The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-31 00:00:00

LONDON AND BRIGHTON.

The half-yearly meeting of proprietors was held yester- I
day at the Bridge-house Hotel, London-bridge ; Mr. S.
Laing, the chairman of the company, presided. The ad-
vertisement
by which the meeting had been convened
having been read by the secretary, Mr. Slight, the
report of the directors, which was published in The Sun
of Thursday last, was taken as read.
The CMAIRMAN then said he had to move that the re-
port, together with the half-yearly statement of accounts,
be received and adopted, and ,in moving that resolution
he would trouble the proprietors with a very few obser-
vations. They were aware that the Brighton meeting,
corning the first of the half-yearly meetings, did, to some
extent, strike the key-note to which the others were gene-
rally all attuned. Now, in the present case, the state
of things shown to the Brighton proprietors in'the report
already issued was not so encouraging as those which
they had been accustomed to see for some time past.
But it must be manifest to every one who paid attention
to these matters that railways were, in common with
most other branches of business at present, feeling the
effects of the depression which invariably resulted from
war, dearness of provisions, and the state of the money
market. The first fact which must strike them was,
that the large increase of receipts on the Brighton line
for the last half-year—upwards of 30,0001.—was not at-
tended with any increase of dividend ; and when they
come to look closely into the figures stated in the report,
they would, he thought, see that the reasons for such a
result were sufficiently apparent. It was evident that
during the past six months the increased amount of
traffic had flown from a new source—viz., the Crystal
Palace opening ; while, with respect to the traffic of the
Brighton line proper, the increase which had been going
on for some years past had, during the period referred to,
been arrested, if, indeed, it had not become quitelstationary.
That was a result which, he thought, could be reasonably
anticipated, and of which they had no reason to complain.
The war must affect the traffic of the Brighton Railway
more than that of most other lines ; and when they
looked at the additional income tax, and the in-
creased prices of all means of life, they were not to be
surprised that the traffic of the main line was stationary.
What surprised him was that, under such adverse cir-
cumstances, the receipts of the Brighton line should
hare so kept up for a long period past. It was mani-
fest to him that, as soon as the tide turned and peace
should, with God's blessing, be restored, a similar state
of prosperity to that which marked the increase of their
traffic between 1848 and last year—viz., from 450,000/
to upwards of 700,0001., would be realised ; but while
the present state of things prevailed all he could say
was, that it would be unreasonable to expect any further
increase of traffic, and that they must make up their
minds to some degree of suffering in railway as well as
in other &scriptions of property. If they could keep
up their dividend to 5 per cent., which it attained in
1853, they might consider themselves very fortunate. It
must be equally apparent to the proprietors that, while
their receipts had become stationary, the expenditure
had increased. The reason of that was very plain to
any one who understood the progress of the railway
system. The effect of high prices in materials,
and the rise in wages which they experienced
some time ago, and the effect of an increased
establishment necessary to meet the demands upon
an increase of traffic, all led to an augmentation
of expenditure, which could not, of course, produce for
some short period a commensurate increase of traffic, so
that the increase of expenditure was naturally in arrear
of the receipts. He would mention a few articles on
which a material increase in price had taken place. In
the single article of coke, consumed for the past six
months, as compared with that used for the correspond-
ing period of the previous year, the increase had not
been less than 5,5571. ,This was a result which had
inevitably followed, for instance, the rise in the cost of
freight; for whereas the cost of carriage had been tie. or
78. per ton only, they had had it, during the last half-
year, as high even as 13s. or 14s. per ton. In fact, he
found the same observations would apply to all other
materials used by them. In the locomotive department
the expense of stores had increased from 7,7001. to
10,0001.—an inerease of upwards of 40 per cent. ; and
in the carriage and waggon department the expenditure
had increased from 8,7001. to 11,2001. If a period
of permanent depression sheuld exist in the country,
and the traffic of the line should suffer, the directors
would apply a system of retrenchment with a vigorous
hand, but he thought the proprietors would agree
with him that until it was quite clear such a period
bad come upon us it would he unwise to make
any sweeping alteration in the accommodation afforded
to the public. (Hear, hear.) He would now simply
say a few words is reference to the working of the Cry.
stal Palace traffic. He thought the figures given in the
report must be satisfactory. -
Mr. MAUDSLAY—No, no

The CHAIRMAN—The hon. proprietor said " no, no,"
but the figures said that they had received from that
source of income a total of 37,9381., er in round num-
bers, 38,000. The annual expenditure of working that
traffic had been, as near as might be. 15,0001., including an
alio wanes for depreciation of stock, &c. The actual money
expended was less than 15,0001. Such was the result of
seven months' traffio of the Crystal Palace. The ex-
penditure incurred in reference to the Crystal Palace
branch and the enlargement of the London-bridge sta-
tion was 200,0001., which included 60,0001. for the sup-
ply of rolling, stock for working the traffic. The actual
expenditure for rolling stock had been 58,000/., and
the other expenditure was 114,0001. up to this time.
Five per cent. on the 200,0001. would be 10,0001. (this
would be for the year, not for the seven months),
and this sum, together with the 15,000/, already
mentioned, ranking together 25,0001., would have to be
deducted from the total receipts of 38,0001., in respect to
the Crystal Palace traffic of the seven months. This
showed clear a profit of 13,0001.; and he believed that if
they bad not had the benefit of that traffic, they would
not have been able to pay the present dividend. He
then moved the adoption of the report and accounts.

