Monte Carlo.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 2, 9 January 1902, Page 2

Monte Carlo.

Monte Carlo is the tiny capital of a microscopic eight-square-miles principality th.it is circled round about by the protecting arm-, of France and bathes its feet in the blue waters of the Mediterranean. Its population consists of c ome 15,000 souls, and they are protected by a standing army of 75 officers and men all told. The gaming-tables of Monte Catlo have brought to the miniature State fortune — and fame of a sort that is not usually sought after. They are the property of a joint-stock company, who hold from the Piinceof Monaco a lease of the notorious Casino and grounds till the >ear of grace 1947. The gambling rooms have close on half a million visitors every year. The Monaco budget, as published in the Statesman's Year Book, gives an idea of the manner in which the ever-hopelul gambler-, — despite elaborate and infallible systems — are fleeced lor the benefit of the lessees of the Casino. The income from the gaming-tables was, in 1899, £980,000. Out of this the company expended on the Casino, its management, repairs, etc., £214000 ; the annual payment of /,50,00c) to the Prince ; £50,000 ior free theatre and orchestra ; £24,000 for what are euphemistically termed 'press subventions ' ; and various charges, £40,000; 'The balance available for dividend and interest,' sn>s the Statesman' s Year Book, 'was thus £660,000. The capital of the company consists of £1.200,000 in 60,000 fully paid-up £20 shares, so that the total amount distributed among the shareholders was at the rate of £11 per share.' * The 'press subventions' consist (says an authoiitv on Monaco) of ' hush-money to many newsp ipers (chiefly Paiisianj to suppress hostile critic.i-.ms, unpleasant IncK, suicides, etc' Thnty-five to forty of the festive victors put an end to their days each year in Monte Cat 10. And yet each year we find an item of £4000 or so paid ' for the prevention of suicide' — a thing of which, for obvious reasons, the Casino proprietors hive an extteme dread. The entry is, at first sight, somewhat pu/zling, especially as it is quite apart from the sum spent in assisting to their homes broken gamblers, each of whom had gone to the p'incipility in the hope of ' bursting the bank at Monte Carlo.' Trie explanation nny, perhaps, be iound in the story — which will bear repeating — told some years ago of a ' broth of a boy ' from fie Green Isle, who had conlrived one night to lose his last sh Ming within the gilded halls of the Casino. With despair in his e>e, he strode into the Casino gardens, drew a revolver, presented it to his face, fired, and fell. There was a patter of hurrjing feet. Two dark figures were promptly on the spot. They swiftly thrust their hands into the pockets of the prostrate form, as hastily

dashed out of sight again. They had scarcely gone when the 'dead corpse' of the Hibernian arose, stuffed his hands into his pockets found them well lined with bank-notes, and went his way rejoicing. The suicide was a mere ruse — the gambler having fired over, not into, his head. The two dark figures were officials of the company who had selected this mode of leading the public to believe that the frequent suicides which disgrace Monte Carlo are not brought about by losses at the gaming tables. So, at least, the story runneth. And we content ourselves with setting it down as we received it.