THE WORLD’S RICHEST MEN.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume VI, Issue 60, 22 July 1897, Page 2

THE WORLD’S RICHEST MEN.

According to “ As You Like It,” the six richest men in the world are Woh Qua, John 1). Rockefeller, the Duke of Westminster, Colonel North, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Li Hung Chang. The figures are : —Li Hung Chang, £100.000,000; John D. Rockefeller, £36,000,000; the Duke of Westminster, £20,000,000; Colonel North, £20,000,000 ; Cornelius Vanderbilt, £20,000,000 ; Woh Qua. £20,000,000. But two of these millionaires inherited their fortunes. One is the Duke of Westminster, the other is Cornelius Vanderbilt. 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 even a biscuit. As Viceroy of the Chinese Empire he was for years in a position to accumulate wealth of every sort. With his one hundred millions he is the owuer of rice fields and innumerable pawnshops, which are most profitable. Colonel North, at the age of 14, could not read or write. Some time he served as a sailor. At the age of 23 he went to Chili,raised capital, secured command of the nitrate beds, arranged for a water supply, and built railways, gas-works, and so on.

The Duke of Westminster’s incomo is estimated at from £500,000 to £700,000 a year. The 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 Loudon.

Rockefeller’s fortune is supposed to be over £36,000,000. His father was a physician. All his money has been made out of his oil fields. Cornelius Vanderbilt is probably the thriftiest of the sons of William H., and has actually more money than he knows what to do with. The Vanderbilt money was inherited, and the system bearing the name, is supposed to be worth near £60,000,000, of which this favoured son owns a third. The wealth of Cornelius is estimated by those who kuow him intimately as £20,000,000. Woh Qua, the great Canton tea merchant, has a fortune estimated at £20,000,000. For years t-r*»Ao ii* t*>i* ha.» beeu centred in him. Years ago Woh Qua, who had worked himself up in the firm with which he was connected, looked ahead 50 years, and saw the vast possibilities of the business. Every agent paid him a commission. Every pound of tea grown in tbe Celstial Empire had sooner or later to come to him or his agents. His vessels are numbered by the thousands, aud as a matter of fact he commands more ships than tbe Admiral of any principality. There are, of course, other great individual fortunes, such as those of Baron Hirsch, the Asturs, and tbe Rothschilds. The two latter however, are jointly owned by half-a-dozen members of thf family, and while the sum itself is great, it would not make each member as rich as either of the six men mentioned if it were to be apportioned among them.