§ MR. CAWLEYasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury have, in conformity with a promise conveyed to the Trustees of Arbroath Harbour in a Letter dated 27th July 1871, now on the Table of this House, reduced the rate of interest on the loan of £20,000 therein referred to, from. 5 per cent to 3½ per cent per annum, and extended the period for repayment from 20 years to 50 years, such loan being for the execution of works which the Public Loan Commissioners had decided were not such as to entitle the Trustees to the benefit of a loan at a reduced rate of 105 interest under "The Harbours and Passing Tolls Act, 1861?"
MR. GLADSTONEsaid, that the first instalment of the loan of £20,000 had been paid. He believed the loan had been anticipated by the trustees on the faith of a promise contained in documents which were on the Table of the House, and in conformity with such promise, the rate of interest had been reduced, and the period of repayment extended. But the hon. Gentleman was mistaken if he supposed that something had been done in the case of the Arbroath Harbour Loan which had not been done in other cases. It was done in the case of the Tyne Improvements, in which a sum of £200,000 had been granted to the Tyne Improvement Commissioners. The policy pursued by the Government was in accordance with a decision which had been announced in the House, that every encouragement should be given by loans for the creation of commercial harbours in every case where these harbours would be of any utility in respect of refuge, even though they might not, strictly speaking, be harbours of refuge. The Treasury did not interfere with the judgment of the Public Loan Commissioners, but exercised on its own responsibility, the powers it possessed of reducing the interest on the loan and extending the time of repayment.