Man of Millions.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13957, 17 July 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

Man of Millions.

HIS LONELY LIFE. The funeral of Mr Charles Morrison who amassed a fortune of twelve millious of money, took plac'o on May 23th in the quietest way at Basildon, near Pangbourne, on the Thames. The extreme simplicity of the funeral, attended only by close relatives, who will share some of the immense wealth left by this strange old man of 92, by Sir Frank Crisp, representing the family solicitors, Ashurst, Morris and Crisp, and by half a dozen clergymen and gentry of the neighbourhood, gave to the few strangers, who were at-

tracted to the scene by the curiosity always aroused by the death of a "man of_ vast possessions, an impression of being present at the end of an extraordinary life story, such as Dickens might have written, or Balzac, the Dickens of France.

Until his death, few people outside Hie city and the Berkshire village had ever heard of this man of millions. Inheriting a million from his father, who had come down from Scotland with only a few shillings in his pocket, and who had built up" this fortune as a "general draper," Charles Morrison, the son, had made it the business of his life to go on adding money to money, by investing here and investing there, by buying ur> properties of increasing value, by lending money, on safe securities, to foreign Governments and great comr>anies at Home, by watching, quietly through the years, the steady way in which the money breeds monev, and millions are multiplied by millions. With this almost

i incredible wealth diaries Morrison might have taken a great lead in public life: he might have become worldrenowend as a great philanthropist, he might have given five, six, or even the magic eight, Dreadnoughts to the nation: ho might have been a peer of the realm: die might have made or ended wars by offering or refusing loans by which war alone is ooss'blp. But he did ' none of these things. He just went about, a shabby old man. never taking a cab when he had strength to walk, unknown to those who rubbed shoulders with him,_ unapproached even by the professional beggars who knew nothing of his wealth, and sitting nearly all his life in his City offices, now at Basildon House, E.C., watching his money grow, and like a spider weaving a golden cobweb about him, in which at last . he died. In the churehvard were a group of his tenants. They knew verv little about him. They had alwavs been interested in that tall lean old man who sometimes shuffled bv, and thev are amazed that he had o'nlv left £12,000.T)00! Thev had an idea that he was worth £40,000.000. He had no lawns in_ his park; the hay was valuable. Yet when any trouble arose with his agents, to whom he left the care of the estate, and whpn any tenant, plucking nn courage, approached this strange old man direct, he was found to be just, arid willing to right a wrong. He would snap out an order to have this or that nut right, and his word was law. Thev do not complain of him as a landlord, but he always held aloof, and he seemed to them always a m*n of mystery absorbed in his money affairs. Self-absorbed as be seemed to these men and women, who missed the geniality of the ordiniry squire, he had ether interests. no bonfht pictures, for instance, and had several Vandykes, and a magnificent RembraMdt, and one ef the greatest pictures of .Tun He was also a frre.it reader in French as well as English literature. Bu* he lived a lonely life, cbiefiv in the City, always busy with his leaps

ind securities and investments, n»d on the day of his funeral. th«* onlv interest the world has in the death of a man so little known to fame, was to discover how li« had disposed of his wealth in the will which was read out to his •amilv. That cannot be known vet. His family declined to give any information on the suhiect. "It will hj« known in the ordinary course." said Mr Archibald Morrison, his nenhew. "when we take out prohate." Even the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who has an interest in the death of this great financier, must be patient for a little while.