§ Now, Sir, I pass to the dead-weight debt, and here again the matter is of some complexity, and it is necessary that 292 it should as far as possible be made clear. It stood on April 1st, 1905, the beginning of the financial year, at £755,072,000. Of this £683,439,000 is funded debt and capital value of terminable annuities, and £71,633,000 is unfunded or floating debt. The first item has been reduced during the twelve months, mainly by the automatic operation of the annuities, by £5,932,000, and the unfunded debt during the same period by an almost exactly similar sum, namely, £5,920,000. Thus in the year—;and this is not unsatisfactory—;the total amount of dead-weight debt was lowered by £11,852,000, and it now stands as I have stated at £743,220,000; but the contemporaneous increase which I have already mentioned in our other capital liabilities of £4,106,000 reduces the total diminution of the gross indebtedness of the State for the year to £7,746,000. That is the net amount of debt paid off last year.