Monarchs and Their Nest Eggs.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXV, Issue 13, 30 September 1905, Page 61

Monarchs and Their Nest Eggs.

PUTTING BY FOR THE ROYAL RAINY DAY. It will no doubt astonish a large number of people that kings and queens, like poorer mortals, who have the gift of prudence, are with few exceptions as economical as is consistent with their high position . and every year put by some portion of their savings for a rainy day. Better than anybody else perhaps monarchs know that it is money makes the mare go and that to spend all their income as they get it is just as great a folly in themselves as in their subjects. The late Queen Victoria was one of the thriftiest of monarchs, and, though her will has never been for the public eye, there is reason to believe that the fortune she left at her death was a very large one. The modern king is. as a rule, a very practical gentleman. Of some it is not too much to say that they do not place implicit confidence in the nation of which they are the head. Of nearly all of them it is certainly true that they do not put all their eggs into one basket. Every year the present Tsar and Tsaritsa of Russia entrust a large portion of their private savings to the British and French national banks. Alexander 11.. grandfather of the Emperor Nicholas, was economical in a high degree, and the money h" saved is said to have run well into four millions sterling. By his will he left legacies to various members of th? Imperial family which swallowed up a third of his vast fortune, the remaining two-thirds being given to a lady of the Court who had wedded the sovereign without mounting the throne. As this lady was not of the royal line, it was impossible that she could be recognised as Empress, and the legacy of twothirds of the monarch’s fortune was the compensation Alexander accorded to his morganatic spouse. Alexander ITT., during his comparatively short reign, also saved a considerable fortune, and this he left bv will to our present Queen Alexandra, at the time of his death Princess of Wales. King Leopold of Belgium has a uni-

versal reputation, and not an enviable one, as Leopold & Co.. Rubber Merchants. He founded the Congo Free State, of which he is the sovereign lord, and which remits to him every year thousands upon thousands of pounds sterling, derived from the natural products of the country. He is one of the largest rubber and ivory dealers in the world. He is also one of the cleverest of financiers, and knows his way about all the bourses of Europe. King George of Greece is also an old financial hand. He speculates largely in agricultural products, follows carefully all the fluctuations of the financial markets, and is assiduous in putting his money into good things. The late Empress of Austria placed on deposit two-thirds of her allotted revenue. She was very economical, and kept as few servants about her as possible. She constantly revised the accounts of her husband, and succeeded in making important reductions in his expenses. The Bank of England received her savings, and there is a curious story about the refusal of her beneficiaries to pay the British succession duties, a refusal which gave the Governors of the Bank a great deal of trouble before the matter was adjusted. The monarch who has the least confidence in the financial stability of his own country is the Sultan of Turkey. He declines to trust any Turkish bank with a farthing of his savings. The fattest part of his fortune—and it is said to be not small, despite the fact that his country is in a chronic state of bankruptcy—is deposited in British banks. In Paris they say that every quarter a special messenger, flanked by a suitable escort, leaves London for Constantinople to carry to the Sultan the interest on his deposits. It is not generally known that the Sultan owns one of the biggest streets of Constantinople, and has a sugar plantation in the Indies. o o » o '0 ITS BUSY DAY. Now doth the busy ant disport At picnics overmuch. Invading cakes of every sort And lemon pies and such.