Wed 23 Dec 1896
Special meeting. Thames & Severn Canal Trust to raise £15,000. Public Works Commissioners would not lend more than £10,500. Could not borrow remaining £4,500 without guarantee.
Company agreed to join Sharpness New Docks and Gloucester and Birmingham Navigation Co in giving Trustees of Stroud & Mid-Gloucester Working Men’s Conservative Association Benefit Society, who were prepared to lend money to Canal Trust, a guarantee for due payment by Canal trust to Trustees of Benefit Society £4,500. Interest 4%. Instalment of £180 on 25 March 1901 and then 48 quarterly payments of £90. One third by Company, two thirds by Sharpness New Docks and Birmingham Navigation Company. Trustees of Benefit Society to pay Company, Sharpness New Docks and Gloucester & Birmingham Navigation Co a sum equal to 10s per cent p.a.
Special Meeting of Committee at Wallbridge on Wednesday the 23^rd December 1896 @ 3pm to "consider the propriety of guaranteeing part of the load proposed to be granted to the Thames and Severn Canal Trust by the Stroud Conservative Benefit Society"
Present: Mr C H Hooper Chairman, Mr H H Mills Solicitor, Mr E P Little, Sir W H Marling Bart, Mr W Davies, Mr W J Stanton.
Mr Mills reported the difficulty that had arisen in the Thames and Severn Canal Trust raising the £15,000 required to be borrowed by the Trust, the Public Works Loan Commissioners having determined that it was not within their powers to lend more than £10.50 and the Trust having found it impracticable to borrow the remaining £4500 without a guarantee.
It was proposed by the Chairman and seconded by Sir W H Marling Bart, that it being in the opinion of the Committee necessary in the interests of the Company that the Canal Trust should be in a position to borrow the £4,500 required for the purpose of completing the restoration works of the Thames and Severn Canal, the Company hereby agreed to join the Sharpness New Docks and Gloucester and Birmingham Navigation Company in giving to the Trustees of the Stroud or Mid Gloucester Working Mens Conservative Association Benefit Society (who were prepared to lend their money to the Canal Trust on security of a mortgage on a portion of the Undertaking with a guarantee by way of collateral security) a guarantee for the due payment by the Canal Trust to the Trustees of the Benefit Society of £4.500 with interest at 4% the principal to be repaid by an instalment of £180 on the 25^th March 1901 and subsequently by 48 half-yearly instalments of £90 each on the 29^th September and 25^th March in every year up to and including the 15^th March 1925, such guarantee to be given in the proportions of ⅓^rd by the Company and ⅔^rds by the Sharpness New Docks and Gloucester and Birmingham Navigation Company and in consideration of such guarantee the Trustees of the Benefit Society to pay to the Company and the Sharpness New Docks and Gloucester and Birmingham Navigation Company (in the respective proportions of ⅓^rd and ⅔^rds) such a sum as shall be equal to 10/-^s per cent per annum upon the amount of principal money in respect of which interest shall have been paid to the Trustees.
The Resolution was carried unanimously.
Cheques drawn:
W J Snape: 37..10..0
W Fredericks: 6..10..0
[Total] £44..0..0
