ALAND DEAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 18281, 17 December 1919, Page 9

ALAND DEAL.

AUSTRALIAN MILLIONAIRE’S SCHEME. £1,800,000 “HEAL,” ["From Oxm Correspondent.] LONDON, October 27. Our big landowners do nob seem to be favourably impressed with their future prospects as such if one may judge from the way in which they are selling oil their acres, ancestral and otherwise. Hardly a day passes that does not bring news of some big estate changing hands, either en bloc or piecemeal at auction. The latest big transaction is the purchase by Mr S. W. Copley, the well-known West Australian financial magnate, of the estate of Sir John F. ltamsden, at Huddersfield, for £1,300,000. The estate,_ which comprises about 6000 acres in the central and eastern portion of the city, and includes blocks of valuable house porperty and sundry publio buildings, is said to represent a rent roll of £170,000 grossi. Th§. acreage, however, only represents a small fraction of the baronet’s possessions, for he owns altogether about 160,000 acres in Yorkshire, Cumberland, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Invernesshire. Mr Copley is a native of Huddersfield, and his idea in purchasing the Ramsden property is to transfer it—at a price, of course—to the Huddersfield Corporation if Parliament will sanotion a scheme for the purchase of the town by its own people. Interviewed on the matter, Mr Copley said: “I shall pay for the lot myself should the negotiations go through, and if Huddersfield Corporation cannot get the authority of Parliament to carry out the scheme for the purchase of the town for Its own people, I shall have the town on my own hands. “For two years,” he added, “1 have been negotiating with Sir John’s agents, and have offered the price asked. I have not been acting as agent for the Huddersfield Corporation, but informally promised one of the councillors to give the town the benefit of the purchase by transfer ; and I shall keep my word if the conditions are fulfilled.” Asked if any developments were likely to follow the acquisition of the property,* Mr Copley said he had 1 a very big scheme in mind, the <fetails of which ho was not at present in a position to go into. The project was not merely one for commercial gain but for the benefit of the townfolk. He has one idea of cutting up the estate to give Huddersfield people an opportunity to purchase their own homes, and he would be willing to financo schemes for the benefit of the small tenant. Mr Copley gave some details of his career. “I was born in 1859, a poor lad in Huddersfield,” he said, “ and during my life I have been ail sorts of things, but I never had a penny of interest in this country until I came hero again from Australia *in 1914, lam a director and have interests now in over twenty businesses.” Mr Copley started for himself as a barber in Western Australia nearly thirty years ago. From harboring he went into house buying, and he skilfully dabbled in .land, ranches, cattle stations, and engineering. Having developed businesses all over Perth, he took up enormous tracts of 'land and built and established a ferry service. Big sheep and cattle trading ventures followed that made him famous and respected throughout Australia. Latterly his interests havo Jtaen in brewing, insurances, cotton and banking. “ I came to England in 1914 to undergo an operation,” said Mr Copley, “ and I did not intend to remain, 1 as all my interests were in Australia, but I do not think I shall go back again—I am too old.”