The Express.
London, England, 1851-02-25 00:00:00

EASTERN COUNTIES RAILWAY.

Messrs. Quitter and Ball have prepared a report on
the capital expenditure of this company, from the date of
it formation in the year 1836, to the 4th of July, 1840, a

period of fourteen years.
"The expenditure which has bean subjected to examination
amounted, according to the accounts published at the latter
date, to the sum of 9,606,9211. Is. 3d. In conducting the
investigation a three-told object has been kept in
view ; namely, to ascertain lady. The reality of
the expenditure charged; 2ndly. Its correct dis-
tribution ; and 3rdly. A more clear and distinc-
tive exhibition of the several purposes to which the capital
has been applied. With reference to the first point, the
reality of the expenditure charged, we
lessy means of
regular vouchers and other collateral and formal evi-
dence, satisfied ourselves of the genuineness of the accounts
in this important respect. And silthough some pay-
menu fur land purchases and other purposes yet
remain unvuuched, such instances are not numerous,
considering the extent and variety of the transactions in-
volved; nor are there any circumstances attending the
nun-production of such vouchers which raise in us any nor
sal doubt as to the fart of the payments having actually
taken place. At the same time, while stating this conclu-
sion as to the validity of the expenditure, we must not omit
to observe that great laxity appears to have prevailed in the
management of it, by which the cost of the works and pro-
perty of the company has been rendered excessive to a de-
highly injurious to the interests of the share-
holders, and which a prudent and considerate stew-
ardship of the funds subscribed by them would
have greatly diminished, end might have wholly prevented.
W. aft& pirdwieds. la the Mist, 1 the risk ea*, for
works and buildings, amounting to u war of six millions
and a half sterling, was incurred wit out putting up the
contr.wn for their execution to competition. hail its salu-
tary influence been brought to hear upon this part, which
constitutes the great bulk of the company'o expenditure,
there can be no question that an immense saving of money
would have been the consequence, and that the degree of
depression in value, ender which the capital stork of the
company is now suffering, would never have been
reached. And, by way of indicating the extent of
Inn and injury occasioned to the company by the
neertapplication of the principle of competition to
the letting of its pest great works, we may men-
tion that, in the case of certain works required on the
Shelford and Sheprith Line, the present board of directors
eedereil that the same should be let by public tender, the
result being that offers were put in by different parties for
their execution, which varied in amount from 11,000 f. to
f2,flUoi. or thereabouts, and the hoard decided on accepting
a tender amounting to 13,41094., or thereabouts. As to the
policy or legality of certain of the outlay, and especially of
the large amount incurred in opposing other companies, and
in the promotion of undertakings which were eventually
abandoned, we offer no opinion ; the cost of such proceed-
ings, so far as we have been able to distinguish it, is
344,:a11. 7s. 6d. As the next object in view, namely,
the correct distribution of the expenditure in the accounts,
we have found it necessary to mare the whole of the
transactions, in order to ascertain the precise character of
each payment, so as to determine the head of ac-
count to which it properly belonged, and to al-
low of its being classed accordingly. Our labours
in this direction have not only elicited much useful
information, calculated to throw light on the past
working of the undertaking, but have led to valuable re-
sults in thi, adjustment of disputed accounts, in controlling
the payments of unsettled demands, in the recovery of
monies from parties to, whom payments had been made in
excess of the sums really due to them, and in eliciting the
state of the accounts existing between the company and
their late *elicitor in connexion with the advances made to
him from time to time for land purchases and other objects.
The review incidental to this investigation of the fivancial
questions which have sprung up between this and the Nor-
tulk Company under the agreements of May, 1648,
and August, 1849, has also been productive of I
advantageous results to the Eastern Counties Company.
In the revised statement of the capital expenditure we have
attempted to exhibit the cost of each of the several lines
and works and other properties of the company, and also to
discriminate between what may be termed the natural and
the accidental cost of the undertaking, by separating from
the MUM of outlay those expenses which, though perhaps
unavoidably incurred, swelled the that of produc-
tion without adding anything to the intrinsic
value of the property. Such extraneous expendi-
ture alluded to being altogether independent of a large
amount with which the capital account remains charged
in respect of expenses resulting from the working of the
tragic, and properly chargeable against revenue."