§ I turn next to the account of the National Debt, and I am glad to say that it is rather more favourable. For the first time since the opening of the late war our total liabilities show a reduction in the course of the past twelve months. On 31st March, 1903, the total liabilities were £798,349,000; on 31st March last, they had fallen to £794,498.000. being a reduction of £3,851,000. Of this amount £31,868,000 represents the liability in respect of sums borrowed for various works of permanent improvement, for which the War Office, Admiralty, and other Departments are authorised to provide by loan. That sum has increased in the course of the year by £4,293,000. But, as the Committee know, both the interest and the Sinking Fund of the Terminable Annuities, by which this money is borrowed, are charged on the ordinary Estimates of the year. Deducting, therefore, that sum, as has been done by my predecessors in other years, so as to keep my account in harmony with the figures they have given to the Committee, the total dead-weight debt on 31st March last was £762,630,000, or a reduction in the course of the year of £8,149,000. The Funded Debt in 1903–4 has been 554 reduced by £2,453,000; the liability in respect of terminable annuities is reduced by £4,196,000; and the Un-funded Debt by £1,500,000. Of this sum £3,000,000 represent the repayment by the Transvaal of an advance made during the war. That money was repaid in the course of the past year, but. to make the point clear, I should say that it is in addition to the £3,000,000 of which I have already spoken, which went into the balances. This £3,000,000 which was repaid was used to redeem Exchequer bonds. Accordingly, deducting this sum of £3,000,000, the amount, by which our own exertions reduced the National Debt in the course of the year, was £5,149,000, not, I hope the Committee will think, an altogether unsatisfactory account of our proceedings.