§ SIR SAMUEL WILSON (Portsmouth)asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, 1723 Whether the Greenwich Hospital Funds, now in Three per Cent Annuities, can be legally invested in Australian Four per Cent Government Securities; and, if this can be done, will he endeavour to confer upon the Greenwich pensioners the great advantage of the large additional income to be obtained by this means, and which would enable the Admiralty to continue the payment of the Greenwich age pensions to seamen?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex, Ealing)Under certain conditions the securities named in the question may, by the Greenwich Hospital Act of 1865, be used for the investment of the Hospital funds. The Admiralty have recently taken steps for the re-investment of a large portion of the money previously invested in the Three per Cent Annuities, and they have been able during the last 18 months to increase the income of Greenwich Hospital by over £5,000 a-year by such re-investments. The amount invested in the Funds has been thus reduced from £1,645,000 to £815,000.