HOW KING GEORGE PAYS HIS BILLS

Northland Age, Volume VIII, Issue 11, 3 November 1911, Page 8

HOW KING GEORGE PAYS HIS BILLS

HOUSEKEEPING IN BUCKINGHAM PALACE. A keen business roan, King George, although he never sees hiß regular household accounts, has a detailed statement ol these made out every half year, and submitted to him for approval. These accounts are 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’ wages are paid monthly, but His Majesty's private accounts arc 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 he 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, some 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 wore 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 from the Royal wardrobe. As a matter of fact, King George spends a trifle less than £9O a 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 con- ; siderable sum, and His Majesty is an excellent customer to his bootmaker. For some of his walking • boots he pays as much as five gui- | neas a pair, and his bootmaker’s bill i runs to seventy or eighty guineas a year.