AN ESTATE WORTH &40,000,000. A STREET OF GOLD SEVEN MILES LONG.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6467, 22 April 1899, Page 1

AN ESTATE WORTH &40,000,000. A STREET OF GOLD SEVEN MILES LONG.

There is no story in all the romance of wealth mare fascinating and remarkable than that of the piling up of the Astor millions, a fortune estimated at £"80,000,000 sterling, evolved from a small consignment of musical instruments sent oul; to the founder of the family 110 years ago. Half of this colossal fortune consists of real estate in New York, an estate which in its vastnsss and value eludes the grasp of the most sta-tistically-minded.

It is estimated that the Astor buiHino-s if placed side by side in one continuous line would stretch a distance of seven iciles ' The value of this "Astor Street" would be\no less than £40,000,000. The annual revenue from these seven miles of houses is estimated at £2,000,000, or the comforting income of £3 16s a minute, and £5479 a day.

The genesis and growth of this ultra-regal estate are full of interest. It is sa id on authority that the foundation of it was laid by the proceeds of a cartful of flutes' and clarionettes, which realised a sum of £250 for their consignee, the original John Jacob Astor. Whether or not this is true, it is a fact that the first plot of Land bought by Mr Astor on Manhattan Islard cost" him exactly this amount, £250. The value to-day of this plot on the Bowery is no less than £40,000, a small fortune in itself. Each shilling of this^ far-seeing investment is thus represented by £8 to-day, a gratifying appreciation of £16,000 per cent PP There was no tendency, to speculation in Mr Astor. He was an eminently shrewd cautious far-seeing man. His prophetic eye foresaw the development of New York and the directions in which it would spread' and his method was to buy outlying land' and simply wait until tho invading city turned its acres into gold. One of his lucky investments was the purchase, in 1831, o f the Co zinc Farm, on which one of the most fashionable .residential districts of New York stands to-day. It is no exaggeration to say that each £100 spent on this country farm is represented by a thousand times as much to-day. By this process of gradual, far-seeing purchases, two-thirds of each year's income being regularly sunk in real estate, Mr Astor was able to accumulate £5,000,000 sterling during his lifetime. This fortune his sons, by following in their father's steps, gradually buying out of income and never selling have expanded to £80,000,000. What its value will be in another fifty or hundred years passes far beyond human comprehension.

The New York estate, it should be remembered, only forms half of the -Aster millions In mortgages alone the Astors boast

£4,000,000 to £5,000,000; many millions more are invested in railways, in banks, and in land in other States ; to say nothing of the millions which Mr Waldorf Astor has sunk in English securities.