HEAD OF THE ASTORS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 254, 26 April 1912, Page 6

HEAD OF THE ASTORS.

THE DROWNED MCLTI-MILLIONAIRE The late Colonel John Jacob Astor, who was drowned in the Titanic wreck, had been the manager of the vast estates of his family during the last twentyone years. Some inkling of what those estates amount to may be gained from the fact that thirty million pounds, according, to figures .gleaned, from the New York tax-books, represent the total value of. the land and buildings in New York City alone, owned by the Astor family. • The assessed valuation of the Asfcdr property in New York, which is approximately GO per cent, of the marketable value, amounts to £2 1,5!) 1,800, and of this immense total the share of Mr. William Waldorf Astor, who lives in England, represents an assessed value of £10,058,000. Colonel John. Jacob Astor, a cousin, has paid taxes on £8,240,560, while the estate of his father, the late Mr. William Astor, is assessed at £3,293,300. According to a list grepared under the supervision of the Tax Commissioner, Mr Lawson S. Purely, the Astor estate embraces 700 parcels of land in all parts of Manhattan Island. In Fifth Avenue and Broadway the most valuable plots belong to the Astors. The -WaldorfAstoria Hotel is alone assessed at more than £2,000,000, and of this the share of Mr. Waldorf Astor, junr., is computed at £1,070,000. In the poorer districts of New York the tenants of entire streets pay w#.ekly tribute t .he Astor estate, the coffers of which ;.. j enriched by the rents of dozens of the most pretentious apartment houses on the West side. A fortune of £4;0O,000 left sixty-three years ago by the founder of the Astor fortune has thus increased more than sevenfold in the value of the Manhattan realty holdings alone. The tax books show Instances of plots of lands which were .purchased by the first John Jacob Astor for £4OOO, and which have grown to be assessed in 1911 as being of tkovalue of £1,600,000. The late Colonel Astor was born in 1864, and was a great-grandson of tie •riginal John Jacob Astor, founder of the family. He built the Astoria Hotel in New York, adjoining the Waldorf Hotel, built by his cousin, William Waldorf Astor, and the two were subsequently thrown'into one under the name of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, one of the largI est and probably the most costly hotels 1 in the world. He served in Cuba during | the Spanish war as -a lieutenant-colonel, ; and took part in the operations culminI ating in the surrender of Santiago. Among his inventions are a bicycle brake, I a pneumatic road improver, and an imj proved turbine engine. He married in j 1801, and was divorced from his first wife. Last year he married Miss MadeI leine Talmag? Force, a beautiful eighti een-year-old girl. The marriage was the j subject of much comment in America, j and took place secretly, after at least J one clergyman, of the Episcopal Church had refused to perform it. Mrs. Astor j the cable gave as among those saved. J Colonel Astor leaves a son, Mr. William « Vincent Astor, aged 21. and a daughter I «ged tsm.