§ MR. SLOANI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he will explain why pension stock in connection with pension fund of national school teachers has been sold at a great loss, while the yearly income has exceeded the expenditure; and why, seeing that the Act of 1879 establishing the pension fund specially provided for quinquennial revision, and that the first revision occurred in 1885, when the fund was reported as flourishing 1486 and benefits to teachers increased, the next revision of which any authentic account was given did not occur until 1897–8, when the fund was reported as £1,200,000 to the bad.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY (Mr. VICTOR CAVENDISH, Derbyshire, W.)Pension stock is occasionally sold in order to enable payments to be made at a time when the receipts of the fund fall short of the amount necessary for such payments. No considerable loss has been incurred on such sales, and it is probable that the alternative of keeping large balances uninvested, with consequent loss of interest, would prove more expensive. The point raised by the hon. Member will, however, not be lost sight of. Quinquennial valuations of the find were duly made for 1890 and 1895. The hon. Member will find a reference to them in paragraph 1 of the Report of the Committee of 1897, which was laid before Parliament in that year (Parliamentary Paper C. 8471 of 1897).
§ MR. SLOANWhy has the national school teachers' benefit been reduced while this fund has been growing at the rate of £40,000 a year.
§ MR. VICTOR CAVENDISHI must ask for notice of that.