EX-CZAR'S ESTATE.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 September 1917, Page 7

EX-CZAR'S ESTATE.

PONFISOATED TO REPUBLIC. Property valued at £140,000,000 from which Nicholas Romanoff, formerly Emperor of Russia, enjoyed the revenues for life enly, have been taken from Mm by the Provisional Government. A special commission of the Government has been discussing whether land, palaces, nr.d other property owned by Nicholas, »nd estimated to be worth £9,700,000, 6hall be sequestrated by the State. This commission also considered whether the property of the Grand Dukes and Duchesses, worth about £2,000,000, should be seized for the benefit of the public. The value of all the property cwned by the former emperor or members of the formerly royal house of Russia is estimated by Professor Okp(tieff, of Petrograd, at £191,000,000. In addition, the professor asserts Nicholas still has on deposit in the Bank of England £7,000,000, placed there years ago in provision for the rainy day which now has come. The late Grand Duke Alexis, uncle to the former Emperor Nicholas, left £2,000,000 on deposit In the Bank of France.

There are also two Romanoff fan)ilv trust funds. One was founded by Alexander 111. when on his deathbed in Livadia, which now amounts to £1,500,<j00, Is invested in Russia, and is within reach of the revolutionary government. Another amounting to £4,800,000, was derived by Alexander 11., when he liberated 4,000,000 serfs for £1 5s each in 1861. Chief among the properties taken from the former Emperor are the so-called •'cabinet iands." These constituted one of the largest private estates iu the world, and included vast forests, gold, silver, platinum and copper mines, 100 factories for making paper, textiles, glass, or porcelain, and 1500 flour-mills. Nicholas derived £<5.400,000 a year in profits from the rental of these properties to peasants or others. ALLOWED HUGE SUMS YEARLY. The former Emperor Nicholas' annual income when he was deposed is estimated by Professor Okunieff at £13,000,000. The Duma allowed him £ 1,700,000 a year to pay the expenses of tho Imperial Court, but because of extravagance, mismanagement, and pilfering, the annual cost amounted to £4,000,000, according to the statement of Zubatcheff, councillor of the Empire. Besides the lands tiie Grand Dukes and Duchesses owned, as private indil viduals, more than 200 palaces or villas, estimated to be worth £14,000,000. Some I of. these include the richest lands in I the Crimea and the Caucasus. Tliese i estates were taken by the Romanoffs J after the conquest of tho Crimea and j tJie Caucasus and in most cases no comI pensation was paid to the former owners