DEATH OF "CZAR REID."

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 170, 4 August 1908, Page 7

DEATH OF "CZAR REID."

THE LARGEST LANDOWNER IN THE WORLD. The death is announced from Ottawa of Sir Robert Gillespie Reid, the Scotsman who was the. dictator of Newfoundland, and probably the largest landowner m the wond. His career was a strange one. Born at Coupar Angus, m Scotland, m 1840, he emigrated to Canada m 1868 After trying his fortunes at gold digging m Australia and California, he went to Newfoundland, and made rapid progress as a contractor and railWay pioneer. In 1894 the Government of the colony was m great financial difficulties. 'Czar Reid," as he became known later, offered tamely help, and m 1898 executed his master stroke, the famous "Reid contract," with the Government. By this document he became owner of the colony's docks, railways, telegraphs, postal services, mining, and lumbering rights and 4,000,000 acres of land. He obtained the whole at a price said to be one-third of their probable value, but the Government are losing money annually on the various enterprises, and the "Reid contract" saved it from the gravest difficulties. Mr Reid, as he then was, for he was knighted only last year, received 2,500 acres of land for each mile of Government railway built. His total landed estate is said to have amounted at one time to 27,000 square miles. His total expenditure m connection with the contract with the Government was £900,000. Having acquired these vast enterprises, Mr Reid set himself to reorganise them and turn them from unprofitable to paying concerns. In this he was very largely successful. Since then the colony has spent large sums m repurchasing its rights from Sir Robert Reid. The post and telegraphs have been bought back, and the railways revert to the Government m 1951. Personally "Czar Reid" was a tall, thin, mild-mannered man, and until recent yearonly considered remarkable for his passion tor bridge-building and railway pioneering. It was a favorite boast of his that he would go anywhere he sent his men, and constant exposure; greatly weakened his constitution, compelling _____ to spend some months m I each year at Algiers. I