THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10014, 28 December 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD.

SOUTH AFRICA'S GOLD KING.

A WONDERFUL CAREER. Ik one of Mr. Besant's novels tho story is told of a Cockney boy who held some small post in tho "city' 1 until he became entangled in stock operations. Then, one bright morning, ho woko up and found himself the king of tho Stock Exchange and the richest man in London. Straightway he wa3 besieged by all sorts and conditions of men. Beggars of high and low degree importuned him. Tho wise men of the Bourse sought his counsel. All day lone he held a crowded levee, and was as greatly fluttered and worshipped in his prosperity as he had been despised when ho was poor. In a night his fortune wont away, leaving him where it had found him, and "then men wondered how they could over have trusted their fortunes to such a drivelling dullard. Lp to the point of decline tlii* is the story of " Barney" Bamato. the " King of the Kaffirs,' whom it is the fashion just now to call tho richest man in the world. Not so many years ago he was a cirrus performer. Now ho is worth a hundred million or a thousand mil-ion—dollars or pounds sterling—whatever you like. He is banker, promoter, Croesus, Maecenas—all tilings to nil men. ' He is the king of London city, and all the money-getters are his willing subjects. If he draws his breath tlio world of (inanco breathes a sigh ; if he smiles its face is wrinkled with laughter.

STARTED T.'iF. "K.m'lK" BOOM. Bamato is the originator of the boom in "Kaffirs." an.l " Kaliirs' aro shares in tho comparatively new gold mines of the Transvaal, South Africa. This boom is (says the New York Herald) or.e of those financial fever- which periodically possess the conservative Brit.mi. Tho first ono on rt-cord was the " South Sea Bubble.' The latest i* tho K.i% boom. Intermediate are the A'srentii Australian, and West Australian booms. All have burst in turn at the cost of hundreds of millions of pounds sterling—all, oxcept the Kaffir boon), which is still a-booraing. Ib is the controlling passion of England to-day. It is scarcely less rampant in Berlin and Paris. The head and centre of all this financial syi'teni has been " Barney" Barnnto, the circus man. He made his beginning by a small but fortunate investment in Kaffirs, which yielded him the returns of an Aladdin. N th the full courage of his pood luck he ru'hu.d in again with all his winnings, and returned a millionaire. In r, delirium of bravado ho played again and again, always winning. To-day he is seriously set down a man worth £I'U,(MI,O : X) or more. On. l of the smallest of Isi aj-ets is a bank, whiea was originally capitalised at £2,.'(XM.'o(>. Tho capital stock is now valued at £ 1 J,00'1,000. The £1 share? opened at a premium of from £3 to £5. They are now beyond price. This is against the rainy day which may come. Mrs; of Bttnat wealth is in tho Kaffir stock-, in which he originally gambled on margin, but which he now owns outright. If he could sell h:-«e properties at their market value he would, no doubt, have more money than any other man in the world. He could not, of course, negotiate so huge a transaction without precipitating n panic and destroying the value of the property.

PERSONAL PECCLIAKiTIES. This end of century Aladdin is not exactly the conventional king of finance. With a thousand and one daily distractions and annoyance.', lie is a good fellow. liaised suddenly from obscurity to an eminence tor which most men are striving, he is not puffed tip. At his office in the city he is a? inaccessible is the Emperor of China. At the vv tst End town house, which he has leased fiom Earl Spencer, ho j is at home to allcomers. To all his friends )e i.« " Barney,' 1 and everybody is his friend. His favourite, and, indeed, only, reception hour is the hour of breakfast. That meal he takes with his wife and a thoroughbred bulldog. Mrs. Barnato is a tall brunette, whom fortune has in no way spoiled. Hospitality is her religion, and her husband is its prophet. A great man must, have at least one eccentricity. Barney Sarnato's is his socks, which he wears of white silk. The wicked have no rest, nor the new rich any repose. Even at his breakfast table Barnato is besieged. To him at that hour come all the cranks and beggars and flatterers and wild-eyed projectors. He sees them all. An English reporter, who was admitted to this levee the other day, found himself one of an incongruous crew. One man had come with well nigh a continent of land to sell—it only needed developing. There was a woman with a choice bit of old lace. Several gentlemen who had writton highly meritorious plays were present to represent that they needed only a little capital to enrich the dramatic firmament. Some " pals" from the city had dropped in to ask how (lie new Aladdin was after the night's banquet. .Some old professional friends of tho circus days had a warm corner. And there were others. To one and all of these Barney talked in turn, managing the while to advise his wife, play with his dog, counsel his son, and admire his pretty daughter. The swift dismissal of business, great or small, is one of Barney Barnato's many strong points. " Don't be serious," ho said to the English reporter. "J'tn never serious out of business. Life is too short to be serious, and don't let that artist eketch my white socks."

