The Express.
London, England, 1852-09-02 00:00:00

RAILWAY MEETINGS.

LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE RAILWAY.

The ordinary half-yearly meeting of the proprietors
of this r eilway.tuok p;aee y. et ieley at the Palatine Hotel,
blanchester. 111011.14 BAltaaa, E-ey, the chairmen of
the Hard of Dammam, presided. The report, which has
already been published, woe taken as read.
The CHAIM/LS. in opening the business of the meeting,
observed that be should nut have to make many remarks
upon the re;tort and accounts, and he should tontine him-
sell to trep,aining some parts of them which might require
a word or two in illustration. In the canital account a sum
of about 129,0ta1t was state to have been spent, and, as the
report mentioned, it we. chiefly on the Liverpool and Bury
account, the Burnley branch, the Huddersfield end Mel%
field, and the West Riding Union lines ; and he =Mitt ex-
plain that it was entire ly disbursed in contractors' settle-
ments and work., fur I mil purchase's. for the working
stock, end for the increase of accommodation at stations and
sidings. As regarded the working .openers, it was
probable that there might he some little' disappointment in
the minds of the shereholde re at Wi'ing them so large.
(Hear, hear ) Hu should refer theta to Captain Lawn's
report fur explanation; and if any further explanation was
required, that gentlemen would he quite ready to furnish
it. He might mention that some members of the busril
Were themselves soniewk et surprised to find that the amount
wee larger than they had anticipated, and they immediately
app newel a to maim* to investig ito the matter, and to see
how Or the 'epees's could be reduced—end whether
at ell or not. lie had to conerratolate the share-
holde rei on the state of the it loon : they were now enabled
to berme money at a mush cheaper rate than they had
been able to do in times past. They could obtain any
amount of esouey they liked at 3, per cent., and they 444111
also elec. latterly, to get .0111 C at 3} der cent. There would
be staving to the company, during the current half year, of
nearly 3,0M0/. from this item alone; and nest half year one
of 5,18101. and upwards. In alluding to what had been done
during the put ball year, he would:first draw their at-
tention to the coatroom which they had settled ;
for that, es they knew, was no small matter in an
affair of this kind. At the last hellyearle meeting,
there were a great number of coot ruts unsettled, and whe n
they read in tne report of the large claim made by one con-
tractor, and the manner in which it had been settled, they
would spree with him that the settlement of the accounts
of contractors was not a small matter. 't hey wouldobaerve
in the repot that in the settlement of this gentleman's con-
tract, in which something men than 110,0001. had been
claimed, by the award co the arbitrators this company were
given 1,710., which was said to be due to them, although
at one time the Ones was upwards of 100,0001. This was
the sort of thing they had to contend with in the settlement
of these aecuents. They bad no less than five contractors'
accounts uneettled at the dote of the last hallyearly meet-1
Mg. involviug, is the total unmet of cuotracts, a sum of
a miller. and • half sterling, or thereabout', but he was
happy to say that all except one were now settled. He had
also to state that their urine= Duty business, though not
altogether so satisfactory as the directors could wish, had
beau apes the whole good. They had, ea the shareholder*
were aware, been un-acee safe' iie their oppoeition with re-
spect to the Leeds and Lialitai line. They aid all they
could to o'dain posse Ssitell a that line themselves, both by
endeavuureng to treat and also by direct opposition, both
in the committees of the 11-nise of Lords and in those of
the Howe of Curansons. The bill was however granted.
The directors regretted this, but it was • thing beyond
their power, and they bed nothing to reproach themselves
for, ern they had done all they could to prevent it.
The company had aloe by the acts of last session, been re-
lieved from all the loses that they were liable to be called
upon to make, except the Southport line. These embraced
several lines in Yorkshire, to compel them to
make some of el ich mandamuses had been asked
for and no doubt would have been reseed if they
heel net been relieved from them by this act. They were
now freed from the tun ai-e that they might have been
put to in construetieg these lines, not one of which would,
he believed, bang been sf any service or profit to the com-
pute. With respect to the Ilancheeter and Southport line,
the board of directors of that company applied to parlia-
ment hoe an act to enable them to abandon it, but when
there they were advised to withdrew their application for
the melon, and being so advised, they could not do other-
wise than act in accordance with what they were requested
to do. 1 hey did not feel justified in pressing their applies-
lion for an set, when the counsel advised them not
to du sa ; and since then the directors of the
Southport line had hien turning their attention
to the subject, seeing that they were placed in • different
potation to what the y cap eted. Seeing that they had not
an act to abandon the line, and that a mandamus was hang-
ing over their heads, they looked to see the hest mums to
be taken under the new circumstances in which they were
placed. They had come to the euaclusion that it was ad-
visable to make that portion of the line which 'acceded
from Wigan to Southport. It was • very level country ;
there were no great difficulties lying in the way,
no soeles. expenses would be entailed upon this com-
pany iu constructing this line, and the directors
believed it would be done cheaply. Of amalgama-
tion. generally he was prepared to say, from what he Ulf
of railway working, that they were most de irable things,
and that it could only be by them that shareholders
could expect to have • lair return for the property they
bad invested. He regretted to see the way in which they
we re 'pukes of by • me parties is the public prune, but be
felt convinced of this—that these who wrote so smartly
against them were not railway proprietors: they had not
had their incomes reduced tram 6001. to 10W., or they
would not come to the same seselusion as they did sow.
One word with respect to their prospects es a railway
company. Perhaps be migl tbe partial, seeing that almost
eve ry shilling that be had in the world inverted in rail-
way. was in this Use, end he might perhaps take
• somewhat sanguine view ; but he thought, al far as
he wee able to judge, that their prospects were
anperiur to those of any other railway in the kingdom.
(Hear, hear.) It would perhaps be interesting to them to
know what bad been the development of the traffic of this
railway for some years past. He would read a return
which he had made of the revenue of the company for a
few past years. Is 1842 the revisit. was 228,8001 ;in 1843
it w s 244,e001. ; in 1844 it was 291,20 W. • in 1846 it was
337,10 W. ; in 1846 it was 361,3004. ; sad I. 1347 it was
3.59,600 f At that time they made, ea the sharehelden
were aware, • very lane eateasioa of their has, sad there-
fore he would omit the two neat yeses, sating that they
could sot exactly tell what was the result of new lines, mid
whet was the "reale of old saes. But amiss down
to 1840, when their Bee was somewhat seas-
pleted, and about the same length as it was now,
he found that their traffic for the yeas sad* 30th June,
HMO, was 64,60 W. • that for the year audio' Nth June,
1001, it was 796,3404. • and that for the yeas os 30th
Jam, 1861, it was 871,i70111. Such • developmentmust be
very gratifying to every preprister. He ceethaled by
moving that the report and ottecrunte be received and
adopted,jand that the preaudings ef the diseeten be ap-
proved ..f.
Mr. ' (directce), of Liverpool, amended the
motion. _ _ .

