MILLIONAIRE'S HOBBY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 122, 1 September 1910, Page 2

MILLIONAIRE'S HOBBY

£5,000,000 FOR A PARK. John B. Duke, the American tobacco king, is ibuilding a mountain. Having bought a country estate in New Jersey, the multi-millionaire has s«t out to make one of the most beautiful spots in America out of a neighbourhood which is not naturally dowered with scenic attractions. He wanted a, mountain to complete it, and has ordered same from his contractors with the simple assurance of a customer ordering one of his own tobaccos across the retailer's counter.

The mountain is now being constructed: It will be more than 100 feet high and 25 acres in Steam shovels are loading thousands of waggons of earth every day, pushing them up the mountain side and dumping them on the summit, which 1 is at« present 80 feet above the surrounding level. There will be half a dozen other hills besides "The Mountain," as the highest eminence is called. The mountain will ibe surmounted by a watch-tower 150 feet high, from which 1 the surrounding country for miles will be visible.

It will not take more than three years to complete the estate. Thirty-two miles of drives have already .been laid out. More than 100,000 imported trees were planted last summer, in addition to some 500,000 rhododendrons. Half a dozen lakes, a score of fountains, innumerable bridges, and several waterfalls have been completed for some time, but the greater part of the work is yet to be done. When the estate is finished there will be no less than seventeen hundred acres.

"There will foe twenty-four fountains—one of them costing £50,000 —and a score of waterfalls or cascades, one of them no leas than thirty-seven feet high. It is hoped to make the fountains —Mr. Duke's particular fad-—more ibeautiful than even those at Versailles. Twenty million cubic feet of water will 'be required every <lay to play them. The lakes will be spanned by fifteen stone bridges, some of them with ninety-foot spans.

There will scarcely be a level strip of ground on the entire estate. Mr. Duke's new housii, a million-dollar palace of seventy rooms, for which the foundations are already laid, will occupy the crest of a sixty-foot artificial hill. The sides of the hill will be transformed into a series of Italian gardens terraced in. marble, and at its base will be a. fountain 150 feet long and 50 feet wide. ■Mr. Duke has - planned to spend £3,000,000 on his project, and is prepared if necessary to spend £2,000,000 •more. 1 •