Considerable conversation then took place, in which
Mr. Maudslay, Mr. Herapath, and Mr. Bell were the
principal speakers, but the tenour of their observations
will be sufficiently indicated by the reply of

The CneernetaN, who said it was true they had
51,000/. preference stock on hand, and it had not been
issued because the shareholders did not take it all up
at the time ; and the directors would not be now
doing justice to the company if they wore to issue it
at less than the market value, at which Mr. Hera-
path or euy other shareholder might have it. As re-
garded the suggestion of a proprietor for issuing
tickets for the line in different parts of the metropolis
the question should be taken into consideration, the di-
rectors being desirous of affording every possible faci-
lity to the public. He would now come to that most
important question which regarded the West-end line.
The only arrangement which existed on the subject was
that with the -West-end Crystal Palace Company,
whereby this company had guaranteed this 8,000/. for
the use of their line when made. Since that arrange-
Inca had been entered into, the state of the country and
the money market had very materially altered, and
here would probably be some difficulty in constructing
the line, excepting upon terms to which that proprietary
was not likely to consent. Another important bill had
passed for constructing a 'Westminster terminas in
Victoria-street. He did not think, however, that
under present circumstances could be carried out, ex-
cept at a cost so frightful as not likely to be contem-
plated. They then took into consideration the alter-
native of forming a junction with the South-Western,
and arrangemeuts had been entered into, upon which
negotiations might perhaps hereafter be founded. There
wag a large space of vacant ground facing the York-
road, and immediately abutting on Hungerford, Wa-
terloo, and the new Westminster bridge, which might be
obtained for the purposes of a station. This spot would
be peculiarly convenient for carriage traffic, though
perhaps not quite so convenient for pedestrians as the
other places. No specific arrangement had been entered
into with regard to terms, or they would have been
mentioned in the report. All that had been determined
upon between the two companies was, that, if upon con-
sideration of the expenses, they were found such as
would justify their recommending the proprietors to un-
dertake it, the Brighton Company should have a separate
station, and pay the South-Western a mileage rate for
the four miles of their line to be ran over. They had
not been able to get any further until they knew what
the expenses would be, and then nothing would be done
without the opinion of a special meeting of the share-
holders being first taken on the subject. All that had
really been done was to promote a bill in Parliament,
which ho believed would be unopposed, to authorise
arrangements hereafter being made between the London
and Brighton, the South-Western, and West-end and
Crystal Palace Companies, if deemed de,sirable—subject
to the consent of three-fifths of the shareholders being
obtained ; and the expense of ce.nrying the bill, if unop-
posed, was to be borne in 'equal proportions between
the three companies. :1-2.3eyond that they had not gone.
With regard to the arrangements with the East Grim-
stead and Bognor lines, he was sorry to find that ➢Zr.
Maudslay ha;l forgotten what he (Mr. Laing) had said
to him On. the subject. In the report of January, 1853,
the directors had told them that they lad entered into
an. agreement to rent the East Grimstead line at 2,000/.
a-year—or, until the consent of Parliament was ob-
tained, legalising that arrangement, to work it on a
traffic arrangement producing that amoant. After some
discussion that report was adopted by a show of hands,
and no ballot was demanded—consequently he consi-
dered it binding ; and the only way by which ho knew
they could attempt to get rid of it, an even then he did
not consider they would be successful, would be by
changing their directors. This he did tell Mr. Maude-
lay, that whenever they went to Parliament to legalise
the arrangement, it could be opposed on the Wharn-
cliffe order, but in the meantime it must be ad-
hered to. The gross earnings on the East Grim-
stead line were guaranteed not to fall below 2,000/.,
reckoning from East Grimstead to any place en the
main line to which the traffic might go ; and to
show that it was not likely to do so, lie might mention
that ou the Horsham line, which was of the same length,
and precisely similar, though on the opposite side of the
main line, the gross receipts were 16,3401., and the ex-
pense of working 2,700/. ; and he had little doubt a
similar result would be obtained on the Grimstead line,
which he believed would be shortly ready for working.
To avoid all mistakes, he might mention that a similar
agreement had been brought before them and approved
at the electing alluded to in January, 1853. With re-
gard to the po,ition and powers of the board, it might
appear that sometimes they had too much power apart
from the shareholders; but if the proprietors differed with
them in policy, they ought to do as they did in the House
of Commone, remove them from office. With regard to
the 45,0001. expended from capital on new working stock,
it had been required for the Crystal Palace, but was all
applicable to other traffic when required. As regarded
the closing of their capital account, it could not be clone