A CHINESE MILLIONAIRE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2219, 13 February 1886, Page 2

A CHINESE MILLIONAIRE.

The death of a notable Chinese million aire is thus referred to by the ' North China Herald' of December 16:—" Hu Hsueh-yen, the great Chinese banker and millionaire of Haiigchow is dead. In some respects ho was one of tho most remarkable men in this country. His father was a merchant, and he himself began life from a pretty low rung on the ladder, having originally been a simple clerk, or ' purser' as the Chinese sometimes say, in ■a commercial hong; but by dint of his extraordinary talents for business he rose rapidly in wealth and fame, and for soino years past he has been recognised as the leading morchantin China—the representative of China's financial and commercial interests, To borrow a phrase made familiar to us by Mr Edward Jenkins, Hu tao-t'ai was in no far-fetched senso a true Paladin of finance, and when he died had already boen honored by the Emporer with a button of the first grade, a yellow riding jacket, and the rank of provincial judge. His beautiful palace at Hangchow was one of the bliow places of China. The Chinese say that his career was scarcely like one of real life—it was a' spring dream.' Advancement from so low degree to the high honors and mibounding wealth which he afterwards attained is a phenomenon Jess common in China than in Europe and America. There have been many miners and gulchlaborers in the United States who have risen to be bonanza kings, Mr Gilead P. Beck does not stand alone in the anna's of the 'Far West. • But in China such freaks of fortune are rare, and Hu Tao-t'ai may fairly claim a place as a successful merchant beside Tzu Kung, the disciple of Confucius, who, when engaged in business, always made a profit. In this, however, the sage was more fortunate than the millionaire, though he never amassed such wealth, for the losses sustained by Hu in his celebrated silk speculation were simply fabulous, and there were probably few merchants in the whole of China whoever owned as much as was then sacrificed. Hu died at midnight a few days ago, at Hangchow, aged something over sixty years. He waanot a particularly cultured man, but his influence was great, and he was renowned for,, the oxtensiveness.and liberality of hia charities.