JOHN BULL AND CO.'S PETTY CASH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7201, 12 September 1901, Page 1

JOHN BULL AND CO.'S PETTY CASH.

(Cassell's Saturday Journal.) There as a curious side t-o the nations annual hill of expenses -which very few people who are not legislators or Gfovgrnment officials ever Jiear about. We are so accustomed to transacting business bn a gigantic scale, disbursing" millions here and millions there, that the faot- that the eminent and wealthy firm of John. Bull and 00. requires such a paltry, co-nunon-place thing as a- petty-cash book seldom occurs to anybody. Yet tha Empire's petty cash is an indispensable feature of its daily life, and a decidedly interesting one. Payments are' distributed of a kind -which most of us never dream of. The nations p«tty cash account, as it may legitimately he termed, is called the Civil Comfcingeaicies Fund, and the various items of expenditure are published every year. Glancing through recent bills -we find]" for instance, that it oost the Admiralty £1941 17s 5d to bring the remains bi the late Lord Herscbell from New.- York to England. Lord Herschell died while in the service of his country, for which reason it was resolved to carry his body across the Atlantic in a warship free of 'expense t-o his family. We wer© equally thoughtful and liberal wlisn tihe Sultan of Johore passed away. We conveyed his body from Penang to Johore, and the task 'reduced the weight of the public purse to the extent of £1.79 15s lOd. . Another little bill totalled up to £7 lis 3d — the Government is nothing if not exact. This sum was spent in supplying provisions to runaway slaves, who were received on board our vesssels of war. - They could not be leit to starve, so tho officers bought the .food and sent the account heme. A cheque for £190 18s 9d went in, -purchasing books and papers relating to the history and public affairs of Ireland. A distressed lunatic also had the benefit of the petty-cash till. T The patient was a lady sojourning in Buda-Pesth, and the Government felt justified in transferring Her "tio iher native lamd at the nations oost. The bill -for. the repatriation came to £18 15s Id. Calls are, of course, frequently made on the petty cash by individuals wbo 'have been, or imagine they have been, wrongfully convicted. It is rarely, (however j that the Home Secretary parts with money for this purpose, though he does so now aod again. Quite lately a man got £20 out of the country for falsa imprisonment ; another was solaced with £10 0s Id; a third had £10 ; while two persons received payment oh account .of loss incurred in consequence _•_ erroneous arrest-— in the one case £15 16s, in the other £2 17s 3d.Two hundred and seventeen pounds seven billing- wepe„»exp€BKi'e<i :Jaat. : .year in feeding refugees and Tur_as_ prisoners in the island of Crete. Perhaps most peculiar are ; it-tose items whioh refer to honours that are conferred by the Sovereign. As a rule, it cosrts a good! deal of money to emjoy a title, but in some instances the favoured' -ones are not required to pay for the privilege. Lord Cromer and Lord Pauncefote were let off in this way. The letters patent creating the former a viscount ran us into am expenditure of £200 12s; those conferring a barony on Sir Julian Pauncefote £150 12s. Then nine persons living abroad were made knights free of charge also. Their letters patent represented in £ s. d. £275 Bs. In addition, £10 was disposed of on ' account cf the grant of augmenta/tion of j arms to Lord Kitdtoener. Less expensive, J however, were the two individuals who were created Knights of the Order of St Patrick. Over them we only lost a sovereign. To- th© letters . patent appointing a Lord Privy Seal we were anulcbed of even less; — 12s. But the letters patent ' granting the rank and precedence of a widow cf a/Knight Bachelor to the widow \ of a former Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly were expensive. They figure at a cool £100 in tihe list.