The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-03-03 00:00:00

HALESOWEN RAILWAY COMPA.NI'.

The ordinary half-yearly general meeting of th
shareholders of ;his company was held at the offices,
King's Aims Yard, London, on Monday; Mr, A. F.
Godson. the Chairman of the company, presiding.
. .

s
The report, which was taken as read, rern;nds
the shareholders of the inspection and approval of
the line on behelf of the Board of Trade by Colonel
Rich on the 9,h of May last, a nctification of which
was given in the last report, and proceeds as fol-
lows :—Notice of this was immediately given to the
workina companiss, and the were requested to take
over and work the line. The Great Western Com-
pany objected, and required th it a heavy and ex-
pensive alteration should be made at the North.
held Junction, although no such request had been
made at the first hoard of Trade inspection in
August, 1881, or at the second isispection in May,
1882, or at any time between those periods. The
airectors being desirous both in the interests of
the company and for the public benefit th it the
line should at once be opened, obtained iin intervit w
with the Great Wesiero Company, who at that
meeting, hell en the 15th June last, expressed their
desire for the opening of the Halesowen Railway,
,nd the Board without prejudice to their rights
then consented to put up a pla form, &c , at North-
field Junction. The engineer sketched plans which
were submitted to the Great Western Company
and rejected by them. '[hit Company after Nerds I
drew out plins of their owo, which were sent to the I
Halesowen Board, and by then forwarded to the
Midland Company, who refused te adopt them.
The directors having from the month of May, 1882
used every means in their power to arrange the dis-
pute in a spiody and frisndly mantles, were at last
compelled to brine the matter to an issate by taking
proceedings before the Railway Commissioners
rheir application was heard on the 24th and 31st*
January, on an objection to the jurisdiction of the
Commisiorers raised by the Great Western and
Midland Companies, which was overruled, and
again on the 14th inst. on the; merits, with tne
result that the Railway Cernmissioners made an
order that the working companies should perform
the agreement entered into by them, an:i at once
open and work the line and pay the whole cots (et'
the proceedings.
The Chairman, in proposing the a3oW Oil oE the
report, exelained %Vey the is al tnestiug was uie
held last August. They would remember, he said,
that in the beginning of last year the ordin try
general meeting was a ljourned, because at that,
time negotiations were takiog place winch the
rectors thousht would lead to tile opsning of the
line. The line was inspected, and approved on the
9th of May, and since ttien the direcors had b •en
trying all they could to get the line opened, and
until the end of last year thy were led to expect
that this might take place an day. This state of
uncertainty was the only reason that the meeting
was not held. Unfortunately all the god promises
that had been made and all the please it w.•rds
teat hail been spoken turned out to be worthltss,
tat.,l in the end the directors were compelled te do
that which they had long striven asainsc—to
appeal to the Railway Commissioners. They had
tried every method in their power, and the engi-
neer had done everything he could to obviate the
iliffisulty that had arisen, but in the end there was
only this course left to them. The result of the
action had been erminenly satisfactory. rhe Com-
missionet s had helped the directors in every pos-
sible way. They had given them es erythine. they
a,ked for, and up to tee last three months he bad
moped that the two great chn tallies would hay
done that which was honest and rielv, and deter
mined to work the ime. But since same of them
(the shareholders) hal entsr el th a roe ii a cemmu-
ateatien had been receiveil from the ~Ireat Western
Company which left no doubt as to the;r in entions
in the Inttter. Hi poiated eon as an explanadoa
if the ioacti ,n of the directors, that they were
bound to give the Great Western Company
credit for intending to carry out that which
they Fad :Treed up in. It was imoossibe
for them to have takea such legal
me tsur s as were necessary to compel the Great
Western Company
.to carry out the order of the
R tilway Commie:sioners, because that coup illy
would hive answere 1, lia.l undue haste been used,
" You have not giv .n tit time to do it." Now,
hiwever, they have had reaso-able time, and accord-
ingly the directors had instructed their Folic it or to
write to the Midland and Gem!: Western Companies
urging that immediate areangements shiolil he
made for the op-thug and wotking of the line. The
Midland Company had replied, through their
solicitors, stating it to be their intention not to pro.
coed except upon the formal order of the Railway
Co nmisdoners, which had not yet been made. 'l2his
was practically reserving to themselves full pow r
to act as they pleased, as the die turned far 01
against the Commissioners, The Ureat Western
Company, in their reply, declined to depart fvoin the
coarse which they had previously ad tpted. In their
communicaton it was pointed oat they were alvised
that the It iiiway Commissioners sled no jurisdic-
tion to entertaia the applic ttion of the Ilalesowea
Co imp my, still leis to make the order which thy
had done. It was added that the inaccura.e sate
inents made by the Halesowen Company's counsel
and witnesses in the course of the, case as to the
positives taken by the Groat 'Western Company cer-
tainly afford no inducer's, nt to th -m to alter their
dceisi n. the language of this letter was only in
accordance with what had been said by their
counsel on the first (sec sion, and repeate I through
the earn agency oe the second occasion, and car' id
out by the acts of the Great Western Company on
the third occasion, when the matter was before the
Commissioners. With regard to the line he was in-
formed that it remained in practicaly the same con-
dition as on the occasion ot the last meeting. Sams
of money were obliged to be expended on it from
time to time for it was necessary to keep the line
in order, otherwise, supposing that the order of the
Commissioners were eupported in a Court of Law
he had no doubt the Great Western Compsny
object to the, line on the ground that it was not fit
for public traffic and had been allewel to go to
decay.
Mr. LynelleS:aunton seconded the motion.
After some remarks from Mr. Lefevre and Mr.
Newman.

