The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-02-19 00:00:00

13.ailb3ap Entelligencr.

LONDON AND SOUTH.WESTEHN.

The half-yearly limiting of this coznpany Was hell
on the leth at the Waterloo station, Captain klsugles iii
the chair.
. . . . .

The Chairman, in moving the adoption of the report,
'aid, when they conaidertsl the state of the weather
during the last half year, the excess of cold, that they
had melted the new lice to Eleter, and that fur the
first time the interest on its cost had been charged to
srevenue. lie thought the directors had not overstated
their case alien they said in their report that the result
of the half-year's uper Aions must be tit•cultal eatisfac-
Wry. Their Exeter EVension line ettentled fruits
Yeovil to Eider. The :me was opened on the 17th of
July last, and the revenue bore the interest on the cost
of conatruction from that date, although the goods ,
traffic did not commence on that line until the lit of
&October. Therefore he thought the directors had
not overstated their cane when they deemed the result
imthlactory. They had doubled six pollee on the
Salisbury and Yeovil, which was 40 miles iii length, and
they were about to double 16 miles inure. The
directors had doubled 11 milt* on the Ezekr Extension,
and were doubling 22 miles, so as to make 33 utiles of
double line on that extension. They had 48 lulls' of
earthwork corm-lewd, so tl at they would 110011 have 55
miles of double line between Exeter and Saltahury, aud
it was believed by competent persona that that length of
double line would he quite sufficient to accommodate
any amount of traffic that could come upon that line.
The directors regretted that the Board of Trade should
have called on the company to double the retuainiug
portion of the Dorchester line to the extent of 26 miles
in length, which time directors thought was a very
uuneces.ay order. The Board of Trade had the

power to 'tall upoa them, and iu such cases, uu-
fmtunately, the shareholders had nothing to
do but to submit. 'the junction line at Exeter,
between the Sonth-Western Railway and the
Bristol . and Harter Railway, would be cori.
pleted in time fur the autumn trstSc. On re-
ference to tl.e engineer's report, they would perceive

that the works in-courNe of .iitiiiii.truct-ion were .4rawilig,
to a chime. The report of their locomotive superinteu-
tenVont in respect of the expenditure in toe locomotive
an-I carriage t 1.1.11130111111 was gratifying, the average .
charge being 995i1. per train only, wli.ch was AL realm-
hiii as compared with former charges. This wan very
satisfactory, cud highly to the medic of Mr. J. Beattie,
their locomotive superintendent. (Hear, hear.) The
prevalence of wet weather hail caused additional ex-
pense in repair., and maintenance of the permanent way.
They had agreed at the last mestiug to set aside out of
revenue rio.uuo every half year for the renewal of the
perm itieut way, they now found wool u not be
and it would he reiiuisitti tumid £5,000 to it.
Tvey hail had two very heavy dupe on their line which
hail cost them P 5,101 during the past lialf-year. With
regard to the paragraph iii the report informing the pro-
prietors that they hail no Bill before Parliament this
Session (hear, hear), it hail been tinted that the direc-
tors were in favour of extensions, but be did not believe

that such en opinion existed at the Ward. Me Was
gilt Ito tell that the directors thought they had got
quite far enough to the west worn they arrived at
Exeter. He then adverted to the appropriation of
11.000 a year to.. fund istablished since 1851, of w loch
£5O WAS for a school, £lOO to a meek uric. institute,
£550 fur allowances, and £2OO for decayed clerks'
widows. Out of the latter fund, £2,000 had act:amu-
let-it Ile then referrel to the sad aceidelit of the 28th
tilt. that had occurred on the line, atating that the dire,
tors felt the deepest regret at the accident, which had
deprived of life a highly valued sod eateenied member
of society, and had also entailed misery onuthers. Their
sttentiou would he directed to the safe and efficient
working of the hue. It was, however, a matter of
so.oe !satisfaction to the directors that since the ripening
the line. in 1838, only five poissiengers had lust their
live. ,iti the hoe. DUring thg past 10 year* they had
cones,:fix! 52.000.000 p ,ssengers on the line, and during
the past year 7.001,060 passengers. He MIS •nxious to
poy A ju.t trliNt., to their traffic manager For lii. atten-
tion to the interests of the company, •ial to Mr. titrapp
for the seal and courage with which he hail applied hi..,-
sell to the maintenance of the extended permanent way.
Mr. Tite, M.P., seconded the motion for Ile &clop-
tion of the report.
, Mr. Michell liked the speech of the chairman butter
than the report of the directors. The shareiiolders
equally regretted the loss by the recent aocideht, of a
moat useful and valuable member of society. Taking
the average receipts per mile of the three last weeks of
the three iireceding year, he found m falling-off in the
receipts ler mile per week (row £45 per mile in 1858,
to 1:38 per mile in 1860, which was £l3 less than on
any other metrupolitau and from that circumstance
lie considered that their new lines could not be worked
at a remunerative rate. He hoped that they woniti