A STREET OF GOLD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18996, 18 April 1925, Page 12

A STREET OF GOLD.

VALUABLE LONDON" LEASES. THE NEW REGENT STREET. GIGANTIC GROUND RENTS. All the new leases, says a London paper, have now been granted for the sites in Regent Street. In another 20 months or so this great • reconstructed London shopping thoroughfare, from the Queen's Hall to Piccadilly Circus, is likely to be completed. Much of the ground is Crown property, and the ground rents arc in many cases ten times as much as the old. It will mean ari addition of hundreds of thousands a year to the Crown land revenue. But the Royal Family will not be n penny tho richer. One of the best bargains this country ever made was when ilin land revenues of the Crown in tho United Kingdom wero surrendered 'by Gcorgo 111. in 1760 in return for a fixed annnal payment of tho Civil List. The excellence of the deal was not apparent at the time, because the revenue amounted to about £89,000, and the net return .was no rnoro than £13,000. But in tho past half-century these revenues have advanced by leaps and bounds. For tho year ended March 31, 1924, the total receipts amouuted to £1,493,491. Tho expenditure was £Ji25,083, and a sum of £920,000 was paid to tho Exchequer. It is estimated that the annual revenue to the Exchequer within the next few years will exceed a million and a-half. Against this thoro is to be set, off the allowances to the Royal Family. By tho Civil List Act, 1910, there was granted an annuity to« the King of £470.000, but all 'but £1.10,000 of this which is credited to "Their Majesties' Privy Purse," goes in salaries and expenses of the household and "works." The Prince of Wales, who enjoys tho revenue of the Duchy of Cornwall, receives no allowance from Parliament, but when ho marries tho Princess of Wales will bo granted an annuity of £IO,OOO. Tho other sons of the King have'iieen paid £IO.OOO a year since they came of age, and Princess Mary has £6OOO a year. When the Duke of York married bis annuity was raised to £25,000. The fame allowance will bo made to Prince Henry and Prince George when they marry. There are, of course, annuities still being paid to the surviving children of Qaeen Victoria and of King Edward, but in th" aggregate all these sums, including the Civil List, do not equal the receipts from the Crown lands, and in the futnre will fall far short of these revenues. The monarchical system of government has often been opposed because it was "expensive." Great Britain, at any rate, remarks the Daily Chronicle, is actually making a profit out of it-, Royal Family.