by means of India stock. fromannuitants whole or any part of the annuity held by him, paying in exchange for the same India stock created under this Act at such a rate of exchange that the annual interest on the stock given in exchange for any annuity shall not exceed eight ninths of the annuity. Power to create India stock for the purpose of reducing the public debt or liabilities of India. Short title. (2.) The annuities purchased under this section shall be registered in the books of the Company in the name of the Secretary of State by his official style, and sections forty-nine and fifty of the Purchase Act shall apply to them as if they were so registered in pursuance of that Act. 2. (1.) The Secretary of State may from time to time create and issue so much capital stock, bearing interest at the rate of three and a half per centum per annum, or at any other rate not higher than four per centum per annum, as may be. required either for the purpose of redeeming the annuities created under the Purchase Act by the purchase thereof under this Act, or for the purpose of redeeming any other liability now charged on the revenues of India and bearing interest or involving an annual payment at a rate not lower than the interest of the stock so created; subject, nevertheless, to the following provisoes : (a.) The difference between the interest or annual payment in respect of the liability redeemed and the interest on the stock created for redemption thereof shall be set aside and invested in manner directed by section fifty-one of the Purchase Act with respect to the amount of annuity retained by the Secretary of State under that Act, so as to provide a sinking fund to be applied in reduction of the public debt of India created under the authority of Parliament: (b.) Any stock or securities that may be cancelled or redeemed for the purposes of such reduction shall not be re-issued without the authority of Parliament: (c.) The amount so set aside shall be sufficient to repay the principal of the stock created at the expiration of the period during which the Secretary of State was liable to pay the interest or annual payment redeemed by means of the creation of the stock, if that period does not exceed ninety-nine years, but if it does exceed ninety-nine years then at the expiration of ninety-nine years from the date of the creation of the stock : (d.) When and so soon as the public debt of India created under the authority, of Parliament shall by the operation of the said sinking fund be reduced by an amount equivalent to the amount of the public debt of India, attributable to the redemption effected under this section, any obligation imposed on the Secretary of State under or by virtue of this section shall cease and determine. (2.) All the provisions of the Redemption Act with respect to the capital stock created or issued under that Act shall apply to the capital stock created or issued under this Act. 3. This Act may be cited as the East Indian Railway (Redemption of Annuities) Act, 1881. CHAPTER 54. An Act to make further provision with respect to the W WHEREAS the Indian Advance Act, 1879, authorised the 42 & 43 Vict. Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury (in this Act c. 45. referred to as the Treasury) to advance to the Government of India two million pounds, and provided that such advance should be repaid by the Government of India as follows: In the financial year 1880-81 In each of the six succeeding financial years 290,0007. inclusive of interest, at the rate of three per cent., and at such time or times as might be agreed on between the Treasury and the Government of India, but the Act provided that the interest so received should be repaid to the Government of India : And whereas the said sum of two million pounds was advanced to the Government of India, but no sum has been repaid by the said Government in respect either of principal or interest: And whereas in pursuance of the East Indian Loan (Annuities) 42 & 43 Vict. Act, 1879, the above sum was raised by the creation of two million c. 61. and forty-nine thousand two hundred and fifty-nine pounds five shillings and ninepence three per cent. consolidated bank annuities, and those annuities are charged on the Consolidated Fund, but are not paid out of the permanent annual charge for the National Debt: And whereas the said annuities were purchased by the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt (in this Act referred to as the National Debt Commissioners) on account of trustee and post office savings banks: And whereas it is expedient to repeal the said obligation on the Government of India to repay the said sum of two million pounds, and to provide for the conversion of the above-mentioned amount of three per cent. consolidated bank annuities into terminable annuities and for the payment of those annuities out of the permanent annual charge for the National Debt: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: 1. This Act may be cited as the Indian Loan Act, 1881. Short title. 2. (1.) The Indian Advance Act, 1879, and the East Indian Repeal of Loan (Annuities) Act, 1879, are hereby repealed without prejudice 42 & 43 Vict. to anything done in pursuance of the said Acts before the passing and provision' of this Act. cc. 45 and 61, as to conver minable (2.) The three per cent. consolidated bank annuities created in sion of annui pursuance of the East Indian Loan (Annuities) Act, 1879, shall ties into ter continue to be charged on the Consolidated Fund, and shall be annuities. paid out of the permanent annual charge of the National Debt. (3.) The Treasury shall at any time or times before the thirtyfirst day of March one thousand eight hundred and eighty-two convert into terminable annuities for periods not exceeding twentyfive years such amounts of three per cent. consolidated bank annuities held by the National Debt Commissioners on account of trustee and post office savings banks, or either of them, as in the whole are equal to two million and forty-nine thousand two hundred and fifty-nine pounds five shillings and ninepence capital stock. (4.) The Treasury may convert the same by a warrant to the Governor and Company of the Bank of England directing them to cancel the said annuities in their books as from the date of conversion specified in the warrant, and to inscribe in their books, as from the same date to the same account as that for which the cancelled annuities were held, terminable annuities of the amounts and for the periods mentioned in the warrant. (5.) The amount of the terminable annuities to be inscribed shall be certified to the Treasury by the National Debt Commissioners under the hands of the Controller-General, or Assistant Controller, and of the Actuary of the National Debt Office. (6.) For the purpose of ascertaining the amount of the terminable annuities interest shall be taken at the rate of interest yielded by three per cent. consolidated bank annuities at the average price of the day as certified by the Bank of England on the date of conversion. the