The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-06-21 00:00:00

ilailhoap Entrlligrnre.

LONDON AND SOUTH-WESTERN.

Captain C. E. Mangles, M.P., the chairman of this
company, has addressed • long letter to the alareholders,
giving the particulars of the dispute respecting the
Portsmouth line and traffic between his company and
the London, Brighton. and South-Coast Railway COW -
pony, or rather between the Boards of the two coin.
panics. Captain Mangles infonna the sh rebel& re
that, "the South-Westeni Railway Company had been
exclusively in possession of the traffic of Portsmouth
and the bile of Wight, tlimngh Gosport, for a consider-
able period before the Brighton Company had any con-
cern with either ; that the South-Western rouipany
had been the first also, in 1838. to proi OW the making
of a railway to Portsmouth itself; lied al-o in 1145
been the promoters of • direct line by Godaluting and
Chichester to Portaniouth, and were, when in 1847 the
two companies, wisely and for their mutual benefit.
determined on the making of but one line between
Cosham and Portsinouth for their joint use, possessed
of the authority of Parliament, and of the means equally
with the Brighton Company, to make such • line to
connect their system with Portsmouth. The Brighton
Company were glad to receive our money for • joint
ownership in the line they were authorised to construct,
and we, forgetting the past, were glad to save the
difference between the suin we paid them and what it
would have cost us to make an independent line. Both
companies were gainers by the transaction. In 180 an
agreement between the two companies was made, the
principles of which were, to avoid competition and to
divide (after deduction of an agreed rate for working
exposes) the receipts by the tern companies from the
traffic between Portsmouth and the points (London and
its neighbourhood) to which both companies could
afford railway communication in certain proportions,
via., five-eighths to the South-Western Company, and
three-eighths to the Brighton Company. This
meat was made for • perpetuity." The accounts agree.
making and the breaking of subsequent agreements
between the two companies are most unsatisfactory fea-
tures in the dispute. One ooinpany, it seems, is quite
as much to blame as the other. The distanoe from
Landon to Portsmouth by the Brighton Railway is 95
miles, and by the South-Western 94i miles ; but by the
new Portsmouth line the distance from London to
Portsmouth is 74 miles. The chairman of the South-
Western contends that the new Portsmouth line
threatened the property of his company, and therefore
it was their interest to secure it with a view to prevent
further mischief. The chairman of the Brighton
insisted on his company becoming joint owners of the
new Portsmouth line, 32 miles in length, to which the
South-Western Board objected in mu, while it ap-
peared they had no objection to divide the Portsmouth
traffic with the Brighton Company and give them their
just share of it as heretofore. Captain Mangles, in con-
clusion, strongly advises the shareholders to vote in
favour of the Portsmouth Amalgamation Bill and to
carry out tlat arrangement. With regard to the
Brighton Company he says, "let us hold to the tone
we have latterly assumed. and continue to tell the
Brighton Company that the Portactiouth lint must be
exclusively ours. Let us remind them that the House
of Commons has already declared this and that the
House of Lords will, doubtless, take the same view of
the public interests, and within a few weeks clinch our
ownership. Let us not for a inouient attempt to use
this ownership unfairly against the Iltightun Company;
but, on the contrary, let us go on io obtain, by our peed-
Mg South-Western Bill, from Parliament, power to
make, legally, arrangements respecting the London and
Portsmouth traffic, and let us proceed, it the Brighton
Board will, to make just arrangements in exerc.ae of
that power." The Railway Compaeies' Association at
their meeting on Thursday unanimously resolved to
invite both companies to aubinit their differences to thcon
for arbitration.