The Express.
London, England, 1868-02-13 00:00:00

LONDON AND NORTH wastanzr RAILWAY.

The report of the directors to be submitted to the
proprietors at the half/rale general meeting on the 21st
inst. has been issued. The annexed statement of ea-
sement', for the half-year endure Slat December. 1347,
duty audited and verified, presents the following resells :
—Net proceeds of the bag-year's working, 1,14:t,al ;
balance from last account, 25,a61. ; disposable Irahince,
1,172.4871. ; which enables the directors to recommend a
dividend at the rate of hal per cent. per annum on the
ordinary *bare capital—leaving a balance of 34.67ei1. to
be earned to the credit of next hall-year. As C.4llllpanil
with the corresponding period of 166 ii, the amount re-
ceived for paiseugers, &c., goods, minerals, and cattle,
the number of passengers, tone of goods. and minerals
carried, and of train miles roe, 'unborn as follows :—Pas.
imager, dc., receipts, 1,544,2131. ; inereese, 15,50 il. ; vole,
mineral,and cattle receipts, 1,875,1441. ; increase,
l'aseciagere, increase in numbers, 451,061 ; goea'a and
minerals, increase in tons, 113? 254 ; mileage of paseerager
trains, increase of miles, 83,75 e; mileage of goo's and
mineral trains, increase of miles, 150,44 C.
The following u the report et the Since
their last report, the position of the auditors has leen
considerably changed, and their reeponeibilit7 largely ie
creased, by the raging of the llailway Companies Act of
1867. The 'wimples upon which the accounts of the
Loudon and North Western Railway have hitherto been
drawn up are, however, sound and well established, sand
the auditors do not therefore anticipate much, of any,
practical effect to this company from the yworiaions of •
new enactment. But the proprietors will observe that
some changes have been iutrochreed into the form of the
accompauying accounts, rind that in an adeitienel state-
meat (No. 5) the whole engagements of the undertaking,
together with its menus of providing for the same, width
have hitherto been given under separate he. is, are nee
combined and shown at coo view ; and as al. Ruttier ca•
penditure upon capital account will have to Ice sintetiouei.
previous to its outlay, by the vote of a geneard rueetiaa...
the proprietors have now before them ' a full and tru.
statement of the financial condition of the company.' The
subject of constantly adding to capital outlay, and the
facilities thereby affolded fur an unfair diminution of tea
charge to revenue of the wanking expenses of railway
undirtakings, will tare attracted the attention of many ef
the shareholders, and it Las been the source of moat consi-
deration to the auditors. They are, however, usable to see
how any railway company can refuse to supply the addition.'
accommodation which that public requirements must from
Clue to time call for, so lung Li the population and troll e
M the country continue to increase, an/ they according)
believe that the capital account cannot be at escorted en-
tirely closed. The auditors, however, are strongly of
opinion that additions thereto should only be all wed
under the direct control of the shareholders, anal areer el
to such stringent reguletions as shall Mature the bona "de
nature of the appropriation. This is already attehted to a
very large extent by the system adopted in the Lend. n
and North Western Couipauy. which dues not permit tl e
oonstniction of new work,' until estimates for the rat e'
have been submitted to the sanction, or otherwise, of the
sharehulders ; end a reference to the published account.
will show that the same added to capital during the last
few years, without Laving been thus previously sanctioned,
Lave been exceptional in their nature and small in their
amount In further emit ,oet' of tlo neraunts, the avali
tors way add that no debit has been admitted to capital in
respect of interest on money expended upon untiniahed
works, or for fish-plating, or for the Increased weight of
metal put into the line, or for the improvement of bridges.
Steel rails to the value of ..2,uucl. !kayo been suinututial
for iron at the coat of revenue, and the whole of the law
and parliamentary expenses have been charged to the
same account. A proper reserve has been also made for
the depreinetion of the company's steiuuers; and revenue
lass further paid for 14 new engines, which have replace,i
the saint number of smaller machines ; these latter, how-
ever, are all still at work upon the line, and form part of
162 duplicate engines which the company possesses, ea% r
and above the number stated in the printed rein, u ;
carriages and 360 waggons have also been renewed ad the
cost of revenue during the past halt-year—the alloys to
capital being strictly confined to the additional rolling
stock, full details of which are set forth in the prime I
sheet. The auditors have, accordingly, entire confidence
that in the accounts now submitted ' the revenue hi:, beam
charged with all expenses which in their juilmt.ent ought
to be paid thereout,' and they have felt no difflaralay in cer-
tifying the same in conformity with the witting et the
C 8031,121.0 and IL W. ll•ntr, Anditon."

