§ MR. KNOXI beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is aware that the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt are charging the Irish Church Temporalities Fund interest at 3½ and 3 ¼ per cent. on loans amply secured, the excess of the interest over 3 per cent. amounting to £18,000 a year; whether he is aware that other Irish Public Bodies under popular management, especially the Dublin Corporation, have been able to borrow in the open market at a lower rate of interest; and whether he will 796 take steps either to induce the National Debt Commissioners to reduce the rate of interest to 3 per cent. or, in the alternative, empower the Land Commissioners to raise a loan at 3 per cent. to pay off the debt owing to the National Debt Commissioners?
§ SIR W. HARCOURTI cannot, on the information before me, add anything to the answer given by the Secretary to the Treasury on Monday last. I will, if the hon. Member wishes it, have further inquiry made.