§ MR. PENROSE FITZGERALD (Cambridge)I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he would state what portion of the annuity of £4 9s. per cent. which is charged to Irish tithepayers for a term of 52 years for loans, for the redemption of tithe rent-charge under "The Irish Church Act Amendment Act, 1872," represents or is required for the purpose of a Sinking Fund, and what is (accordingly) the rate of interest reserved or charged by the Treasury on such loans, and in cases where a tithe payer desires during the currency of the 52 years' term to redeem the outstanding instalments of his annuity, or where he is compelled to redeem them under the Irish Land Purchase Acts, what is the rate of interest allowed to him in the table for the Redemption of Outstanding Instalments adopted by the Irish Land Commission?
§ MR. GOSCHENThe Irish Church Acts sell the tithe rent-charge to tithepayers for 22½ years' purchase, and permit the debt to be paid off by an annuity of £4 9s. per cent. for 52 years. No rate of interest is mentioned in the Acts; but an actuarial calculation shows that the rate involved in that annuity is, about £3 16s. per cent. The table under which the outstanding instalments of such an annuity are redeemed was framed, not by the Treasury, but by the Land Commissioners. Under it the instalments are discounted at slightly more than the rate of interest involved in the annuity.