ROYAL INCOMES HAVE CHANGED

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 387, 19 March 1937, Page 3

ROYAL INCOMES HAVE CHANGED

COMMENT ON THE KING’S CIVIL LIST

WHAT DOES PRECEDENT OFFER ?

King George V had an annuity of £llO,OOO a year from the Civil List voted by Parliament, says a writer in the “Melbourne Age,” this amount being for the Privy Purse, that is, the personal expenditure of the King and Queen. In addition, the King, as Duke of Lancaster, received a substantial income from the Duchy of Lancaster, the net income of which is about £85,000 a year. ; The Duke of Windsor as Prince of ! Wales during the reign of his father, j King George V, drew a substantial income as Duke of Cornwall. The ■ Duchy of Cornwall consists of valu- ’ able hereditary estates, including coal | mines, farms ’and dwellings in Corn--5 wall, and a large area of house property in the London suburb of Kenning, on the south side of the Thames. According to the latest return tabled in May. 1936, the net income from the Duchy of Cornwall was j £104,000. It is not surprising that the Duke of Windsor, after enjoying such a substantial income for many years as a bachelor Prince of Wales, is not disposed to regard £15,000 a

year as an adequate allowance for an ex-King who intends to increase his establishment by taking a wife. Of course his personal staff as Duke of Windsor will probably be small and less costly than was the maintenance of his position as Prince of Wales.

Income of Edward VIII. After the accession of the Prince of Wales to the throne in January, 1936, on the death of his father, the revenues from the Duchy of Cornwall were vested in the new King. This has been the usual practice when the reigning monarch has no son on whom to confer the titles of Duke of Cornwall and Prince of Wales. King Edward VIII during his brief reign of ten months had an anriuity of £llO,OOO a year from the Civil List for

his Privy Purse, £85,000 from the Duchy of Lancaster, and £104,000 from the Duchy of Corn-wall. But in his message to Parliament two months after his accession concerning the preparation of a new i Civil List (a message in which he expressed the desire that the contingency of his marriage should be taken into account in fixing the amount), he announced that it was not his intenj tion to draw any of the revenues from I the Duchy of Cornwall, but to hand I them over to the Treasury, witH the i exception of an annuity of £25,000 to ! the Duke of York (now King George i VI, to meet the additional expenses I involved in his position as heir-appar- ! ent to the throne. As the Duke of | York was drawing an annuity of

£23,800 from the Civil List provided by the nation, his total income during the reign of his brother Edward VIII was at the rate of £48,800 a year. The annuity of King Edward VIII from the Civil List was fixed by Parliament at £llO,OOO, this amount being the same as that granted to the Privy Purse of King George V and Queen Mary. But it was announced in the House of Commons on behalf of Edward VIII that in view of the fact be was a bachelor he would draw only £70,000 of this amount. King George VI. The new Civil List for the present monarch, King George VI has not yet been submitted to Parliament, but nominally the King is in receipt of £llO,OOO for himself and Queen Elizabeth, from the Civil List, £85,000 a year from the Duchy of Lancaster, and £104,000 a year from the Duchy Cornwall.

Presumably it is from the revenues of the Duchy or Cornwall that he proposes to allow the Duke of Windsor £25,000 a year, an amount that is usually allotted by Parliament to the King’s younger brothers if married. Tn the past, unmarried sons and brothers of the reigning monarch (with the exception of the Prince of Wales, who derives his income from the Duchy of Cornwall), have been allotetd by Parliament £15,0*00 a year. Presumably the request of the Duke of Windsor for the settlement of an estate on him, instead of an annuity □i £25,000, refers to the Duchy of Cornwall, from which as Prince of Wales he drew an income of £104,000 a year in recent times. But there are many difficulties in the way of the settlement of the Duchy of Cornwall on the Duke of Windsor, one of them being the necessity of provision for the possible birth ©f a son to the reigning monarch and his queen.

Other Royal Annuities. Various members of the Royal Family are in receipt of annuities from the Civil List, provided out of the consolidated revenue of Great Britain The King’s mother, Queen Mary, has been provided with an annuity of £70,000 a year. His great uncle, the Duke of Connaught (the only surviving son of Queen Victoria), who is now in his eighty-seventh year, receives an annuity of £23,800. The amount was formerly £25,000, but after the financial crisis of 1931, when 1 many economies were effected in na- : tional expenditure, and the salaries of civil servants suffered a percentage ■ reduction, on a graduated scale, the - Civil List annuities to members of the ’ I Royal Family were also reduced. +

The reigning monarch has two married brothers, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent, each of whom receives an annuity of £23,800 from the Civil List. His sister, the Princess Royal, who is the wife of Viscount Lascelles, one of the richest men in the British peerage, receives an annuity of £5700. The same amount is paid to Princess Louise (Duchess of Arygll) and Princess Beatrice, widow of Prince Henry of Battenberg, who are the only surviving daughters of Queen Victoria. Princess Louise will reach her eighty-ninth birthday on rfarch 18, and Princess Beatrice will be eighty on April 14. Princess Maud, the only survviving daughter of Edward VII. who is Queen of Norway, is also in receipt of an annuity of £5700 from the Civil List.

History of the Civil List. The Civil Lst dates from the reign of William and Mary. Orginally the income of the Sovereign consisted of Crown revenues from land, excise duties and other sources, supplemented by money specially assigned by Parliament. The King was then responsible not only for the maintenance of the Royal household, but also for the general civil administration of the country. Parliament exercised no direct control over the expenditure, until in 17G0 George 111 surrendered the greater, part of his hereditary revenues in England, and accepted in their place a Civil List of £BOO,OOO per annum. From this sum this King’s household and the honour and dignity of the Crown were to be supported, as well as the civil service offices, pensions and other charges. It is recorded that George 111 applied a great deal of the money to the creation of places and pensions for his supporters in Parliament, and in such a way that the very independence of Parliament was menaced. He did not spend much on the Royal household, but the other outgoings were on so extensive a scale that the £<Boo,ooo per annum was greatly exceeded, with the result that from time to time Parliament was called upon to pay off the accumulated debts of the King. Dissatisfaction was rife, and after various attempts to investigate the Civil List had been frustrated, the Rockingham Ministry in 1782 carried a Civil List which deliberately aimed at the limitation of the ascendancy of the Crown over Parliament. Notwithstanding the reforms effected, debts continued to accumulate, and during the reign of George 111 debts amounting to no less than £3,398,001 had to be paid off by the nation.