SOUNTY FOR TRIPLETS.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 422, 26 May 1904, Page 5

SOUNTY FOR TRIPLETS.

' HhtAamtf waltes s •eraecpon*«St of the London Mews, "the curiosity to writ* to Windsor castle and ask the origin of tho queen's charitable practice of girisig a 'bounty* to woman who had giVen birth to triplet*. I had a very courteous mpjy from the queea'B private seorotary explaining that the first gift to a woman who had three children at a birth, was prompted aoleher majesty's sympathetic feslJg*4oward heir. The oaae had hap- ;. come to the knowledge of the >"*3een,.and' she sent a sovereign for "each of the sxwly-arrived little Britone, as an assistance to the mother in hgp embarrassment of family treasures. Thia hatf happened about 40 years before this correspondence, and quit* earrym the reign, and had cost the queen's private purse about £ SOO a year ever since. Of course, it is not in all cases of the kind that this tWUmty* is seat to the mother. It is only in those who ore poor and apply for it, but as th* majority of people are poor, and somehow these little surprises seem generally to overtake people who cannot afford them, the queen's bounty for triftlsis had come to be regarded afaaosi m & matter of course." KEPT—-^«ssass®aif