§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
VISCOUNT ENFIELD, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, the object of the Bill was twofold —first, it proposed to extend the power granted by the Purchase Act of 1879, by which the Secretary of State was permitted to create India Four per Cent Stock, in order to purchase the annuity of any proprietor of East Indian Railway Stock, so as to enable him to create Three and a Half per Cent Stock (or Stock at any other rate not exceeding 4 per cent), in order to purchase the annuity of any holder thereof. The object was, secondly, to act in a similar manner in regard to any other existing liabilities of the Indian Government. In all cases it was provided that there should be a reduction of interest (by at least l–9th), and that the saving so effected should be used by way of sinking fund, to ex- 203 tinguish the permanent Stock created within the period for which the liability existed.
§ Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a" —(The Viscount Enfield.)
§ Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly; Committee negatived; and Bill to be read 3a To-morrow.