A WO.N'DKIIF'JL .MHMOP.V, Questioned as to his methods of business, and how he managed his multifarious affairs, he said "I have got them all in my head or at my finger?' ends. I trust absolutely to memory, and never make any notes." Then Barney flitted away to Mr. addon Chambers, who was present, and with whom he is collaborating on a play. Ik will be a comedy. Barnato has, or professes to have, boundless faith in the future of the Transvaal. He does not like hi? great rival in the Cape colony. Sir Cecil John Rhodes aspires to statecraft; hoi'a banker and a broker. He knows not a great deal of mineralogy; ho deals in shares. The Transvaal, in which his famous properties aro situated, is not oven under British dominion. It belongs to the sturdy Dutch Boers. Johannesburg, tho metropolis of tho Republic, is a town of 80,000 inhabitants, but it is ruled absolutely by 20,000 Dutch burghers, the remaining 00,000 whites and blacks having no voles. Life in this curious town of Johannesburg is just now a reflex of the feverish existence which Barney Barnato and his dovotees are leading in Europo. Tho town is not of the ephemeral character of Mark Twain's Virginia City, nor has it the roughness of the diamond camps at Kitnberly, or the gold mines of Ballarat ; n Australia, consisting, in the main, of long streets of tin shanties. There are, nevertheless, not a few residences deserving to bo called mansions, numerous stores, banks, and theatres of solid construction, and a hospital which is the pride of tho town. URO'A'TH OF THE TRANSVAAL. No longer than ten years ago oven the übiquitous British looked upon the Transvaal .is no better than a howling wilderness. Some traces of gold had been found, but they were not regarded as workable at a profit. The house of Rothschild hppealed to their American correspondent to send the best mining engineer in that country to South Africa to investigate. Mr. Gardner Williams, at presunt tho director of the Deßeors diamond mines at Kimberly, undertook this mission. He reported to his principals that ho was surprised and disgusted nt their credulity— thero was no gold in tho Witwutorsrand, Mr. Williams was an authority of tho first class, but, alas! for the infallibility of science and experience, the territory which he condomned as worthless to the gold miner is now yielding something like £8,000,000 a year of the yellow metal. Over two thousand heads of stamps are at work, day and night, over the lino of " barren" outcrop for a distance of forty miles. This vast industry, forty mines alone of which are capitalised at £19,000,000, has in ton years transformed a bleak, remote and unsmiling cattle range, epnraely peopled with sullen Boers and hostile natives, into a veritable El Dorado. Likewise it has produced the boom in Kaffirs and Barney Barnato. BOEH GOVERNMENT. It is a curious fact that tho Dutch Boer has little share in the transactions which have enriched Mr. Barnato, and tint his benefits from the boom have come to him (indirectly rather than directly. The gold

' mines aro owned by foreigners, and worked by foreigners, who, as Ins been slid, havo no share in tho Government which protects their property. Yot vvitli the indirect revenue of tlio mining, the Boer Government has built) railways, solographs, and schools, and maintains all the accessories of civilisation. The head of this curious minority Government, might fairly be called the Bismarck of Dutch South Africa, lie is President Paul Kruger, a man without education, but possessed of an indomitable will ami the genius of government. It. is his hand which, aided by the marvels of nature, has raised the Boer Republic from a petty and impoverished province to the rank of a nation. Kruger, himself, grossly ignorant of books, had the sense to attach to himself a young law student in Holland, in whom, with certain instinct, ho descried the elements of strength as well as ripe culture. These two, lunger and Dr. Leyds, maintain the anomalous governmental conditions which are found in the Transvaal bat nowhere else on earth. They have made their country rich, but aro themselves comparatively poor. Their joint fortunes would not equal the amount which Barney Barnato may win or lose by the fluctuation in Kalli.s of a single point on the London Stock Exchange. i.ifo in Johannesburg, the metropolis of the Kaffir mining country, is ju?t now unique. The town is reached by a railway journey of sixty hours, covering only 10115 miles from Capetown. If this seems siow it is spood of a " Flying Watchman" compared with Hie o'ul days before the mining town, when the distance was accomplished in a month's "trekking." Besides whites of all nations, there are in the town Chinese, Malays, Hindoos, and a miscellaneous assortment of Orientals, besides the native Kaffirs. These latter the Boers, unlike their English neighbours, do not allow to vote or hold property. but rulo will) a rod of iron, punishing for all offences mercilessly with the lash.

LIFE IS JOIIASNKSnnm. Thero is tho usual contempt in border towns for small change. A penny is a curiosity. You cannot buy oven one postage stamp, but must take at least thrco, laying down tho oxact amount, on the post ofiieo counter. Tho Netherlands Company owns the forty miles of railroad connecting the Freo State border with Johannesburg. Not long ago a circus company had to pay as much to this company for their forty miles as it had paid for til previous 1000 miles from the coast to the border. But the investment brought good returns, for the circus opened the first night to £500, in spite of the fact that there woro three competing shows " turning away business." In the same week a racing meeting was held, at which £">OOO was giver, in prizes, and live times that amount was handled by the bookmakers. Tho town has three daily ami thrco weekly papers, of which tho lowest price is six and tho highest twolve cents. Some of the newsboys mako as much as £30 a month. A household servant of oven moderate qualifications is n prize. Housework is done chiefly by tho Kaffirs, Zulus, and coolies, most of whom are brought in raw from the bush. They are shockingly incompetent, but readily comman I £-1 a month. A really smart coolie wai'er or cook gets £S a month. Tuo rate of board at hotels ranges upward from Lis a Jay. One of tho most remunerative callings in Johannesburg is that of the barmaid. Some of these interesting females cam £30 a month, to say nothing of largo returns from " benefits'' in tho form of birth lay parties. A frequent announcement in the advertising columns of tho Johannesburg papers is such as this : — " Miss Evelyn (barmaid), will give a danco in honour of her birthday. All friends invited." Barmaids' birthdays occur on an average once in three months. Wator aa a beverage is almost unknown. If you can't drink wine, boer, or spirits, you must go | thirsty, The churches aro well attended, and it is a common practico to attend a Sunday evening concert after service. Sports are very popular, especially bicycling. There is " plenty of weather, mixed." A summer's day begins line and cold. Bsforo noon a raging dust storm blow-?. In the afternoon there is rain, with terrific lightning and appalling peals of thunder. In the evening overcoats are necessary for comfort. Such is the town, now seven years old, from which radiates the boom that is racking tho three European capitals, driving capitalists to distraction, and adding millions to the tens of millions of Barney Barnato.