HOW THE BILLS OF ROYALTY ARE PAID.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13453, 1 June 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOW THE BILLS OF ROYALTY ARE PAID.

— T a THE DUTIES OF PAYMASTERS. j ; T. The large revenues that are disposed ufj | in the name of the King are divided int.. 11 * several classes, of which the biggest is ar ' the account for the salaries and expensesi.' of the Royal household. This amounts to| m I nearly £80,000 for each quarter of the | year," and when the pay warrants have; 8 * been passed by the Treasury, they are" i cashed in the name of the treasurer to] the household. Then Sir Nigel Kingseote,'; the cool-headed and astute paymaster, »sj™ able to send out his quarterly cheques to| ' those officials who are paid in this fashion,! and banks the remainder to pay the _ weekly wages bill and the tradesmen's j' accounts. Parliament also provides aU] quarterly sum of £5000 for repairs to! Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. L, But on the present occasion we are more' e j ! interested in following up the payments!,.; I which are made by his Majesty on per-! sonal account. Tne wherewithal is tie- n j rived from three chief sources. The Kingjtl has the larger snare of the annual sumjti lot £310,000 voted for Their Majesties'j cvgrthmhuk( | privy purse, he receives about ±,63,000;,.. irom the Duchy of Lancaster, and there fare miscellaneous revenues from invested} jtunJs and other private sources. All these 1 , ' j pass through the hands of Sir Dightonjn Probyn, and it says much for the business in j capacity of this Mutiny veteran that noqi | fraud upon the King's banking account Di j has ever been successfully engineered.!. Three or four years ago a certain shoej maker forged an endorsement to one otjP j Sir Dighton's cheques, and tried to cash i it over the counter but he was promptly; laid by the heels. Tradesmen are expected to send in their Hi invoices with the goods supplied, and after « being checked in the proper department, j x they are passed on to the Privy Purse J office. Here they are registered by Mr. <j Francis Bryant, the assistant secretary, who \, is to be distinguished from Mr. tonest s Bryant, who holds a somewhat similar po- r eition in the household of Queen Alexandra, f, A monthly statement is prepared with cer- c tain classes of tradesmen, and after these t . have been verified the cheques are drawn, s under the supervision of Mr. Gibson, the t secretary, and passed on to the Keeper for signature. It is a rule, but not an invari- j able one, to cross the cheques, and the , ; present practice is to despatch them through the post, and not to pay them 0 "over the counter." The items are often t considerable ; for instance, in one month , the saddler's bill has reached as much r:s j £250. c The note of the Privy Purse department i is promptitude, and this demands a careful ; , record of His Majesty's recurring obliga- r tions. The private secretary keeps his colleague informed of the annual subscriptions as they fall due, and these payments, like some of the personal salaries, and un- e like the tradesmen's accounts, are often t enclosed with a printed slip bearing only I the words "By His Majesty's command." t Such cheques are not countersigned, and there is, of course, no professional audit, 1: i NEW MONEY ALWAYS AT HAND. (

The King is not troubled to initial ae- i mints for payment, but there is always a i Signature or an initial of some kind for i ach payment. This may come from an v querry, who may have agreed to the price j if a railway journey, or from a factor, who < nay have bought a pedigree ram, or again rom the valet, who sees that his Royal i naster is not overcharged in the matter if hose. For Continental journeys an ( mple supply of banknotes is procured ( rom Messrs. Coutts, and for the daily ] outine of the Royal family Sir Dighton ( ?robyn keeps in a cash safe some bags of I lew gold and new silver, with which His i Majesty gives tips and the like, although 1 here have been, times when he found his lockets empty, and had to appeal to an < ittcndant to lend him a sovereign. 1 Queen Alexandra's cheques are drawn i ;>y Lord de Grey, who also requires a 1 voucher for everything. This may come : rom Lord Howe, or from .Mr. Grenville, < ,he private secretary, or, in the case ofi purely personal expenditure, from Miss Charlotte Knollys. There is never any need for Her Majesty to sign a cheque, ind the treasurer has full power to endorse incoming cheques on her behalf. Her Majesty, however, keeps one or two special i recounts, which are replenished from time '.

o time by aggregate payments from Lord ] ile Grey's department, and these are dis- 1 oursed for the benefit of the many persons i ind institutions that enjoy her unrecorded : beneficence. The Prince of Wales' Parliamentary alowance of £20.000 receives a useful addition of nearly £80,000 from the Duchy of ' Cornwall, apart from the £10,000 voted '• >o the Princess. Her Royal Highness re- '■ juircs that some departments of her ex- ; Denditure shall be sanctioned for payment ; ay herself, and she is especially careful to ' see that no tradesman is allowed to send ' :o the palace anything ordered by her children, except what they have paid for here and then. At Christmas they are ;llowed to visit the shops and to buy things for their intimates or themselves, md when accompanied by their mother 3fish payments are greatly preferred to an iccount, where the size of the transaction makes that course convenient. With other members of the Royal family ihe personal cheque-book is in greater evidence ; but each of His Majesty's sisters, is well as the Duke of Connaught, is relieved of most of the routine of payment by a comptroller or treasurer. When Major Martin was appointed comptroller :o the household of Princess Christian, he! sent out a circular to the tradesfolk in j which he said: "1 am desirous of ascev-j Gaining, before deciding as to the contimiince of your account, whether you are pre-, pared to allow a discount on monthly set-! dements, and to what extent." ' ! : I