§ MR. OLIVEIRAsaid, he wished to ask the right hon. Gentleman the President of the Board of Control whether the Indian Government would extend the system of a guaranteed rate of interest upon further capital proposed to be invested in Railways in India beyond that already agreed upon; several Railway schemes having been recently submitted to the public, upon which the question of a guaranteed rate of interest upon capital was left in doubt?
MR. VERNON SMITH,in reply, said that the Indian Government had laid down no positive rule as to the granting of any future guarantees upon that subject. They would, of course, consider each case that might be brought before them on its own merits; but as they had already guaranteed the interest on £20,000,000 of capital for railways, they naturally were not very 934 desirous to extend that guarantee in the present state of the Indian finances. He, however, hoped most sincerely, that companies would be formed for constructing railways in India, which would, he believed, be profitable undertakings without any guarantee at all.