HOW KING GEORGE PAYS HIS BILLS

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 22, Issue 92, 28 November 1911, Page 2

HOW KING GEORGE PAYS HIS BILLS

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 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, hut 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 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 ac- ' counts 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 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 bootj maker. For some of his walking hoots he pays as much as five guineas a Pair, and his bootmaker’s hill runs to seventy or eighty guineas a year.