(1)A trustee may invest any trust funds in his hands, whether at the time in a state of investment or not, in manner following, that is to say:
(a)In any of the parliamentary stocks or public funds or Government securities of the United Kingdom;
(b)On real or heritable securities in the United Kingdom, including the security of a charge on freehold land by way of legal mortgage and a charge under section thirty-three of the [56 & 57 Vict. c. 28.] Finance Act, 1896;
(c)In the stock of the Bank of England or the Bank of Ireland;
(d)In India Seven, Five and a half, Four and a half, Three and a half, Three and Two and a half per cent. stock, or in any other capital stock which may at any time be issued by the Secretary of State in Council of India under the authority of any Act of Parliament, and charged on the revenues of India, or any other securities the interest in sterling whereon is payable out of and charged on the revenues of India;
(e)In any securities the interest of which is for the time being guaranteed by Parliament;
(f)In consolidated stock created by the Metropolitan Board of Works, or by the London County Council, or in debenture stock created by the Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District, or in metropolitan water stock;
(g)In the debenture or rentcharge, or guaranteed or preference, stock of any railway company in the United Kingdom incorporated by special Act of Parliament, and having during each of the ten years last past before the date of investment paid a dividend at the rate of not less than three per centum on its ordinary stock;
(h)In the stock of any railway or canal company in the United Kingdom whose undertaking is leased in perpetuity or for a term of not less than two hundred years at a fixed rental to any such railway company as is mentioned in paragraph (g) of this subsection, either alone or jointly with any other railway company;
(i)In the debenture stock of any company owning or operating a railway in India the interest in sterling on which is paid or guaranteed by the Secretary of State in Council of India;
(j)In the " B " annuities of the Eastern Bengal, the East Indian, the Scinde Punjaub and Delhi, Great Indian Peninsula and Madras Railways, or in any securities substituted therefor, and any like annuities which may at any time after the commencement of this Act be created on the purchase of any other railway by the Secretary of State in Council of India, and charged on the revenues of India, and which may be authorised by Act of Parliament to be accepted by trustees in lieu of any stock held by them in the purchased railway; also in deferred annuities comprised in the register of holders of annuity Class D and annuities comprised in the register of annuitants Class C of the East Indian Railway Company;
(k)In the stock of any company owning or operating a railway in India upon which a fixed or minimum dividend in sterling is paid or guaranteed by the Secretary of State in Council of India, or upon the capital of which the interest is so guaranteed;
(l)In the debenture or guaranteed or preference stock of any company in the United Kingdom established for the supply of water for profit, and incorporated by special Act of Parliament or by Royal Charter, and having during each of the ten years last past before the date of investment paid a dividend of not less than five per centum on its ordinary stock;
(m)In nominal or inscribed stock issued, or to be issued, under the authority of any Act of Parliament or Provisional Order, by the corporation of any municipal borough in the United Kingdom having, according to the returns of the last census prior to the date of investment, a population exceeding fifty thousand, or by any county council in the United Kingdom;
(n)In nominal or inscribed stock issued or to be issued by any commissioners incorporated by Act of Parliament for the purpose of supplying water, and having a compulsory power of levying rates over an area having according to the returns of the last census prior to the date of investment a population exceeding fifty thousand, provided that during each of the ten years last past before the date of investment the rates levied by such commissioners have not exceeded eighty per centum of the amount authorised by law to be levied;
(o)In any stocks, funds, or securities authorised under the [63 & 64 Vict. c. 62.] Colonial Stock Act, 1900, or any Act extending the same, but subject to any restrictions thereby imposed;
(p)In any local bonds issued under the [9 & 10 Geo. 5. c. 99.] Housing (Additional Powers) Act, 1919, and mortgages of any fund or rate granted after the passing of that Act under the authority of any Act or Provisional Order by a local authority (including a county council) which is authorised to issue local bonds under that Act;
(q)In any stock or securities issued in respect of any loan raised by the Government of Northern Ireland;
(r)In any of the stocks, funds, or securities for the time being authorised for the investment of cash under the control or subject to the order of the court;
and may also from time to time vary any such investment.
(2)For the purposes of this section—
(a)the London and North Eastern Railway Company, the Southern Railway Company, the London. Midland and Scottish Railway Company, and the Great Western Railway Company shall each be treated as if it were a railway company in Great Britain incorporated by a special Act of Parliament which had in each of the ten years immediately before the date of amalgamation paid a dividend at a rate of not less than three per centum on its ordinary stock, and, for the purposes of this provision the date of amalgamation means—
(i)as respects the London and North Eastern Railway Company and the Southern Railway Company the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-three; and
(ii)as respects the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company and the Great Western Railway Company the first day of July, nineteen hundred and twenty-three ;
(b)a railway or canal company in Northern Ireland whose system is situate partly in Northern Ireland and partly in the Irish Free State shall not be deemed to be a railway or canal company in Northern Ireland.