The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-30 00:00:00

AUDITORS.

Your committee regret that the audit by the professional
auditors, Messrs. Quilter, Ball, and Co., has not been at-
tended with the desired result. The audit has not been
perfect •, many of the hooks have not been seen ; the au-
ditors have relied on the accountant of the company ; the
capital and revenue accounts have been improperly kept ;
capital has been charged with what belongs to revenue,
and by the names of these gentlemen being appended to
the report, an amount of authority has been given to the
half-yearly accounts which your committee have shown in
their detailed evidence they do not deserve. Your com-
mittee is of opinion that an audit such as that performed
by Messrs. Quitter, Ball, and Co., is perfectly useless, the
time occupied in such an inquiry being limited to ono or
two visits in the half-year, and those of only a few hours
each.

THE TREASURER.
Your committee consider the present system of keeping
the cash account of the company very objectionable, and
that no part of the cash balance should be permitted to re-
main in hand, but all receipts be paid into the banker's,
and all payments be made by cheque therefrom. That a
cashier bo appointed, whose duties it shall be to balance the
cash account daily, and agree the same with the banker's
book; and that the practice of sending cash from all stations
to London be avoided in all cases whore practicable, and
where responsible bankers may be found to remit the same
—great risk and loss of time will be thereby avoided.

THE CHAIRMAN.
After much consideration, and the collection of a large
mass of evidence, we come to the deliberate and unanimous
opinion that the election of a ehairman at a salary of 2,0001.
a year has acted most prejudicially to the interests of the
company. Ist. It has decreased the influence of the indivi-
dual members of the board, and weakened the responsibility
which should attach to all men accepting the office of di-
rector. 2d. It has, bysplitting theboard npinto committees,
of all of which the chairman is ex officio a member, sepa-
rated the board as a collective and deliberative body,
and has in great and small matters of policy thrown into
the bands of the chairman almost the entire management
of the company. This is too manifest; for, on our inviting
many individual members of the board to give us evidence,
most of them were uninformed on many important steps
taken (some of which were obviously prejudicial to the
interests of the company) ; they evinced an amount of
ignorance on these matters which could not have been the
case had the board been differently c mstituted • and we
feel certain many of the ruinous bargains entered into
could never have been permitted had the chairman been
under the control of a properly constituted and deliberative
body. This opinion will be fully borne out by the evidence.
It is only just to state to the shareholders that there are
some gentlemen on the direction who have withheld their
consent from several of the measures that have passed the
board, and who would have prevented much of the mis-
chief done, if they had had the power to do so.
In concluding this report, the committee of investiga-
tion believe that they have furnished to the shareholders
an amount of evidence, which, if carefully perused, will
convey to them a complete knowledge of the affairs of this
company; that it contains a detailed representation of the
workings of this railway, and of those matters on the good
or bad management of which depends its prosperity. Your
committee have given near three months of their time, and
much anxious deliberation, to the points reported upon ;
and they believe that your lino of railway, passing through
populous districts, rich in all agricultural productions, and
having a trade even now greater than they can easily carry
out, ought to be, and if properly managed would be, re-
munerative. (Signed)
Holum) Love, Chairman.
EDWARD BALL.
THOMAS CHRISTY.
JEREMIAH PILCHER.
HENRY SOPER.
P.S.—Shareholders wishing to attend the adjourned
meeting meeting on the 7th day of December next are requested
apply for free passes over the lines of this company to
Owen, the secretary, at the Bishopsgate Station.
N.B.—Mr. Norris, from continued indisposition, was
-absent from the later meetings of the committee, and was
at the conclusion of the report confined to his house, and
unable to sign his name to the report.

( From the Times City Article.)
The long-anticipated report of the committee of investi-
gation on the Eastern Counties Railway% has been issued
this evening, and not only sustains ell the charges brought
by the awlitors against the management at the last meet-
ing, but states that those charges were far below what
would have been warranted. It is asserted that no cor-
rect balance has ever been struck in the stores department
since Mr. Waddington was chosen chairman, that goods

untouched have been sold for old stores, and that on eon-
siot.s when these transactions were taking place the com-
pa-ly were buying fresh goods at from 10 to 4(1 per cent
above the highest market prices. Illegal additions are re-
presented to have been made to the capital accounts of
69,6061. which belong to the Norfolk Company. Prefer-
ential contracts have been entered into with individual
firms to carry coals, cattle, &c., at a positive loss to the
shareholders, and also to the damage of regular traders, who
were thus shut out from fair competition. In one of the
concerns thus favoured—the Norfolk and Eastern Counties
Oeal Company—the locomotive superintendent was a part-
ner, and his certifioates were actually taken as to the qua-
lity of the coal he himself supplied. The Tilbury and
Southend lino has been leased, in the opinion of the com-
mittee, on imorovident terms, and the arrangements with
respect to the Woolwich line, Lowestoft Harbour, the
steamboats of the Eastern Union Railway, and the steam
traffic between Harwich and Antwerp are strongly cora-
demned. With regard to the looomotive superintendent,
it is recommended that a claim on his part of 3,193/.
should not be paid until the justice of payments to the
amount of nearly 20,0001. made to him for percentages
since 1851 shall have been settled by arbitration, and
that his existing engagement be referred to the law °Moors
of the company with a view to its termination. An ad-
vance of 8,0001. to the corporation of Harwich and sew-
mitments to an outlay at that place of 30,0001. are involved
in obscurities which the committee have been unable to
fathom. Since Mr. Waddington became chairman, in 1151,
the additions to capital have been to the extent of
1,213,9521., or at a rate which the committee consider
would, if it were continued, seen destroy the dividend
available for unguaranterd shareholders. A considerable
portion of this amount should not have gone to capital at
all. In relation to the maintenance of the permanent way,
whet the last committee of investigation recommended
should be met by an annual apportionment of 32,0001., it
appears that the amount appropriated for the purpose in
1855 has been only 3,2001., and that an outlay is now ne-
cessary of 150,0001. The examination of the accounts for
the last half-year has resulted in showing that instead of
57,5811. bong, as represented, divisible for dividend, the
amount was only 21,2631. Previous rotund are believed
to have been of the same delusive character, and the audit
by the professional auditors has been imperfect and, in
the opinion of the committee, entirely useless, Finally,
it is unanimously submitted that the election of a chair-
man at a salary of 2,0001. a-year has acted most preju-
dicially to the interests of the company by decreasing the
influence of the individual members of the board, and it
is likewise pointed out that another great evil consists is
the fact that out of the 15 directors of the company only
8 represent its regular interests, 5 representing the North-
ern and Eastern Company, and the remaining 2 the East
Anglian. Accompanying the report if a mass of evidence,
containing extraordinary revelations of the system pur-
sued during the past five years ; and when it is remem-
bered that the Eastern Counties line was one of the first
to obtain dearly-bought experience of the necessity of
looking, above all things, for integrity of management,
the entire document will be regarded as one of tits most
singular that has ever bean presented is emuseideit with
a public enterprise.