nein, of Liverpool, sale he should neve the
following as aa amendment, ia Nero* to des la. dedesied
from the dab shares: " That it be ea isinsion hen this
meeting to the board, with rawires to the podestioe of
10s. per share from the paid up of the 11th sham
that they treader hem die egad eseseet M a suspense
samest the said lds. per ohne, god be swain up the
coasts to the net of Dengsber they should charge that
MONIMat wall the sem eiMehOM. he rolling stock, amused
of slating that seam reweee•—ehe resuisiag sawn to
be :apnea a try nee elf the peoplosses at the assi, or
seen sehneeent haliisarly neakto."
Mr. inwassige Megwearsi sonedsd the maim&
• Mee alma= sand se le the peoples, d Mang
via as NAME assniai hen this neves so spiel or
mane ; Mr. Address, Mr. anvils Oriatir), Mr.
awn% gad others, sriazip,:tiret gigiolq of the
bend, tilt le me It gems in
Übe public and, god dorm the nosh is lie market;
wait Mr. Mew Wins, Mr. Hoary ltelesse, and n-
ether wenn ef ihs gentiles:, were a opiates that this
beams was persined by the eil proplseers be
of POW.BIIIII
trees the nibs prepokeen. sod thsegise belonged to r
nese 1111191111•2 caller ass egpileL
ale • asow of bark des onsninsa wee negatived.
BAIR tla eryiasl maths (tie eisitise ef the report sad
wee pet, hewegeg,
serlirt. Lawns soil be anal like re tame hew the
=liMe the isethpert Nee wee be be rand He would
witlase this sees, sheeld be assessed of Is sane way
what the wales weenies...get, or they would be liable
to hen ale Mien of SAIL to the whole pee-
vied * the mimed bargibi
NNW, In "blob oily

Iportion of the company were liable. (.. Ili at, hear," from
ldr. Enter:oils ) Ile thought it had mue h haver go to the
repayment of loans, which wan the purpose the firths
capital was reified for. (Itear, bear.)
The report stud accounts were then agreed tn.
The CHAIRMAN moved a dividend of It. 10s. per share
on the 1004 stock, and ao it proportion upon the smaller
shame, to be payable from the 16th of September.—
Agreed to.
A motion confirming the forfeiture of shares was
agreed to.
Mr. ENTWISTLE SW4I, before the business closed, he could
wish the question of the 00,0001. from the fifth shares fet-
tled finally, and he would move that the money be applied
to the repayment of loans, as suggested by Mr. Henry
Rawson,
' Mr. Mute seconded the motion, and it was agreed to.
The meeting was then made special, and a resolution
passed enabling the company to errata perpetual irre-
deemable annuities in substituttota of borrowed capital and
mortgage and bond debts, such annuities not to bear interest
at more thou :31 par cent. per annum.
The motion was carried, and a vote of thanks was given
to the chairman for his conduct in presiding.