16 MAY 1868, Page 3

A prospectus has been issued by the East India Irrigation

Company asking for another million for irrigation works in Orissa. The Directors now fix their expectations at the modest return of 12 per cent., to be raised in certain contingencies to 25 per cent., and observe that they have not to collect this money from the cultivators themselves. The Government has agreed to collect it, and to hold itself responsible for its steady payment, an arrange- ment almost equivalent to a guarantee. The bad debts in fact fall on the Government, and the good claims go to the Company, a pleasanter arrangement, we should say, for the shareholders than for the Indian Exchequer. Investors will nevertheless do well to ascertain for themselves what the profits and drawbacks of Indian canals really are.