A Sultan's Income.

Waikato Times, Issue 12411, 21 October 1912, Page 7

A Sultan's Income.

The envoy of the Sultan of Morocco had an unanswerable argument when the French Government objected to the income of £160,000 which he demanded for his master, says an exchange. The French Minister for Finance pointed out that such an allowance was impossible, seeing that the President of the Republic himself drew only £60,000 a year. "Yes," replied the envoy, 'but then it is to be remembered that President Fallieres has only one wife, whereat my august master, the Sultan, has thirty." That envoy was evidently a man of parts. He knew exactly where the shoe pinched and how to base revenue upon expenditure. And his computations were eminently fair. A more mercenary envoy would have insisted upon a flat rate of £60,000 a year per wife, which would have amounted to £1,800,000 a year for the thirty ladies. But he was willing to allow wholesale prices, aii<d the usual reductions upon a quantity. In fact, he brought the rate down to about £5200 a year per wife, and those of us who have wives will know that the estimate was a reasonable and proper one.