§ MR. KEAY (Elgin and Nairn)I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether a separate account is kept to which the issues out of the Consolidated Fund for advances made under the Ashbourne Acts have been charged, and to which the repayment made by tenant purchasers are credited; out of what account are issued the dividends payable half-yearly to the public on the loans raised under these Acts; and is there a Sinking Fund separately kept for the redemption of these loans; and if so, what is the annual percentage paid to that fund?
§ MR. GOSCHENIssues for advances under the Ashbourne Acts are made not from the Consolidated Fund, but from the Local Loans Fund, established under 50 & 51 Vict., cap. 16. Such issues and the corresponding payments are separately entered in the annual account of the Local Loans Fund. House of Commons Paper 95 of 1891 is the latest account of that fund, with the Auditor General's Report upon it for 1889-90. The dividends on Local Loan Stock are charged to the Income Account of the Local Loans Fund; see p. 3 of the Parliamentary Paper above mentioned. That portion of the repayments by borrowers which represents principal is carried to the Capital Account of the Local Loans 138 Fund, and is either applied in making new loans from that fund, for which fresh Local Loan Stock would otherwise have to be created, or is invested until required to redeem Local Loan Stocky which cannot be paid off before 1912. In either case such repayments of principal are treated as a Sinking Fund. Under the terms of the Ashbourne Act, out of every £4 repayable by a borrower £3 2s. 6d. represents interest on the loan made to him, and 17s. 6d. is principal, as the latter sum, if received annually for 49 years and accumulated at 3 1/8 per cent., would amount to £100. The actual receipts are, however, apportioned each year between principal and interest.