PIETY AND MILLIONS. THE ROCKEFELLERS' FORTUNE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2579, 19 August 1903, Page 39

PIETY AND MILLIONS. THE ROCKEFELLERS' FORTUNE.

The London Daily Mail's estimate of John D. Rockefeller's wealth (writes the : New York correspondent of the Melbourne Argus) is very far from being a oorrect one. > , Mr Rockefeller's fortune is not less than , £100,000,000 (instead of £60,000,000, as the j Mail says), and k probably exceeds that enormous sum by a considerable amount.

The Mail remarks that the Standard Oil Trust alone is worth £30,000,000 ; but the truth is that at present market quotations the value of that trust is £136,000,000. It is understood that Rockefeller now owns about 60 per cent, of it. For the last three yean the annual dividends (on a capital of £20,000,000) have been £9,000,000 or £9,600,000. Rockefeller has very large railway interests; he owns mines, and is one of the largest holders of shares in the great Steel Trust which he induoed to take over his iron mines, fleet of om oarriers, and steel interests, at a great profit to himself. I suppose his income is not less than

At one time there were close on 9000 diggers at work on this goldfield, many of whom struck excellent patches of the precious metal.

£10,000,000. One of his friends recently estimated it at £15,000,000, but that is too high. He can easily give from £1,000,000 to £2,000,000 a year to Baptist colleges, seminaries, and churches without encroaching seriously upon his annual increment. The proceedings of the Bible class oonducted by Mr Rockefeller's son in the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church are reported every week in the daily press. Young Mr Rockefeller, who is associated with his father in business, and to whom the latter is turning over his vast financial interests, appears to be a very religious man. He awd to his class on a recent Sunday that he consulted

God daily with respect to all the questions of his business, and was sure that he was under Divine direction. " I have never taken an important step in my business," he continued, " without asking Divine guidance, and my prayers have always been answered."

The influence of this young man's remarks to his olass, and of his intimate and public connection with religions services, is deplored by many good men. I have heard one of them say that the churches, their communicant*, and all who are striving to increase the number of sincere believers could well afford, as * business proposition,

to pay young Rockefeller 1,000,000d0l a rearto keep still, and dissolve his Bible olass. I do not know whether M'Olure's Magatine, one of our suooetsful monthlies, is read in Australia. If it is, (ben you are familiar with the dispassionate and carefully written history of the great Oil Trust, which is appearing in it in serial form. The trust makes no defence against this indictment, simply because it cannot make any. The author, Miss Tarbell, is a woman who has equipped herself for historical writing by long and severe study here and in Europe, and by published works of good repute.

The new curator for the Dunedin Municipal Reserve*, late of Dominica, West Indies.