§ MR. SMOLLETTsaid, he rose to ask the Under Secretary of State for India, If it be true, as stated in The Times of the 12th May, that the India Council have resolved to offer the shareholders of the Madras Irrigation Company the option of receiving for their property 5 per cent Government Paper; and, whether there is any intention of dealing in a similar manner with the East India Irrigation and Canal, the shares of which are now quoted at 25 per cent discount?
§ MR. STANSFELD, in reply, said, the Madras Irrigation Company started with a guaranteed capital of £1,000,000, and after effecting certain works they proposed to raise from the public some unguaranteed capital. From the state of the money-market, however, they were not able to raise the unguaranteed capital, and they applied to the Secretary of State for as- 963 sistance. A correspondence of some length had ensued, which was at present in this condition. The Secretary of State offered them on the one hand £600,000 of debentures; or, on the other hand, he would take back from them the undertaking and give them in Five Per Cent Indian Stock at par, the amount of guaranteed stock invested in the capital of the Company. The Company had that morning replied to the communication, and they declined the latter alternative; and they proposed some modification in carrying out the loan on debentures. That afternoon his noble Friend the Secretary of State for India had replied that he would not refuse the extension of the term of the loan upon debentures to five years, but he required that both the alternatives which he suggested should be submitted to the shareholders of the Company, in order that they might have the opportunity of deciding. As regarded the East India Irrigation and Canal Company, there was no intention of dealing with it in the same way, as it was not a guaranteed Company.