CZYSTAL PaLacr.—The newly-built tropical and
having been completed, will be thrown epee to the public
on Saturday. The erection bee bees undertaken by the
Hamilton Windsor Iron Works Company (Lir erre!).
under-the direction of Mr. Edwin Chat. The tiar,bmg o.
this portion of the palace has afforded the eppc.rtunify of
locating the show of British and foreizu birds 111.1.0.
Moderately heated, the tropical department el the perm:
forms an unorttralled place for such en exhibition. Then
will be an unusually large shoo, Including specimens of al
our native favourites, every variety of emsorea, parrot,
and parraleets of every dmeriprion and W.,in .^e,
taus, hybrids, albinos, Lc. As a novelty, the Mee*
fountain basin will be stocked with o tare,. nuo.ter e.:.-
ceedingly rite water Jowls. There will also bo an inte-
resting collections:of pigeons of every sort. Messrs. Ber-
tram and Roberta have re-erected their catenated buffet,
from the Paris Exhibition, in the tropical end. The birds
will be judged on Friday afternoon, and the s' ow will be
open at Mir o'clock on Saturday morning, a eericert being
given as usual at three o'clock. The exhibition will be
continued next week from Monday to Friday.
EAST LONDON MI:SID:N.—A very numerous
deputation attended at the Privy Oeuseil-office, yesterday,
to learn the intentions of the goeernment in reference to
the bill which was so unexpectedly thrown out of the
House of Lords last November. Mr. Ayrton introduced
the deputation, which correlated of Mr. Briscoe, MP.,
Mr. Kinnaird, 11. P., Mr. Brady, Rev. IL Hansard, Mr.
Sally, Mr. Von, Mr. Cherie, Reed, Lc. Mr. Henry Cole
warn in attendances. The Duke of Marlborough ended, in
reply to the remarks offered, that the government were
prepared to support the measure, which, ho had no donbt,
would speedily become the law of the land, and the
museum established on the proposed site on Bethnal-green.
Aceintrer ON THZ CALNDONLiN RAILWAY.
The night mail train from the south, don at the Cale-
donian Railway Station at twenty-doe minutes past twelve
o'clock yesemday morning, was detained at Mid-Calder
by
for several hours, owing to • block of the line, occestowed
a goods train having got off the metals. On the acre .
dent being telegraphed to Edinburgh, we engine was
despatched as weedily as powrible to Med-Oil- der, which
brought the train to Edinburgh. Until the come of the
detention was ascertained, the °marrows mused some
alarm among parties who were expecting friends by the
oral&
[ideedieleeeehl—Rewleede three greet Pre-
fie the bak, fee eoarpteldOn, soft the tech, ass born
realltk.l.eettete d`
beenteem, Lamm* ON• bat
been in GenDia7. end eleenbeen but Done
cl bawl pampa the exam/Wpm, gra
lie epsehte. yenta -Ittetareeo .1; abler" t
ceespiales relatesd w gamete* Demo amapL
come*, lotellasendet the cumenee new atielsa
for *Zs 01461210 a. "Odetthe' for the teeth
=theershieebo ben pee se eater AWOL* Iwo
Pee* eseetee lob. 'he past tiro aad
thee healialthrembeart psalm at 2•07
la eterttalett te the eseeleut oleenoter el fink foot.
thatleee OA alike maw Mbar aeopleMre el Aa toe.
*et tie me sea! Vida asem is detedeeele. essay.—