of sovereigns would be about 570 tons, or sufficient load for 57 strong railway trucks, or for an army of 11,400 powerful porters, each carrying 1121bs. Tf, once more, the fortune were changed into penny postage stamps of the current issue, the stamps placed end to end would cover a distance of about 1,920,000 miles, or four times from the eartn to the moon and back again. If the fortune were changed into penny-pieces, and if 10 men, each counting by night and day at the rate ot" 100 per minute, were set to count the coins, the operation, would last more than 27 year?. The owner is rich enough to be able to give a shilling to every person at present alive in the world : but if all the existng members of the human race passed before Mr Gould, and if, at the rate of ten men per minute, each person were presented with a shilling by the millionaire, tho benevolen b giver wouid have to gel. his life lengthened by about 230 years to enable him to complete the business, even if he worked day and night without ceasing and took no rest on Sundays. These calculations assist us in realising what the sum of £60,000,000 means. It is enough to pay off the united public debts ot Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Servia, and all the central American Republics ; it produces a revenue equal to that of the whole kingdom of Wurtemburg, it would supply 3,000 persons each with an income of £1,000 a year for ever, it invested, as it might be, at 5 per cent. To the pertinent and natural question : Docs a millionaire enjoy life in proportion to the magnitude of his wealth ? Mr Vanderbilt has suppliedan answer, which, although it may not be altogether ingenuous, is, at least interesting. " Such wealthas mine," he said to a friond, "is too heavy a burden for any man to bear. The weight of it is crushing me and killing me. I have no pleasure in it and no use for it. In what respect am I really better oft" than my neighbour who has only half a million dollars (£100.000)? He commands qiore readily than I can all the true happiness of life ; his house is as comfortable as mine ; he is healthier than I. because he hasless ,anxiety ; he will probably live longer than I shall ; and, above all, "he can trust his friends. " It is melancholy that a man possessed of 25,000,000 sterling should speak in this way. Yet, after all, 'nothing is much easier than for Mr Vanderbilt to get rid of as much of his wealth as may appear to him to be superfluous. Almost anyone, would accept a slice of the big cake, even at the risk of burdening himself with a few new anxieties. That'Mr Vanderbilt still retains his millions makes one inclined to doubt the genuineness of his jeremiads over his exceeding riches. The millionaire, in the §ense in which we understand the term, is,' , comparatively speaking, a very modern creation. • It, has been doubted whether there were in England in the 17th century any private individuals who possessed a capital equal to a million sterling. In the last century such persons undoubtedly existed, but they were very few in number. Even in the first half of the present century they were rare in England, France and America, and almost unknown elsewhere. Dumas's conception of the Count of Monte Cristo was meant co portray a man possessed of wealth beyond the dreams of the avarice of the times ; yet > Monte Cristo, judged by modern standards, ' was not a character, whose fortune ' wpuld place him in the first or even the' second rank of very rich men. Mr Jay Gould could, to use the favourite expression of a nouveau I'iche, buy him up over and over again. "Even Mr Cyrus Field' could,' probably, make him feel envious; for,'translated' into francs, Mr Field's reputed fortune is 50,000,000, a sum which, to 1 the Frenchman of the elder Dumas's day, l was about as much as was comprehensible?

J Before a Marble Statue of 'Achilles: — Mrs Gushley— \Vhat a man to marry •'♦Mrs Goli^htly— Moil DienV Imagine' how :cbld he would be on a December night. " ->- The late Mr Ormond, of Melbourne, 3 be* queathed £113,000 to charities, ■ churches, and colleges, including £40,000 f tti i Ormond College arid £10,000 to tho Workman's, College- "'' ' ■■''- - v . ' - z*u i>;>c-,

Green way, who was at present in Auckland, had been informed of the death of deceased, and had telegraphed in reply "fatating a son o£ deceased's would arrive by Monday's truin from Auckland to attend -the funeral. Bciiaved ho was a Frenchman by birth. Witness also deposed to being called out on Saturday morning, and finding deceased lying dead. ' Deceased, was on good terms with every one about the flaxmill, and they witl him. Frederick Wild, police constable, stationed at Te Aroha, tr&ve evidence of being informed by Mr Firth on Saturday morning of the death of deceased, aud stated he at once proceeded to Wairokau and made all possible enquiries. Carefully examined the body ; iliere were no marks of violence, or injury of any kind, - except one slight scratch, skin deep, on the right hip. Seaiclied deceased's whare and effeefs ', the only artisles in the form of drugs were a few antibilious pills, and a small boitle of Perry Davis painkiller, with just a little of it weed. Judging from appearances he should say ,death resulted from natural causes, and he had no reason to suppose deceased came to his death in any other way. ; This was all the evidence. In reply to the Coroner,' the jury unanimously expressed the opinion that they did not consider it desirable to have the inquest accoutred and the services ol F a qualified medical man obtained- for the r> m pose of a post mortem,; but were unanimous in their verdict which wag to the effect that ' deceased was found dead, that he had no marks of violence on his body, out by the visitation of God, in a natural way and not by any violent means, whatsoever, to the knowledge of ihe said jurors, did die." A aon of the late Mr de Labrosse, Arrive:'! from Auckland by Monday's train, and at once proceeded to where the body; of his father lay at Wairafcau ; and arranged for the interment to take place at noon yesterday. The body was brought down the river by boat to the neatest point of the Cemetery, and canied from thence, followed by young- Mr L:»bio«se, Mr Defanr, and several of the ~v!I haids. Rev Mr Norrie read the ju* -:. ■se.'viee, In an interview with y^.ig J>£-* I^'-rnsae, he informed us that « t !it.s •■"•■. sc-m'al occasions known his fatiieMo <r-3*< up out of bed and fall down unconscious in a fit, from which he Übiv.illy recovered in about an hour ; bat he had be^n itep of any such attack for sonu* years past, His home was at K-.inara. He 1 leaves a wife, two sons an.j four daughters to mourn his 10-s. It T'oulii now appear only too probable the pocr fell<»\v foU.iio'.vn in a fit siu-h a^ he ha-« frcquetuly hail before, and uo help being near, .thus died.