WHAT IS A MILLIONAIRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2287, 30 December 1897, Page 50

WHAT IS A MILLIONAIRE.

Notwithstanding the fact that in these days of commercial prosperty the millionaire is not the rarity he was, interest in him and his doings is in no wise abated.

If you buttonholed the first man in the street and put the question, " What is a millionaire 1 " he would most likely appear puzzled for a second, and reply, " Why, a man with a million, of course I " This answer echoes a very popular notion of the millionaire, in which he appears as a man who has huge cellars in his basement piled high with

SACKS OF GOLD.

As very few millionaires ever saw a million of money or possessed as much iv hard caßh, and, moreover, as we know by our daily papers that the wills of many reputed millionaires are proved for sums very far short of this colossal sum, it is not .uninteresting -to speculate on the subject of what defines " the swell wot ken buy tha blessed island," as an agricultural labourer expressed it.

• A good many men who are reputed milliouaires could not realise a quarter that sum to-morrow if their lives depended upon it, for the very good reason that most of their money is tied up* in real estate or investments. Of oourae they could borrow the money if they so wished. * But tbis, on the other hand, would be a very expensive transaction. For example, a man who owns 11,550,000,000 PAIiTHINGS

is undoubtedly a millionaire; so is he who has 2,000,000 half sovereigns in his money box. Bat if the gentleman wanted to gat a million for his farthings in a lump, he would have to accept a sum very far short of* their value ; and, on the other band, it would take him a considerable time to get even a small quantity of them ia circulation, and receive their equivalent in sovereigns.

Again, iE the 2,000,000 half-sovereign man took his halves to the Mint, he wonld lose a good deal on account of lightness, and it would be no easy matter to get them in circulation. Probably in both cases the coins would have to go through the melting pot, at very great expense, to avoid overstocking the money market. Yet both men would, of course, be millionaires, literally speaking, just as a man who found 4000 perfect Great Auks' eggs, if he could only gat the present market price for them.

There are lots of paper millionaires, of course — those whose whole wealth is wrapped up in the safe in share certificates and agreements.. And few who have not managed large investments know how variable are the fluctuations of -these paper fortune?. Oie day the paper millionaire is worth "L 700.00 0; on another his possessions spring miraculously up to one million and a-half. fcjo he never knows what he is worth to a penny, and it requires a pretty long financial head to keep his money up to its proper strer.gth. I know the case of A PENNILESS MILLIONAIRE

who is languishing in tli<3 workhouse. He is a C. ce.ua right enough, but his bullion rests peacefully at the bottom of the Pacific, beyond reach of diving operations, and so it is of no use to him. Yet the money cannot be described as lost, for means of descandiDg to greater depths are being discovered every year by our submarine engineers, and if the uaforfcunate one does not recover his money, it will in all probability fall into the hands of . his son._ There are a good many millionaires in financial circles whose claim to the title restfl solely upon their interest and credit, both of which possessions are equivalent to hard cash. The man with half a million capital, food, credit, and a name which is magic on a company prospectus is also a millionaire, and his operations are conducted on a much larger basis than Ma actual capital suffices for. His name alone makes a millionaire of him.

Then there are several millionaires in tbis country in possession of wealth worth, perhaps, much more than a million who do not oWn it. Tbis sounds paradoxical, but it is true, and in many such cases they are members of our nobility. It is simply that the properties and investments which they inherit are entailed, and therefore cannot be sold or made away with. They are lucky people who are born millionaires for life, living on- and enjoying the properties which they were not required to work for. Sa, although they cannot realise the millions they possess,- they are able to live on a .yearly income corresponding to that enjoyed by the man who can do as he likes with bis million.

If you have L 990.000 you may readily conBider yourself one of the nabobs, for you have only to invest it for a year at 5 per cent, to bring it up to full strength ; or if you're only a poor man with a paltry 900,000 sovereigns in your pocket, buck up I In ID years, invested at 5 per cent., it will make you one of the elect.

•Millionaires are not necessarily rich men, either. A young man owns a house ia the West End which, with its priceless marble and so forth, is represented to be

wouth £1,000,000.

' But he can't sell it, and it takes nearly the whole of his comparatively small cash income to keep it in order, and, what is more, it is depreciating in value every year. Talk about being " so near, and yet so far." A good maDy people have their money vested in themselves, or, rather, some- particular power they possess. For example, barring acsidente, any lady who has a voice equal to Patti's may consider herself a millionaire, even though she may not possess a penny at the present time. That is to say, she may realise it for cash j net as the financier negotiates his bonds. Therefore it may be said that a millionaire is not necessarily a man with a million pounds, His wife may wew his fortune in the

fown of diamonds v It maybe that it is owed him by some Government 'to whom he has loaned it; or, more strangely still, as in a. case I know, it may hang ia gold frames in a public art gallery for the education and amusement of his fellow-creatures.