The Express.
London, England, 1850-07-26 00:00:00

Yesterday the half-yesely of the
ten of of this railway was held at the Rail.
Imadon-laidge, lir. 8. Lilian leek the at 1 o'clock.
The CHAIRMAN and that as ths sad the se-
mean led bum Melte Mob eif the Ise onstil
thszte presansei MC he Might. as at Oa last menial,
them ems mid. (La abstain in ghee hi-
lew.) The asseeets were very fall sod expliolte
lanai bola prepared with great ink In bed er 10
gamble the eempaey to hem as asearate jadgmeat as to Ma
es reel ties of its Wain ; and the resell was sa aearly as
what he had sutidpeted. He eackostood that mu
anent had been tot that the amount of the diet-
etas net ingot If those who had hit iiimemelated
bad silly attested M the Minallso Mak the dine-
tau had given from thee to Mae, they *Wald
have souped any web hum. He ham& that
some people when he *4.50 have ingoised to
nederstand the state of Melt property heitpit. had argwed
that, as the published weekly roseipts Mews" as imemeut of
14,0001. over the euresponding imlf-year of 1848, and as
14,0001. wiedivanat to a dividead of nearly Is. ed. per
share, they might have looked hewer/ to an Meuse. el
3s. 6d. Now, said sot say that that expeetation was ea-
' namely wereisonabie aid that it meld hardly have been
euxonaged exempt wi th; the view of Injuring the property
of tho sharelelelen by treating disappointment Tablets
figures ae they stood, them was an Menemd, of 14,0001..
hut Ma pahlhawl weekly receipts required some
moseatio• and adjustment, is order to Nioleat
the meths dearly. tar lastease, the km -year
ea a Tesediff sod ended ma • illeclay. Theselare:l7,
hull two dleya te Odes' at the 110•11111114•=1111% MI had only
am to add at AO end. Thee there wee to be welhilesol the ,
adjustment with the Beath Henna Ouipsay of ilbe =
mouth tune, which, with the item of rents, weekt
the 14,0001. to 12,0001, *solute* of the out el NI& hg
the menage of the sonspaars own starer, whisk was met
included in the published acesints. Aeon: ludic Me heed
of cartage, there was en addition of 1201 to the appaaout re-
°Nuts of the company, which =usenet be taildel is Mite
inasmuch as It was nearly equalled by the gammas of the sail-
Indite and delivery of gouda. Of the eppmeat Increase,
3.0001. arose from sartage. This red the amount to
10.6001, and ha would show how that bad been eppro-
petaled. Rue lest year then had ben aa Incense
ed 140,0001. ander the head of capital, whisk amount
woo upended on the Ihotboorne, Honshu, ad Thum
Junction branches' and 123,0001. bad bees a:pandas' la the
completion of theLondoe-beidge station and other wink..
Therefore, I. fast, there was 260,0001. more *spited to be
provided for oat of revenue than to the corresamding half of
the raviolis year ; and sakes it were supposed that any can
could be found who would give them the nee of that capital
for nothing, no one could be earprised that 6,3191. was
charged for the [merest. That reduced the baleen to
5,3001. The expenditure bad also considerably Mereased
under the bead in renewals. Unfortens•ely, a gnat deal of
the Carriage and wagysa stock purchased during the
Neither
of excitement had proved of a very interior descriptioa.
Neither the material nor the congenial*s was so good as
it ought to have been, and the result was, that Muesli of
Infliction it should have tbne, 16 or 16 years it had been
worn out Is seven or eight. As retarded the permanset
way, he need not tell them that the longer the sleepers had
buss in the seemed the greater the number were found
rotted and required replacing. The total increase of the
esprit.. of reneWall over the amount in the corresponding
half-year of 1849 was 4,2311 Thus there was, in unity,
only an increase of about 1,0001. available for dividend ; and
instead of feeling any diaappo:annent at the result, that of
being able to obtain Is. per cent., or 64. per share of addi-
tional dividend, he thought they might congratulate them-
selves that, with so moderate an increase of loathe,
and with the large amount of fixed and in
teemed charge which bad necessarily to be pro.
rided for, they had still been able to secure a small in-
creme. Be that as it might, no one could complain of
having bees misled by the director, for on the lam aces.
,ion as which be bad the pleasure of meeting the propel-
eton he told them that in his judgmeet an Mensal of
about 3001 a week or 8.0001. in the half year would he
required to meet the additional Ames. (Hear, bear.) It
would be recollected that about that time last . year he eine-
latod a report on the question of the depreciation or reserved
fund, containing a statement in great detail of what he
thought might be regarded as the future expeaditare of
that great undertaking, wilt in income of 500,0001. a year
T.king the tales at 37,6001. a year, and supposing 15,0001,
to be set aside as a reserve, he calculated that, the totst ex-
penditure incurred in earring an income of
600.0001. would be 210.0001. Now let them
. .

