THE WORLD'S HIGHEST MEN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5181, 14 November 1895, Page 3

THE WORLD'S HIGHEST MEN.

According to As Yon Ufa It, the six richest men iu tho world are Woa Qua, John D. Rockefeller, the Duke of Westminster, Colonel North, Cornelius Vnnderbilt, and Li Hung Chang. The figures aro; Li Hung Chftßg.&OO.OOO.OOOiJobnD.Rocke. 1 feller, £36,000,000; tho Duke of Weslminstor, £20,000,000; Colonel North, £'20,000,000; Cornelius Vanderbilt, £20,000,000; Woh Qua, £20,000,000. But two of these millionaircs inherited their fortunes. One is the Duko of Westminster the other is Cornelius Vauderbilt. Li Hung Chang alone is in danger of losing his, but then his head might go, too, and a person without that necessary ornament wouldn't enjoy oven a biscuit. As Viceroy of tho Chinese Empiro he was for years in a position to accumulate wealth of every sort. With his ono hundred millions ho is tho owner of great rico fields and innumerable pawnshops, which arc most profitable. Colonel North, at the ago of M could not read or write. Some time he served as a sailor. At the age of twenty-three he went to Chili, raised capital, secured command of the nitrate beds, arranged for a water supply, and built railways,gasworks and so on, Tho Duke of Westminster's income is estimated at from five to seven hundred thousand pounds a year Tho vast property he owns in London was bought by one of his ancestors in the sixteenth century, when it was only an outlying part of London. Rockefeller's fortune is supposed to bo over thirtysix million pounds. His father was a physician. All his money has been made out of his oil-fields. Cornelius Vauderbilt is probably tho thriftiest, of tho sons of William H, and has actually more money than lie knows what to do with. Tho Vauderbilt money as inherited, and the system bearing the name, is supposed to be worth near sixty millions, of which this favoured son owns a third, The wealth of Cornelius is estimated, by those who know him intimately, at £20,000,000. Woh Qua, the great Canton tea merchant, has a fortune estimated at £20,000,000. For years the trade in tea has been centred in him. Years ago Woh Qtia,who had worked himself up in the firm with which he was connected, looked ahead 50 yeais, and saw the vast possibilities of the business. Every agent paid him a commission. Every pound of tea grown in the Celestial Empire had sooner or later to come to him or his agents. His vessels arc numbered by the thousand, and as a matter of fact he commands mora ships than the admiral of any Principality. There are, of course, othor great individual fortunes, such as those of Baron Hirsch, the Astors, and the Rothschilds, The two latter, bowever, are jointly owned by half-a-dozen mombeis of the family, and while the sum itself is groatjt would not make each member as rich as either of the six men mentioned above if it were to be apportioned among them.