Kings Who Rule on Small Pay.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVIII, Issue I, 4 January 1902, Page 27

Kings Who Rule on Small Pay.

It would seem that riches and regal powei do not always go together; at any rate there are several monarchs in receipt of salaries which the average city clerk would despise. The King of Portugal is probably the poorest paid sovereign in Europe. He is supposed to receive *• SO.OOO a year, but it is alleged it is some tune since he received anything at all. because money is uncommonly "light” in the national exchequer. Many of the royal dependents pay -heir tradesmen with credit notes, but no dcubt in the future, wnen Portugal by practising the strictest economy rights herself, they will be above par. The Sultan is a rich man. but his

position is not responsible for his wraith. Were it not that he has enormous private means he could rule over Turkey, because some years have now elapsed >ince he drew evt n a portion of his salary, almouga the Turks boast that he is paid at •he rate of about £ miO.OOO per annum for occupying the throne. This is true—on paper, but in reality Abdul Hamid gives his services for nothing owing to the bankrupt condition < I his country. E’even dollars and a quarter a w.ek is the munificent salary of the King of Samoa. The Berlin general Act of IS>9 brought this once-power-ful monarch face to face with poverty. and settled the allowance mentioned upon him in lieu of the thousand* he formerly played with. The nsost humiliating fact, however, is that his Chief Justice receives £ 1200 ‘•nd his President of Council £lOOO a tear, while his most insignificant

subject has an income little below his CWB. L'ntil quite recently the King ot Dahomey received the equivalent of £1 a week from the Fr.uvh Government to enable him to live ir exile a< Martinique. But eventually he appealed for an increase in salary in order to maintain a larger retinue, with the result that he was granted an additional 5 francs. After all. 24 a week is not an exorbitant allowance for the man who was once the most powerful monarch in West AfThe privilege of being King of Tnxenibourg is not an enviable one from a financial point of view at anv rate, for although the salary accruing to the post is supposed to be £12.000 a vear there is often diffi- • nlty in collecting as many hundreds. The whole kingdom only ex- ’• "ds over an area of loon square miles, defended by an armv of 350

•nen Ihe inhabitants pay taxes when they choose to do so. but direetlt the Government becomes unpopular ilr country refuses to support it. a-.d the soldiers, whose pay is months and not infrequently years overdue, s.ue with the people. Al such times ■he King has to give his country etedit. and at others fin is it difiiciilt t • secure funds necessary to uphold the dignity of a throne. 'he unfortunate Euqteror Kwang Si. of Chin:, it supposed to be able to live without money; at all events his Government does not provide him with a penny. There is absolutely no grant to the reigning monarch of < Ilina, but the Emperor has the privilege of being able to order any goods h-- may require, and will not be asked to ]<,v for them. The same rule a)»-|-i • - to the Dowager Empress, but she receives pocket money in the si -p. of £2so.,nxi per annum for 'giving advice” to the Emperor on ! ol'tical matters.