Gift of £80,000.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 278, 28 November 1904, Page 3

Gift of £BO,OOO.

MR. ALFRED BEIT'S DONATION TO SOUTH AFRICA. JOHANNESBURG. Sept. 39. Mr. Alfred Beit has placed tht country under a deep debt of gratitude by presenting to the Government for educational purposes the Frankenwlad Farm, twelve males from here, which it) valued at £BO,OOO. The farm possesses the features ol advanced agricultural science. A reservoir has been built on the Wilcocks principle, and across the Jokesikei River there is a, mealie mill in full Working' order auil plant for the treatment of timber, producing poles, for which there is a great demand l'rom the mines.

Eight hundred acres are under plantations, and 200 arc laid out in vin:> yaids, orchards and nurseries. Mr. Beit's original ofler was conditional on the Government attiring an adjoining estate costing £20,000, after which he undertook to spend £IO,OOO in increasing the area of the form, bring the total up t 0 2,600 acres and enaibling fanning to be carried on in all its branches, includingl a dairy farm and a veterinary school.

The Government accepted the proposal with gratitudp. This handsome estate is Mr. Beit's personal and private gift, and must not be confused with the park presonttd to JO'liannes.burg some time ago by Mctorsi. Wernher, Beit, and C 0 Mr. Beiit has for siome time t>een in consultation with the South' African (xovormncnt, . a nd the estate of Lord Jlilner, it is believi*], has been wivon towards the formulation of a scheme of higher education. It wua Messre. Wern-hcr, Beit and Co. who promised the splendid sum of £200,000 ton-aids Lord Rosibery's proposed Technological Institute i<n Lonjdon, on the Ctarlotteniiurg system. Like Mr. Julius Wernher and other members of the firm, Mr. Alfred Beit is earnestly devoted to the cause of education iii the Empire. Though tlie richest self-made man in the world, Mr. Beit has very simple tastes, and the beautiful collection of pictures at his house in Parklane IB almost his only luxury. "You can't offer Ihe doctor anything," said Mr. Cecil llhodes, once, of Ur. Jameson, " and all Beit wants in this world is £I,OOO a year for his mother." He is, however, a millionaire several times over.