IP: five hours of work and no more cream tarts (and local taxes)

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () iconia com>




               Bill Gates bids to buy pounds 28m island hideaway
   
                       (Daily Telegraph London; 04/26/98)
   




   THE richest man in the world apparently wants to get away from it all.
Bill 
Gates has opened negotiations to buy a Pacific island nearly 1,000 miles from 
the nearest computer terminal and as yet unconnected to the Internet.


   Palmyra Atoll is a deserted island recently put on the market for $47 
million ( pounds 28 million). It already has an airstrip long enough for Mr 
Gates's private Gulfstream jet as well as palm-fringed beaches and excellent 
game fishing.


   If Mr Gates wants to add to his fortune, there are even rumours of sunken 
treasure. A Spanish merchantman is said to have been wrecked on its coral
reef 
in 1816.


   Peter Savio, a Hawaiian estate agent involved in the sale, said yesterday 
that Microsoft representatives had made contact on Mr Gates's behalf with an 
international company also marketing the atoll.


   He described it as: "Rich in wildlife and very beautiful. It is everyone's 
idea of what a tropical island should be like."


   The purchase price is no obstacle for Mr Gates. His holdings in Microsoft 
are worth more than $50 billion ( pounds 30 billion) and increasing by
$2,500 (


pounds 1,497) a second. It would take him little more than five hours to earn 
enough to buy Palmyra.


   But what Mr Gates prizes most is privacy. Last month he suffered the 
indignity of being pelted with cream tarts in Belgium. The island would be,
as 
the musical South Pacific puts it, somewhere to "wash that pie right out of
my 
hair".


   Last autumn, the 42-year-old billionaire moved his wife, Melissa, and
their 
two-year-old daughter, Jennifer, into a $60 million ( pounds 36 million)
house 
on Lake Washington, near the Microsoft headquarters in Washington State.


   The 11,500 square foot home features a special gallery for the Leonardo 
Codex -one of his most prized possessions. Guests wear electronic sensors as 
they move from room to room.


   Palmyra has no such comforts, although a brochure shows azure waters and 
picture postcard beaches. The horseshoe-shaped island is nearly two hours by 
plane from Hawaii.


   It has no running water or electricity. The crystal-clear waters are a 
steady 82F (28C), and while the island has an annual rainfall of more than 
13ft, it has as much sunshine as Hawaii.


   During the Second World War it was home to nearly 6,000 US Navy personnel, 
who converted it into an air base for a Marine fighter squadron. Navy
engineers


constructed two fighter runways in the shallow lagoon and dug a channel for 
seaplanes. A longer airstrip was built on the largest of its nearly 50
islands.


   A scientific team from a Californian university landed on the island
during 
a "Lost Atolls of the Pacific" expedition three years ago. They found
thousands


of nesting sea birds, a large population of black rats, coconut, and two 
species of shark. The team also noted crumbling machinegun bunkers and the
hulk


of a wrecked aircraft.


   Mr and Mrs Gates flew into the Hawaiian island of Lanai two weeks ago in 
their private jet, although it is not known if they then flew on to see 
Palmyra. The 6,000ft runway of shell and coral was cleared before the island 
was put on sale and can now handle a Boeing 737.


   The Gateses were married on Lanai four years ago, a supposedly private 
affair which ended with a local TV reporter successfully suing the couple
after


he was arrested on public land while attempting to film the ceremony.


   Palmyra, which was once part of the 19th-century Kingdom of Hawaii, is
now a


dependent territory of the United States. The new owner will be free of all 
local taxes, but subject to federal law.


   For an uninhabited atoll, Palmyra has a surprising history. It was named 
after the American ship which first recorded its existence in 1802. More than 
50 years later it was claimed by His Majesty Kamehameha, the 4th King of 
Hawaii. The title was later sold to an American judge who built a small house 
in 1912, which collapsed by the 1930s. In 1922 the atoll was sold to the 
Fullard-Leo family in Hawaii for $15 million ( pounds 9 million).


   The family spent much of their fortune successfully fighting a territorial 
claim by the US government, which later claimed possession. The atoll was 
excluded when the Hawaiian islands became the 50th State in 1959.


   In 1974 a middle-aged couple were murdered on Palmyra by a fellow American 
who took their yacht because his was sinking.


   The subsequent trial established US law on the atoll, with the case being 
made into a Hollywood film And The Sea Shall Tell. Three elderly brothers now 
own the island and are understood to be selling it to avoid death duties.
If Mr


Gates decides against buying Palmyra, other possibilities include a holiday 
resort and casino and base for a Japanese fishing fleet.


   More controversially, a Little Rock lawyer and close friend of President 
Clinton proposed last year using the atoll to store nuclear waste. The plan
was


rejected.


(Copyright 1998 (c) The Telegraph plc, London)