Mr. Kimber proposed and Mr Walkdent
secon&d, ns a rider to the rep ,rt, "That as the
Great Western and Midland Comp.inies have ben
duly proved to have broken their contract in not
working the line after it was.comAeted all proper
and ti,cssary proceedinl:s be taken against them,
fo:. the purpose of holding them ro3pousibe in
damages to the lialesowen R tilway Company for
Guch breach of contract.

The Chairman intimated that the directors ac-
cepted thi4, and it was to.zether with the report
adopted.

The retiring director, Mr. M. S. Lynch-Staunton,
WaB re-elected.

The meeting wa3 subsequently made special,
and a resolu'ion was passed approving of tne bill
now before Parliament, entitled "A Bill to Amend
the Halesowen and Bromsgrove Branch Railways
Act, 1865, and f.n7 other Purpos s."

KING SWINFORD SCHOOL BOARD.
ELECTION.

The election of nine members to sit on the above
School Board, for the ensuing three years, took
place on Monday. Fifteen candid Ates were • n the
first instance nominated, but three withdrawing
from nomination, twelve were left to contest for
the nine seats. Of these five came forward as advo•
cat es of " efficient Bible teaching," five chime
the suffrages of the ratepayers as being th4Li eral
candidates, one was the Roman Catholic candidate,
and one came forward on independent grounds.
The parish is a wide one, and the polling stations
were appointed ws follow :—Three at thi Boa'd
Schools, Moor. street, Brt rley Hill; and two each
at Brierley Hill Town Hall ; N ti nal Sclools,
Brockmoor ; Board Si heels, Pensoctt ; Board
Schools, Quarry Bank ; Market Hall, King-44 in lord ;
and Primitive M,tholi4 Sch )o!s, Wordsley. The
poll was opened at eleven o'clock and closed at six
o'clock in the evening. Vehicles were extensively
empl.yed to convey voters to and from the poll,
arid although Brierley llill itself was a little livelier
than usual, good humour everywhere prevailed, and
the proceedings were of the most pacific character.
There was a goodly number of votes recorded during
the dinner hour, by workmen from the numerous
works in the district.
The votes were counted on Tuesday at Moor-
str,!et Board Schools, Brierley Hill, and the poll
was subsequently declared by Mr. Wad, the return-
ing officer, as follows :
Arthur P,-arson
Alice B.) ingt,n
W. Freer
...... .
Itt.v. it. Streeti.n
David Bryce
, Gilbert H. Ciaughton
W. Barlow
•. 2996
Rev. Josiah Stone 2772
Simon Bennett 2629
• Willi An McMillan 22')5
: Dr. Bo ,ington
W. Mullett 224
• The first nine are elected, and the Bo ird will
consist of one Roman Catholic. five.Chu clynen, and
ttree Liberals. All the Church candidates are
e'e;ted, and two of the Liberal nominee, rejected,
ino:ucting Dr. Bodington, who was a member of. tLe
list Board. Mr Pe not., who h ads th poll, is a
Roman Catholic. A lt,;r the deciaratio:. of the poll,
a vote .if thak3 was acco:dA ti the teturniug
officer for his services. Coasiderable ex,Atement
prevailed throughout Vie Tani 11,

OLD HILL.
' REFUSING TO QUIT.-..At the Police Court in