PAID BY JOHN BULL

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1511, 14 February 1901, Page 62

PAID BY JOHN BULL

' s Swl~-r”OF THE ODD EXPENSES HE

HAS TO BEAR

Britishers own the greatest and migntiest empire! in all tim world, anci it follows as Jr natural consequence tliac che charges levied upon it for the maintenance of its might and strength are quite in accord with its majestic proportions. - John Bull pays the greatest and nuginiest bills of all bills for the privilege ch being the master of the universe his yearly liabilities amounting to million.-, sterling, represented by niue big figures. We know for the most part how J ohn Bull spends his .money, but he pays for this and that, but you do nou know the many odd espouses he has,to meet evei> year, curious amounts fq-r-curious pmS,>md which, in the Parliamentary estimates, are usually described with the non -descriptive heading of Miscel c - Ue You have heard much of the Board or Greela Cloth, for instance, but prcoabiy you do not know what its functions are and the need of it from a financial point of- view. First, it; takes its name rrom a green cloth spread cyeg one tame at which the Board sits, -this Jooaid 1* W-'*i sided over by the Lord Steward, who, with the inferior • officers, sits to pass the accounts'of the royal, household. lu is. the conn bino-iioxise of the Quecla s tablishment, and at the same time a lit,-, tie court of justice, with power to correct all offenders who break toe peace of the means the cornu - royal, which extends every way for FJJ yards from THE GATE OF THE TAnaCfi. Without a warrant first obtained from this Board no servant or the* household oan be arrested for debt, so to bo a Qu.eelnfs servant is to. some. extent on a par with being a. member of Parliament. Passing ovefr the salaries of the Lord Steward,” hie treasurer and his . controller three officers whcv take between them over £4UUff a year, we meet with thet curious personage known as the Geritleman of the Cellars, also the First Clerk of the KiteheHi, Chief Cook, jirsF Master Cook, First Gentleman Porter, Sergeant State Porter, and the Coroner of the Verge,, .all of* whom,-receive from Join Bull handsome salaries amounting ins tie aggregate to ■ about'ahotner £4OOO, with odd expenses allowed. The Bargemaster has no barge on which to disport his nautical attainments, so in lien he gets £6O a year from John Bull ' Bike bis friend the Bargemaster, the Keeper of the Swans in lieu of the preseuejb of the long-necked birds, makes up for their absence by receiving a salary of £3O a: year. ' The pages of the Backstairs, and he 1 of the ; Chambers, as well as the pages of the 1 Presence, and ordinary pages, get their monthly doles at the rate! or £250 a year for the first named, and £2OO the rest. The first-named pages wait upon the members of the Royal Family, and are alio sen by He'r Majesty from, among the sons of her old and faithful servants. , There is aii odd item of £13,000 a year set aside by John Bull for the royal bounty, aims, and the like, whilst Lord Rodney and his heirs for ever receive an annual gift from the same source of £2OOO per annum, Earl Nelson £SOOO, ■ Duke of Wellington £4OOO, several desoehdantvs of soldiers aiid sailors who hayegj helped to widen the extent of the Bri-| tish Empire £2OOO each, and the heirs i of the ,I>uke of Bohombcrg £720, Johi> Bull's chedue. for this department amounting to £27,000 A- YEAR. ' It is well that his reclaimed sons should be properly provided for, so as to prevent them from breaking out again and becoming juvenile criminals and then developing into oldeir ones, so he yearly draws a cheque for £200,000 for the maintenance of his country s reformatories and; industrial schools, whilst lor\the Broadmoor lunatic criminal asylum he draws another £31.000. ._ His banking- account shows an annual expenditure in behalf of public education amounting to eight millions steir-

ling, but his yearly gift to the London University is only £lO.

Naturally, John Bull was very proud of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and he did not hesitate to draw a big cheque, amounting to £BO,OOO, to defray the national expertises, whilst his cheque-book also shows that he"gives on the average about £2OOO every year for slave trade purposes. His intei’cst in. humane and philanthropic work is proverbially great. so it is not surprising to hear that lie pays cut. annually about £6OOO to the merchant seamen’s fraud, about- £17,000 to Irish hospitals and charities, and about £2OOO to miscellaneous charities. John Bull is often accused of a want of interest in his children’s inventions and his lack of enthusiasm in scientific investigations is also deplored, .yet, though he does not make a boast of it. he paid out cheques last year to the tune of £27,984 for these very purposes. There is a. prevailing, idea that the sheriffs in England and Wales have to provide lodgings for the judges on circuit, and this at their own cost, willy-nilly, but such is not always the case, for trie British nation drew a. cheque for the sheriffs last year amounting to £6OOO.