TWO SELF-MADE MEN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2420, 14 January 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

TWO SELF-MADE MEN.

The Daily News points out that the revenue from stamps will be swollen this quarter by the duties paid on succession to two exceptionally rich city men, now dead, Mr M'Calmont, the head of the financial house of that name, and a near relation of the late Earl Cairns, who has left property valued at over £3,000,000 sterling. Mr Stern, whose death took place recently, and who was best known by his Portuguse title of Baron, was credited with a fortune of more than £5,000,000. Thus two of the richest financiers in London have died almost together. Taking the duties on the combined aggregate of £8,000,000 at an average of 3 per cent., these two deaths would bring in about £259,000. Both these gentlemen we • selfmade men; one was Irish and the other German. Baron Stern was first known in London as a Rhine wine merchant, but he gained wealth as a financier during the inflation preceding the Overcnd-Gurney panic of ISU6, which he foresaw. Turkish loans afterwards received his attention, but he was latterly identified with successive issues of Portuguese bonds, which he managed with conspicuous ability. His investments are understood to have included London waterworks stocks to a large extent; and he is thought to have held Argentine Cedulas, for which attempts had been made to gain an official quotation on the Stock Exchange. The indefinite quantity of these land-guaranteed bonds, however, barred his success in that direction.