§ MR. C. E. SCHWANN (Manchester, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India (1) whether the Umaria Colliery, belonging to the Government, has been worked, and the price of coal fixed at so low a rate, as to produce in the year I895 a profit of only 0.13 per cent. on the capital, and in the year 1896 a loss of Rx. 1,436; (2) whether his attention has been drawn to the statement in the 1605 published reports (Administration Report, Railways) that the capital outlay on 31st December 1895, was Rx. 1,078,863; that Rx. 88,911 was expended on capital account during 1896, making the total capital outlay on 31st December 1896, Rx. 1,167,774; and that the receipts during the year 1896 were Rx. 379,429, and the expenditure Rx. 380,865, showing a loss of Rx. 1,436; and (3) whether there are other colliery companies paying royalties to the Government which are deprived of any dividend by their price for coal being forced down by reason of the bounty system adopted by the Indian Government?
LORD GEORGE (HAMILTON)The figures given in clauses (1) and (2) of the hon. Member's Question appear to be correctly cited from the reports presented to Parliament, with this difference, that the figures for capital expenditure, yearly receipts and expenditure, profit, and loss, are stated at ten times the actual amounts as given in the Reports. I am not aware of any Indian collieries that pay royalty to Government except those in Assam and Burma; and I do not think the coal of those companies has ever reached or is likely to reach the Central India Railways, which now consume 70 per cent. of the total output of Umaria coal.