The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-22 00:00:00

ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACkET COMPANY.

The report of the director' to be presented to the
general meeting, on the 24th inst., says ;—" The increase in
the mileage performed by the company's vessels, and the
extension of the French contract mail service to the West
Indies, alluded to in the report of the directors relating to
the accounts for the first six months of the year 1866, are
circumstances which affect the working account for the-
whole year. A comparison of the credit aide of the work
ing account, now submitted to the shareholders, with that
of the account for the previous twelve months, shows •
falling off in the receipt, from freight and passage money
of 44,941/. se. 11d. ; notwithstanding some accession of
traffic from the opening of the Panama line to New Zea-
land and Australia in June last. This diminution of
the receipts is attributable to the loss of traffic
consequent on the extended operations of the
French line above referred to, of the probability
of which the shareholders have been on several
occasions reminded; to the depressed state of mer-
cantile affairs generally ; as well as to the sickness that
appeared at St. Thomas in the latter part of the year,
which no doubt deterred passengers from travelling and
consequently affected the company's earnings. This' visi-
tation and the mortality which occurred amongst the
Brews of the company's ships caused the directors deep
concern and regret. As soon as it was apparent that
yellow fever had become epidemic at St. Thomas, the
directors, with the view of keeping the company's vessels
as much as possible out of its influence, issued instructions
that the Transatlantic ships, which, in the usual course
of the service, lie a fortnight at St. Thomas to coal and
prepare for the homeward voyage, should transfer to the
branch ships outside the harbour, and proceed to Jamaica
to coal up ; and subsequently, with the permission of her
Majesty's government, they arranged that Peter Island
(one of the Virgin Islands), situated about twenty-five
miles from St. Thomas, and, like the latter, in
a central position for tho company's service,
should be used temporarily, instead of St. Thomas
as • place of meeting for all the ships, for the purpose of 1
effecting transfers • and the service was so adjusted as to
admit of the verOls being coaled as far as possible at
other places on the several branch routes. The carrying
out of these plans, and meeting the difficulties arising in
view of quarantine laws at the various ports of call, have
been attended with considerable extra expense and with
some unavoidable delay in the performance of the service.
The directors think it right to add that prior to the out-
break alluded to, St. Thomas had not been visited by yet-
low fever as an epidemic fora period of nearly eight year,
an th are glad to be able now to state that the reports
received lately from the island are to the effect that eick-
nese had quite left it. The decrease in the receipts al-
ready alluded to is compensated for to some extent by a
saving on the disbursement side of the working account.
The surplus on the working account for the year 1866 is
24,54 W. 19s. 4d. less than for the preceding twelve months.
As the value of the fleet has been increased by the late
addition of new ships, the percentage thereon, which is
annually carried to the credit of the repair and renewal
account, is, on this occasion, larger than it was in the
year 1865. The account which, at the commencement of
tne year, had a small debit balance, shows, at the end of
the year, • balance in favour of the company of
9,7151. 9s. Id., after having been debited with the cost of
the ordinary repairs of the tleet daring that period, as well aa
with the expense of repairing and refitting the Mersey,
which, it was stated in the last report, would form •
considerable charge on the account. In conclusion,
the directors recommend that a distribution he made of
31. 10s. per share out of the balance of profit and loss
account, and of 1/. 10e. per share as • bonus from the
insurance Recount, both free of income tax, payable by
warranta to be issued on the evening of the 27th instant."