HOW KING GEORGE PAYS HIS BILLS

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2927, 18 July 1911, Page 7

HOW KING GEORGE PAYS HIS BILLS

f HOUSEKEEPING IN BUCKINGHAM PALACE. A keen business man, King George, although he never sees his regular household accounts, has a detailed statement of these made out every half year, and submitted to him for approval. These accounts arc kept by the clerical staff in the department of the Master of the Household, and are paid by the Keeper of the Privy Purse. The household accounts are paid once a month, and all the servants' wag s are paid monthly, but His Majesty's private accounts are settled every quarter.

The clerk in charge of them makes out a statement of the accounts, which is submitted to the King, who then gives his cheque for the total amount to the clerk, by whom they are discharged. It may be mentioned, says the ' Tatler,' that the King never bargains about the price of anything he purchases. If the price charged is exorbitant, the tradesman loses the Royal custom ; but this, however, rarely or never happens.

{ While household accounts for food, etc., are paid once a month, pome articles are supplied by contract, such as coal. A great deal of work is also done at Buckingham Palace by contract, such as window-clean-ing, chimney-sweeping, and 'carpetcleaning, and the glass frames of a number of pictures are also cleaned under contract.

With reference to the private accounts of His Majesty, it is interesting to note that he is scarcely so extravagant as his father. The late King rarely were the same suit of clothes more than half-a-dozen times, and often only once or twice, whilst King George frequently wears a suit three or four dozen times before it

is removed 4 from the Royal wardrobe. As a matter of fact, King George spends a trifle less than £9O a year on clothes, which is four or five times less than the late King's expenditure in the same direction. Of course, the cost of His Majesty's uniforms amounts to a considerable sum, and His Majesty is an excellent customer to his bootmaker. For some of his walking boots he pays as much as five guineas a pair, and his bootmaker's bill runs to seventy or eighty guineas a year.