§ The Exchequer Balances show a satisfactory change. On April 1st, 170 1901, they stood at £5,597,000. On the same date this year they stood at £8,567,000, and indeed they would have stood at a higher figure by £1,264,000 if there had not been some slight delay in repaying an advance which had been made by the Exchequer for some capital expenditure, and which has since been repaid. Of course the increase in the balances was mainly due to the £4,029,000 surplus receipts from the Consols loan of last year.