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No. 102.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN to GOVERNOR SIR C. BRUCE.

(Sent 4.5 p.m., October 7, 1903.)

TELEGRAM.

Referring to your telegram of October 5.* Proposal approved. Crown Agents will be instructed.

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the issue of a loan under Ordinances 34 of 1902 and 1 of 1903, and I am to request that you will at the first convenient opportunity raise the sum of £185,200 (or as near a sum as possible) by the issue of debentures under those Ordinances.

It is understood that you have already obtained temporary advances on account of the loan in excess of the total amount which you are now requested to issue. These excess advances and the expenses of issuing the loan should, of course, be charged against the general account of the Colony."

I am, &c.,

H. BERTRAM COX.

34435

No. 103.

37903

1 | 2 |

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

8

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

SIR,

(No. 240.)

MR. CHAMBERLAIN to GOVERNOR SIR C. BRUCE.

Downing Street, October 8, 1903. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch, No. 314, of the 12th of August,† in which you state that your proposal that £110,000 should be raised temporarily to meet advances to planters pending the issue of the loan was based on the terms of Article 5 of Ordinance No. 34 of 1902.

2.

That section limits the power of the Governor in Executive Council or the Crown Agents to borrow on Treasury Bills in anticipation of the issue of the loan to half of the amount of that loan. The Crown Agents have, however, not been proceeding under that section. The advances they have obtained have been borrowed, not by means of Treasury Bills in the manner contemplated in Section 5 of the Ordinance, but in the manner customary in cases when a loan has been sanctioned, viz., by obtaining temporary advances on the security of the script of the unissued loan at a rate of interest varying according to the bank rate. No special legislative sanction is necessary for such temporary borrowings, the authority for the issue of the loan for which they are preliminary steps being considered sufficient.

3. The insertion in loan ordinances of special provision for temporary borrow- ing other than local borrowing appears to be unnecessary, and in future ordinances it might, I think, be omitted with advantage.

4. With regard to the amount of the loan, I have now received your telegram of the 5th instant, and I enclose, for your information, a copy of a letter to the Crown Agents, instructing them to issue a loan of £185,200 at the first convenient opportunity.

5. I have informed you in my telegram of the 7th instant,§ that I agree with your proposal to charge all expenses to the profit resulting from the difference between the interest paid on the loan and the interest charged to planters. I understand this proposal to mean not that the profits on the loan will form a separate fund to which the expenses of the loan will be charged, but only that the expenses will be regarded as a set-off against the profits-both profits and expenses being shown on the revenue and expenditure sides respectively of the General Estimates.

6. As the Crown Agents have already obtained temporary advances to the amount of £212,000, I have to request that you will, as soon as possible, instruct them by telegraph when they may begin to draw upon the Colony to meet the overdraft.

34435

GENTLEMEN,

No. 104.

I have, &c.,

J. CHAMBERLAIN.

COLONIAL OFFICE to CROWN AGENTS.

Downing Street, October 8, 1903. WITH reference to the letter from this Department of the 2nd July last, || I am directed by Mr. Secretary Chamberlain to transmit to you, for your informa- tion and guidance, copy of a despatch to the Governor of Mauritius respecting

No. 104.

§ No. 102. | No. 90.

• No. 101.

↑ No. 99.

↑ No. 103.

SIR,

(No. 352.)

No. 105.

GOVERNOR SIR C. BRUCE to MR. CHAMBERLAIN.

(Received October 15, 1903.)

[Answered by No. 112.]

Government House, Mauritius, September 11, 1903. despatches* noted in the margin, I have the honour to transmit, for the signification of His Majesty's pleasure, Ordinance, No. 19 of 1903, entitled an Ordinance "To authorize the raising of a loan of £40,000 to meet the cost of the Black River Railway Extension."

WITH reference to the Governor, No. 150, 27 April, 1903. Governor, Telegram, 17 June, 1908. Secretary of State, Telegram, 20 June, 1903. Governor, Telegram, 23 June, 1903. Secretary of State, Telegram, 30 June, 1903.

2. Your sanction to the construction of this line was conveyed to me in your telegram of the 30th June last.‡

3. I also transmit a copy of the Procureur-General's explanatory report on the Ordinance.

Enclosure 2 in No. 105.

I have, &c.,

CHAS. BRUCE,

Governor.

EXPLANATORY REPORT ON ORDINANCE, No. 19 OF 1903.

September 11, 1903.

This Ordinance has for its object to provide the necessary amount, by means of

a loan, to meet the cost of the Black River Extension, the construction of which was sanctioned by Ordinance No. 15 of 1903.

It

The estimate of the Surveyor-General for the proposed railway is annexed to His Excellency the Governor's despatch, No. 150, of the 27th April, 1903. amounted to £36,300. The amount of £40,000 was, however, fixed upon in order to provide a margin for contingencies.

The loan is to be raised under the provisions of the General Loan and Inscribed Stock Ordinance, 1887, as was done in the case of the loan for the Mare-aux-Vacoas Works (Ordinance, No. 22 of 1887).

F. T. PIGGOTT,

Procureur-General.

• Nos. 77, 80, 83, 81 and 88.

↑ Not reprinted.

* No. 88.

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