MR, CAINE (Cornwall, Camborne)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India if he is aware that there has been a sum of nearly £10,000 lying without interest at, the Bank of England to the credit of the Scinde, Punjab, and Delhi Railway for nearly twenty years; that in 1886 this undertaking was vested in the Government of India; and that Section 54 of the Act provided for the eventual dissolution of the company; is he aware that this clause has been virtually inoperative, the company, though still in existence, being without direction, the last surviving director having died last year; and seeing that this deposit represents various sums distributable, under Section 53 of the Act, between the stockholders of the company, to parties who cannot be traced, will he introduce a Bill providing for the final dissolution of the railway company, and authorising the bank to pay the money to the Secretary of State, subject, within a clearly defined period, to the presentation of any cheques now in existence signed by the late directors of the company.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord G. HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingThe Scinde, Punjab, and Delhi Railway was purchased at the beginning 429 of 1886. In March, 1889, the amounts outstanding on account of surplus profits, unclaimed dividends, etc., were £133,596, which by December, 1894, had been reduced to £9,741. The sum now outstanding is stated to be £9,728. The company was an English one, and the assets have always been in England. It would be apparently for the Treasury, as guardian of the Imperial revenues, not for the Secretary of State in Council, to consider the question of transferring the money to the Crown, and I will communicate with them on the matter.