compare this estimate with the setae' result for the last ;12
mouths Their senial earnizus, instead of aoo,uoot , had
been 616,0001. • delude; 7,0095. for cartage, the real
monad was 508,0001. The tame, instead of 37,0001, had
been 39,0001.; 15,0001. had hem set aside as a reserve;
and the other expenses for the pest 12 months had been
162,33.51, while we estimate ens 167 8001. In other words,
the expenses, exclusive of taxes and the reserved find, had
been about 5,0001. below the estimate, while the earnings
had been about 8,0001. above the estimate. The diminution
was *via' chiefly, he believed, to the fall in the prim
of timber, and to • saving in the consumption of
coke. This was a result of which ao proprietor
could reasonably complain. From the experience of the
last twelve months it was evident that somewhere about
215.0004. might be taken as the amount of the expenses, and
120.0001 a year as the charge for interest and for preferential
divideads. That made • total charge of 336,0001. previous
to the payment of dividend, and any balance beyond that
sum would probably be availshe for the shareholders. Now
the traffic receipts for the last twelve months had, es he had
already stated, amounted to 516,0001. That left 180,0001.,
or 31. 19s. per cent. for dividend ; and to pay 4 per cent.
would require an increase of 5,0001., or in round somber,
620,0001. in the year. Any increase beyond that
amount would, as he had previously stated,
be attended with a small increase of expense,
but he thought 73 per cent. would probably be profit. He
considered the poes ion of the line at that moment to be
about that of paying a legitimate 4 per cent. dividend upon
the capital. (Hear, hear.) There were one or two points
which had s anted much discussion, and on which, therefore,
he desired to afford some explanation. First, with regard
I to the system which the directors had adopted within the
last two months of running emersion trans at very low
I charges, and issuing single tickets to go on Saturday and
return os Monday. The Sunday receipts previmuly toths I't
of J one this year wen rattier below those in the corresponding
I period of 1849. The average Sunday receipts for the four
weeks preceding the lit of June, when the excursion
system was adopted, was 4301. as against 4671.
last year. The directors then ran excursion trains
at very low fares, letting passengers go and re.
tura ell over the line at single tares. What was
the result 1 In the eight weeks which had elapsed the
average receipts on Sunday had been 9561. against 7161.
Thera was an immediate increase of 26 per cent., and
through that increase an additional revenue of upwards of
2,0001. had been earned. The Saturday and Monday traffic,
which it might mho have been supposed would be injured,
had been aearly the same as last year ; it had averaged
3,0501. this year against 2,9451. last year. There bad
men an longue of three and a half per ant in the
regale, passenger traffic on those days, or about the same
amount of increase as on the other days of the week.
Oa Whit-Sunday last year the excursion fare was
ss. 43., on the same day this year it was 3e. Bd. ;
and on both occasions the weather was flee. Tee
receipts on that day were last year 7131, this year
1,3131. A similar ezperimeat to that of which he had bees
speaking had been made during the belt-year on the Croy-
don and Elena line, and the result was malefactor,. Oa
this subject, however, be nut observe that he was no advo-
cate for an indiscriminate reduction of fares. (Hear, bear.)
As to the amount of the traffic in the next half year,
he could not hazard a prediction; but at that time it
was more satisfactory than it had been at any period since
last autumn. The unfavourable feature of the last half year
was that in the first four months We ordinary passenger
traffic was not so good as it might have been expected to be,
owing, perhaps, partly to the weather, and partly to the
fact of the continent being more and more Tufted by
English travellers, after having been sealed against them.
He would conclude with one word of warning to the share-
holders, both as regarded traffic and expenditure. Raving
watched pretty closely the history of railway rain in this
country, be was convinced that nothing had contributed
more to that result than the indulgence of unreasonable
expectations—(beer, hear)—and he believed that in the
majority of cases in which moinats had boon cooked the
thing had been does not from any deliberate dishonesty, but
because dirostors did not like to show a worse result than
was anticipated. (Hear, bear.) A good intelligent con-
stituency of railway shareholders, who would go fully into
the amounts, and form a nameable judgment upon them,
was the test possible audit that amid be devised, and
afforded the best possible security against fraud, concealment,
er extravagance on the part of directors; and the more the
scrutiny of sub a body of shareholders war exercised, the
better should he be pleased. (Hem, hoar.) He 'occluded
by moving the adoption of the report.
After some isonversation, the motion for the adoption of the
report was thee carried, there being only one diessatioat.
Resolutious for otesolidatiag eertaia shares Into snob
were then passed.
On the motion of Mr. Sinlsti, lielanded by Mr. MUG-
onuses, butt umbers of the emit asemattee, Kam. W.
stealleld and J. Saves, also sambers et that etnaaitteit,
were eppetated sodium ler the insedep keglers.
As aIiSOW. he se el the audit
conseal 7001. as the sit salary of the
auditors, was ales saaalessegy.
The nestleg thee separated.
The report eilepted at the skev• meeting states that—
The mew of weltel reirek to the 80th of Ism, 1131, is
7.l.oo,.ardelclleg deSt, ,404,3871.;_ prtTle,
lefirfASSl• •e elnek 4.01 sisaU• tows_
7,ilkalunwTh what of Milk issehas Wrest or sweesee tot
MINIM me silliesemiallfel 491:11, der* tba Plagbiertt
esemele M 13,11171., waelimato Ink. threw balk •
Itlawer III:pi 8' MN* 111 Mig=oriut=sirsii"