THE QUEEN'S "FORTUNE."
TO THE EDITOB.
Fie,— ln your Saturday's issue yo,u writo with much confidence about "the large private fortune" which "must have been accumulated by the Queen out of an allowance of £.385,000 a year extending over 50 ye*r«." Heroin you fall into a very common error. It ia true that a sum of £385,000 ia voted ©very year for the maint nanoa of the Royal Household, bub over no lobs than £303,760 of this amount the Queen has practically no control, the money being specifically appropriated by Parliament; m fact, several officials who go m and out of office with the Ministry draw their salaries from this £303,76O a The only part cf the £385,000 which is at the absolute disposal of the Queen, is a sum of £60,000, which is voted for her Privy Purse : and fler Majesty haa a limited control over about £22,000 more. Now, looking at the enormous expenses attendant upon her. position, and the multitudionua claims upon her purse, it may . fairly be doubted whether Her Majesty, oven m the course of 50 years, is become really wealthy : and when were member that iv the United Kingdom there are several persons with incomes of £300,000 or £400 000 a year t which they can spend just as they please., while ia Russia and the United States there are individuils enjoying even larger incomes, the alloivanc(B made to the Queen cannot be considered very extravagant. Further, tho arrangement under which the Crown receives these annual allowances from the nation is not altogether one-sided. Tho Crown long since handed over its private estates m tho shape of woods and forests to the Nation, and I note that during the year ending 31st March, 1885, which is the latest return I have seen, these woods and forests yielded, a nott revenue of £380,000, which went into the Consolidated Fund,- while, the people reaped collateral advantages from their posfiess'on;
A va6t deal of nonsense is talked about the Bubject. Persons who can have no piivate sources of information, and who have evidently not taken the trouble to obtain such information as can be gleaned from public records, talk as though Her Majesty possessed a sort of Aladdin's Cave of Wealth. In every community you find men of a disposition which prompts them to throw mud at those m high places, and such men arjf apt to rush into print making the most ridiculous assertions about the Queen and Royal family, knowing full well that, however false and unfounded their allegations may be, (hoso most affected are not at all likely to notice them. During tho long series of years m which Her Majesty has been exposed to these Ciilumniej, I only recollect one occasion on which alie condescended to reply to them, A " Society " paper m England somo time since boldly declared that Her Majesty had just invested one million sterling m tho purchase of leasehold property. This brought forth a rejoinder from the Queen's Private Secretary to the» effect that the statement was absolutely untrue ; that the Queen had not bought; an inch of leasehold property! and did not possess a million to invest. Ex uno disce omnes.
However, whether tho Queen's allow* ancos be largo or small ia a matter of little consequence to us colonists, seeing tint while we enjoy the benefits of tho stability which tho monarohy gives to society, we do not pay one penny towards its maintenance, nor are vye likely to b& called upon to do so. I am, etc , Englishman*
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1594, 27 June 1887, Page 2
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592THE QUEEN'S "FORTUNE." Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1594, 27 June 1887, Page 2
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