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Wanganui Herald, Volume XV, Issue 4524, 21 November 1881, Page 3

From |a telegram just received we have much pleasure in announcing the safe arrival in England, on the 10th inst., of our townsman Mr M. V. Hodge. It will be gratifying also to his many friends to know that his health has, so far, much benefited by the change. The purchase of Hughenden by au Australian millionaire was not likely to pass unnoticed by the Press, and a portion of it is disposed to laugh at the pretensions of the squatter plutocrat who aspires to occupy the house of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. But there is nothing incongruous or peculiar in the tact. Sir Samuel Wilson, who has bought Hughenden, owes, like its last owner, his present prosperity to his own endeavours ; one went to Australia comparatively unknown and won a substantial fortune by industry and address ; the other ra sed himself from an obscure position to the first rank in the State. Both were large minded practical men, but the Australian who could endow a university with £30,000 has the best of it aa regards the munificence ;of his gifts. Moreover, it was competent to | Sir Samuel to buy himself a mansion and estate wherever he felt disposed, and Ire found one to his taste. He was probably far less influenced hy the Mat with which Hughenden is at present invested and its associations, than by the convenience of the house and its neighbourhood to town. In any case, the disposal of a man's fortune, particularly when he has amassed it by his own efforts, is clearly his own affair. We may be pretty sure that Sir Samuel Wilson, who is well known and highly esteemed in London, will soon be equally popular in the County which he has chosen for his country home.