CANADIAN MILLIONAIRE,

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 22, 27 January 1922, Page 5

CANADIAN MILLIONAIRE,

LEAVES SPLENDID GIFTS. (Received lO.riO a.m.! LONDON, January 26. Tlie late Lord Mount Stephen has left £1,500,000. Tho will bequeaths £10,000 to Dr. Bnrnardo's Home for Boys, £2000 to tbe Victoria Hospital, Montreal, and ufter making proviMOll for the widow and servants and executors, the residue of over £500,000 goes to King Edward's Hospitul Fund.—(A. and NX Cable.) If he did not accept in its entirety Mr. Carnegie's gospel ot" wealth, according to which it is a disgrace for a man to die rich, Lord Mount Stephen showed by his numerous princely benefactions in Canada, in London, and in bis native country that lie thoroughly realised the moral obligations which the stewardship of wealth involves. He gave generously, inded lavishly, writes our London correspondent, of his money for the relief of suffering, for the encouragement of learning, and for the help of the poor. In his conscientious administration of his wealth he set a noble example to all other rich men. The mere accumulation of money never made its appeal to him. In Morayshire those who could claim kinship with him were fortunate indeed, and many of Lord Mount Stephen's benefactions were cpiite as notable for their character as for their amount. As a very conspicuous example, ho distributed over half a million among some , thirty five relatives, preferring, be said, to see them enjoying life now instead of waiting till after his death. He was , no less mindful of his native town and ■ district. He built and endowed a cottage hospital at Dufftown, called after him the Stephen Hospital, subsequently extended and improved it so a.s to bring it abreast modern requirements, and ' then gave a further sum for its endowment, these various gifts involving a total expenditure of between £14,000 and £15,000. To the Aberlour Orphanage he donated £35,000, to secure a minimum annual income of £1000, and so provide for the support of 100 beds: He co-operated with Lord Strathcona iv building and endowing the Royal Victoria Hospital at Montreal in commemoration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee, and he also contributed largely, along with Lord Strathcona and Sir William Macdonald, to the building and endowment of McGill University. Montreal. His most munificent benefaction, however, was made to King Edward's Fund for London Hospitals. In 1902 he and Lord Strathcona jointly contributed a sum calculated to produce £16,000 per annum at the time, and likely to increase; but Lord Mount Stephen subsequently made two additional donations to the fund, capable of yielding £11,000 and £7000 of an annual revenue respectively, the total sum assigned by his Lordship being estimated at about a million sterling. This, then, was what in life one Scottish millionaire was able to achieve, and his beginnings? George Stephen was the son of William Stephen, a Dufftown carpenter, who came originally from Glenrinnes. His mother, Elspeth Smith, a native of Knockando, was an aunt of Donald Alexander Smith, who afterwards became Lord Strathcona. and whose boyhood was spent in the thatched house thai stood beside the old bridge across the Messet at Forres. George Stephen was educated at Mortlaeh Parish School, where one of his class-fellows was the future Field-Marshal Sir Donald Stewart. As a boy George herded cattle m his native parish, from which he went to Aberdeen to learn the dranerv business. Later he proceeded south to Glasgow and then to London, and in 1850 he left England lor Canada, where li e entered the Montreal dry -roods business of his father's cousin. William Stephen The business prospered, nntt bavinamassed n .■nn.id-rable fortune. Gcorire Stephen launched -, lt a , „ eat Canadian capitalist. His record W;lg p . 1(1 of unbroken prosperity. Tie Uv-and-bv became president of the Bank of Montreal, and interested himself in ranons enterprises, psrticularlv railway construction. 4