§ *MR. STUART SAMUEL (Tower Hamlets, Whitechapel)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies with reference to the Colonial Loans Act, 1899, and to the fact that the advance made to Jamaica under that Act on 14th April, 1900, ranks as a charge on the general revenue and assets of the colony in priority to the inscribed stock required to be given with arrears of interest in satisfaction of liabilities contracted by the Jamaica Government in respect of the Jamaica railway, whether he can state at what date the said inscribed stock and arrears of interest were found to be due, and on what principle such priority is determined; and whether the Government of Jamaica has received under the Colonial Loans Act, 1899, any advances which rank after the inscribed stock referred to; if so, at what dates, for what purposes, and to what amounts.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINThe inscribed stock and arrears of interest were found to be due by the decree of the 1156 supreme court on 11th April, 1900. The inscribed stock did not become a charge on the revenues of Jamaica till the issue of the advertisement by the Crown agents calling for the railway bonds to be sent in to be exchanged for inscribed stock. The subsequent advances under the Colonial Loans Act, which rank after the inscribed stock, are £65,000 on 21st July, 1900, for Kingston improvements and waterworks; £20,000 on 31st July, 1900, to meet deficit on general revenue; and £22,000 on 13th March, 1901, for railway purposes.