Fisher, Esquire, and Ekdward George Villiers Stanley (commonly Lord Stanley), two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, and the West Highland Railway Company (being the agreement in the schedule to this Act), guarantee for a period of thirty years from the date of the opening for passenger traffic of the railway, the payment of interest or dividend at the rate of three pounds per centum per annum on two hundred and sixty thousand pounds of the share capital to be raised under the West Highland Railway Act, 1894, and may on the completion of the said pier, breakwater, and other works, pay to the company the said sum of thirty thousand pounds, and the sums required for the purposes of this section shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament, and if those moneys are insufficient shall be charged on and paid out of the Consolidated Fund or the growing produce thereof.
(2.) During the said period of thirty years the Board of Trade shall make an annual report to Parliament as to the condition and working of the railway, the rates and charges for traffic, and the receipts and expenditure of any company in working the railway.
Limit of rates. 2. During the period, not exceeding the said period of thirty years, for which the whole or any part of the interest or dividend guaranteed by this Act shall be payable by the Treasury, the railway shall not be assessed to any local rate at a higher value than that at which the land occupied by the railway would have been assessed if it had remained in the condition in which it was immediately before it was acquired for the purpose of the railway.
Short title. 3. This Act may be cited as the West Highland Railway Guarantee Act, 1896.
SCHEDULE.
Agreement between the Treasury and the West Highland Railway Company.
An Agreement under Seal made this tenth day of March one thousand eight hundred and ninety-six, between William Hayes Fisher, Esquire, and Edward George Villiers Stanley (commonly called Lord Stanley), two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury (herein- after called "the Treasury") of the first part, and the West Highland Railway Company (herein-after called "the Company") of the second part:
Whereas by the West Highland Railway Act, 1894 (herein-after called "the said Act"), the Company were empowered to construct an extension of their railway from Banavie to Mallaig, with a pier and other works connected therewith, and to raise two hundred and sixty thousand pounds additional share capital and to borrow one hundred and twenty-eight thousand pounds as in the said Act mentioned.
And whereas sections 51 and 52 of the said Act are as follows:—
