Worth Ten Million Pounds.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXV, Issue XV, 13 October 1900, Page 682

Worth Ten Million Pounds.

Mr (’laus Spreckels, of San Francisco, father of the men who control the mail service between this and America, is one of the multi-million-aires of America, and in some respects a remarkable man. Born in the northern portion of Germany, in very humble circumstances, he moved to the States in his youth, and at the age of twenty-five was owner and keeper of a smali grocery store in San Francisco. His trading instincts taught him there was a fortune in the manufacture and sale of sugar. While most Californian pioneers mined for gold or took other short cuts to wealth Claus Spreckels began refining sugar in a small way. From year to year he increased his plant, and finally he dominated the local sugar market. He acquired immense plantations in the Hawaii Islands, and finally, when the great Sugar Trust of America was formed, he built a £ 100,000 refinery in Philadelphia and refused to enter the monopoly fold. FIGHTING THE SUGAR TRUST. A fierce commercial fight ensued and for a time Spreckels more than held his own. Eventually the trans-con-tinental railroads were induced to bring a freight tariff pressure on the recalcitrant Califorian. Then, at a tremendous fiancial profit he succumbed to the inevitable and stood with the other sugar kings. Although on the shady side of seventy he is still an active business man. He has several refineries in California, one 70 or 80 miles south of San Francisco, with a daily output of 1000 barrels of beet sugar. His sugar stock holdings are supposed to exceed £1,000,000. His buildings and lands in San Francisco are valued at another million, and his other properties are’ worth several more millions. In brief he is worth about £10.000,000. and nearly a I of this vast sum was acquired by transactions in sugar. That he is not unmindful of his obligation to the city of his adoption is practically illustrated every few months. He is a prompt, liberal ami cheerful giver to the charities and public institutions. At this time, a band stand of classical design is being built in Golden Gate Park at a. cost of £20,000, Mr Spreckels paying the bill. His residence in San Francisco was built at an expense of over £200.000. and is one of the handsomest in America, Here he lives with his wife a few months in the year, and at other times the couple are travelling. He never loses his grip on business, and is as keen and alert as a man of forty. Two of his sons form the shipping firm of J. D. Spreckels and Bros., which controls the steamship line from San Francisco to Australia, a tug boat company, coal mines, and collieries, and many miscellaneous shipping* interests. Two sons have retired from active business, and his only daughter is married to Mr Thomas Watson, of Liverpool.