PEERS WHO DRAW FAT PENSIONS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 144, 3 June 1911, Page 3 (Supplement)

PEERS WHO DRAW FAT PENSIONS.

lor more t'an 2fo years the heirs of Io d d’Aiivrcquerqiie have been drawing comfortable pensions for something an ancestor did 217 yean> ago. It was in 1694 that William 111. granted to Henrv de Nassau, Lord d* Xuvroquerquc. his heirs and assignees fr:r i. ver. the sum of £2.000 a year, in consideration of "his many anil faithful services”—which, in fact, were tho-c of a purely nominal political nature. Lor i Cowper, to whom fourhftlis of this yearly sum was paid, com- «•«'<■! a poithm of it in 1853 for £•!', 10 down, but his heirs still rcreivo £375 16s. annually. There is the case of the Schomberg iHmsion. granted also bv William 111. He burdened the State with the sum or £4.(0) a year to the Schombergs; and. though portions cf this have been commuted by descendants, we still pav out £7:10 annually- to people who, it is allege! are not m an*- way connected with th- orijinal Schomberg family.

THOUSANDS FOR NET/SONS AND

RICHMONDS

Fad Nelson pets £5.000 a year through holding the Nelson title and iepresenting the famous admiral’s fam-ily-in the indirect line. In a like manner Lord Rodney gets £l,OOO a year, but he is the diro.-t descendant of the gallant seaman who defeated De Grasse.

Th- largest of the perpetual pensions is that received by the Duke of Richmond. It amounts to £19,000 a yeai. -”>e story of this .pension takes one b c.< t-> th? divs of Queen Elizabeth, v-io got .* dntv of one shilling per cnnldron on all coal exported from the i’yn? ami burned in England. Her sne-♦v«-orS held this duty until the reign ”* f h-ities 11.. who granted it to the Fr%t Duke of Richmond. He and his li< irs received it for over a century, till in the time <>f George 111. it was changed to the present annual pension, which is known a* the Richmond shilling.

Tim Duke of Norfolk obtains £6O a year from the Exchequer for what are known as ‘tom-ienr fees,” and the Duke <"t Rutland £2O under a like heading. Thesr- sums .-•re nominal, it is true, yet the recipients do nothing whatever" to earn them.

HANDSOME ANNUITIES

iV ,e ' Grafton was granted by Charms 11. a certain import duty knonn as “r-.risagi- a-id butlerage” upon wines. In <8 i> the then existing duke Vo’o-n* dl ’! v fr* l .’ tbe annuity of £ • B<o. anil hi -.heirs still receive yearly tris handsoi.ie income.

. Eli: it i- not to be supposed that it is ordv the .-.risto.-rats who have lieen er.intcil fr pensions on the national I.xci” qner. Fourteen thomand pounds <?l<l is paid cut on account cf tlio s oni-ts of Jnsri.e for compensation to those « hose offices have be -n abolished. Ono old man is stil! alive who obtains —■> > vear b-eause through the operalion of n new .Act he was deorived two venerations ago of the privilege of selling form, in <oiirt. Laundresses who ■ost their work some twenty years ago t’neugh tlie Law Courts being removed from Westminster tn tlmir present site I’en,Dl" 1 ’ en,Dl " Bar still receive from . artording to their status. A “Preacher at Rolls.” formerly of the old Chaurerv Division, is paid £lOO nnnnallv. though net a sermon has ho pna-h-sl for innumerable years; and tli"re arc many other instances in wh’c’i -lie taxpayer is caded on to pav every year.