capital value of perpetual annuities shall be calculated at the average price of the same day. (7.) The perpetual annuities directed in pursuance of this Act to be cancelled shall after the date of conversion be cancelled, and all payments in respect thereof shall cease. (8.) The terminable annuities created under this Act shall after the date of their creation be charged on the Consolidated Fund, and be paid out of the permanent annual charge of the National Debt yearly or half-yearly at such times in each year as may be fixed by the warrant creating them. (9.) Every terminable annuity received by the National Debt Commissioners in pursuance of this Act shall, so far as it represents interest, be dealt with as dividends of the perpetual annuities converted into such terminable annuity would have been applied, and, so far as it represents principal, shall be dealt with by them as moneys received on account of trustee or post office savings banks, as the case may be. (10.) The warrants of the Treasury issued in pursuance of this Act shall be a sufficient authority to the Bank of England for doing the things thereby directed, and copies of such warrants shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament within one month after they are issued, if Parliament is then sitting, and, if not, within one month after the then next meeting of Parliament. 3. For the period of four financial years commencing on the first day of April one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one, the permanent annual charge for the National Debt shall, subject to any increase under the Savings Bank Act, 1880, be twenty-eight million nine hundred and twenty thousand pounds, and thereafter during the currency of the terminable annuity created under this Act shall be twenty-eight million one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, and during the said periods the Sinking Fund Act, 1875, shall be construed as if the above-named sums were respectively substituted in the first section of that Act for " twenty-eight million pounds." CHAPTER 55. An Act to make further provision respecting the National the securities held by the National Debt Commissioners: Short title. bonds into 1. This Act may be cited as the National Debt Act, 1881. 2. (1.) The Treasury may pay off any Exchequer bonds held at Conversion of the passing of this Act by the National Debt Commissioners on Exchequer account of Trustee and Post Office Savings Banks, not exceeding in permanent anthe whole seven million seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds nuities with by the creation as from the day on which each such bond falls due, sinking fund. of perpetual annuities of equivalent capital value, and the day on which each such bond falls due shall be for the purposes of this Act the date of the creation of such annuities. (2.) During twenty-five years from the date of the creation of any perpetual annuities in pursuance of this section there shall be charged on and paid out of the Consolidated Fund as a sinking fund for such perpetual annuities an annual sum for the first four years of one pound, and afterwards of three pounds four shillings and fourpence for every hundred pounds of the nominal capital amount of perpetual annuities created, and such sum shall be paid to the National Debt Commissioners and shall be applied by them as if it were part of the new sinking fund under the Sinking Fund 38 & 39 Vict. Act, 1875. (3.) The perpetual annuities created under this section shall be charged on the Consolidated Fund, but the said annuities during the twenty-five years above-mentioned, and the sinking fund under this section shall not be paid out of the permanent annual charge of the national debt. (4.) This section shall apply to Exchequer bonds falling due in the month of August one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one, either before or after the passing of this Act. c. 45. 3. For the purposes of this Act the following provisions shall Supplemental have effect: provisions as to creation of (1.) The annuities shall be created by a warrant from the annuities. Treasury to the Bank of England directing them to inscribe in their books, as from the date of creation specified in the warrant, perpetual annuities of the amount and description mentioned in the warrant. (2.) The said amount shall be certified to the Treasury by the National Debt Commissioners under the hands of the Controller General or Assistant Controller and of the Actuary of the National Debt Office. (3.) The equivalent capital value of perpetual annuities shall be calculated at the average price of the day as certified by the Bank of England on the date of creation, but if no price of 33 & 34 Vict. c. 71. Treasury warrants to be authority for Bank of England. Declaration as to c. 36. s. 1. Definitions. 44 & 45 VICT. stock is recorded on the date of creation, the price certified on the day nearest preceding shall be adopted. (4.) The perpetual annuities created in pursuance of this Act shall be consolidated with other perpetual annuities of the same description and payable at the same date, and shall be transferable in the books of the Bank of England in like manner as the annuities with which they are consolidated, and shall be subject to the enactments relating to those annuities so far as is consistent with the tenour of those enactments; but nothing in this section shall make section sixty-nine of the National Debt Act, 1870, apply to any annuities created in pursuance of this Act. 4. The warrants of the Treasury issued in pursuance of this Act shall be a sufficient authority to the Bank of England for doing the things thereby directed, and copies of such warrants shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament within one month after they are issued if Parliament is then sitting, and if not, within one month after the then next meeting of Parliament, 5. Whereas in pursuance of the Savings Banks Act, 1880, a terminable annuity is directed to be inscribed in the books of the Bank of England for the National Debt Commissioners on account of trustee savings banks, for the purpose of paying off the deficiency therein mentioned, and doubts have arisen with respect to the interest on securities in which such annuity is to be invested, and it is expedient to remove such doubts: Be it therefore enacted that- During the currency of the said annuity, the interest arising from any securities in which the money received in respect of the said annuity, or of any investment of the said annuity is invested, shall for the purpose of the annual account required to be made up by the National Debt Commissioners of the interest arising from securities in their hands be treated as capital and not as interest. 6. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires- The expression "Treasury"" means the Commissioners of Her The expression "National Debt Commissioners" means the Com- The expression "Bank of England" means the Governor and The expression "perpetual annuities" means three and a half per |