The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-25 00:00:00

RAIOV:AY 11(ITELLIGENCE.
LONDON AND BLACKWALL.
The half-yearly enekting ofthia company' was held
yesterday at the London Tavern ;*Mr. J. N. Daniell
in the chair. ,
The report, an abstract of which bee appeared in
The Sun, was taken 'as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in indviug -the edoption of the re-
port, said ties. affairs of the company were in nearly
the same position as when the shareholders last met,
a short time ago. They were going on in the old
way, progressing steadily and well; they had had RR
inere;isq of traffic -and a diminution of expenditure,
and he belieierl that every exertion had been made
to carry out thobest interests of the company. They
had hoped to have had the goodslraffic on their line
at this time, but eircurnstancea over which they bad
tio control h.ad delayed the cempletion of the Hay-
don-square 'junction line; which was to have Leen
finished in Junt. last. The workmen had not been
able to COmelete the warehouses, without which it
evauld httiie been irselet's to' open the junction line.
They Weie, however, assured ..that the line and ware-
houses would be ready thilecemniodate the goods traffic
of the-Linden and North-Western Company.on the
Ist of October.. He had -little doubt -the Whole
would be ready felt traffic before the end of October
neat. It was hoped it 'would be then open, as
that was the, time of year when'their passenger traffic
commenced to tall off, and the goods traffic then com-
ing on would -aid their dividend Materially. The
dividend for the first half of the year was 'generally
less than for the second half, and although:at the cor-
responding period of 1:851 tbsly had a dividead of2s.
per share, that did not arise -entirely from traffic, for
3,0001. of it consisted of profit-on.:the sale of shares.
The dividsind-ou the, present --occasion was fro:n the
net earnings of the line. He had , trusted that the
amount would. have been further:increased .by the
NOrth-Western - goods traffic, 'but no doubt they
would 'derive some benefit from. that traffic in the
current half-year ; end so soon as the terminus was
coMpleted for the accoinniiidation of the Eastern
Counties trains at Fenchurch. street they would re-
ceive a considerable, addition- to their traffic. With
regard to the Tilbury ad 'Southend line, the Black-
well Company wale defended and guarded in every
way from loss of the Gravesend traffic. He believed
the addition to their ttaffid Nisi that source would be
very great. Eiery exertion would be made by the
contractors to open the line to Tilbury, opposite Graves-
end, by the Ist of May next. The extension to
Southend would be opened in about twelve months
from the present time, 'al-02014h the time sti-
pulated was eighteen months. .So that their
present prospect veas'_ very - good. He might
be allowed to mention that the directors
were firmly of opinion that their line, as one of five
miles in length only, could never -be a payieg line in
itself, and it was for this -Brian that they. had, with
the Bandied and support of the proprietors, altered
the system of working the railway, and done other
things with a view to advance the interests of the
company and to cprthect the line with other railways.
Their anticipations With regard to dividends had long
been deferred, but they were now on the eve of being
realised. The exertions of,tbe directors in promoting
the welfare of the Undertaking
_bud been as zealous as
poisible, and he believed the shareholder's generally
were satisfied with thole exertions : but that. they had
not given universal satisfaction was. to be seen from a
letter which appeared in the Tz:nes of that morning,
under the signature of " A Poor Debtor."—(Lauga-
ter) The writer of that letter impugned the conduct
of the directors, who were charged with wasting large
sums of money in. the construction of a branch
to ',Ha.yeion-square, and in building en extravagant
terminus at
,Penchurch-street; while the shareholders
were Obliged fo put up with a dividend of 2se per
share. 'New he thought the shareholders would
agree with hitiain saying that a person writing to a
piper like- the, Times should, ,before he attempted •
to Ceneiireiet4hintiany, at :least take the trouble of
investigating the truth of the charges he thought
proper to bring against them.—(Hear, hear.) -The
writer of the letter to which ho referred *might be a
" poor debtor," but he was evidently much poorer in
intellect and information. The. " Poor. Debtor's"
charge was, that the company had agreed to spend
half-a-million of money upon the HaydOn4quare
brinch. The fact was that the branch was to cost
75,0001., not one farthing of which would come out
of the pockets of the. Blackwell Campany—(Hear)—
and not only would it not cost the proprietors any-
thing, but the latter would reap a. very considerable
advantage from the additional traffic it would bring on
the line when constructed.—(Hear.) With regard
to the 'Fenchureh-street terminus, , the - proprietors
were thoroughly ecquainted with the feet that that
terminus was scarcely large enough for the
present traffic, and, it must, of course, be satis-
factory to them to know that the enlargement
was not to be made with their money ; so that, in
short, these excrescences, _which the writer in
the Times charged', them with haiing undertaken
at an enormous expense, would : not cost the
coinpanything, while the outlay would greatly
increase the passenger traffic, and; consequently add
to the receipts of the railway.—(Hear.) -A good in-
terest was guaranteed on the outlay at the terminus
in Fenchurch-street .by the Eastern Ceunties Com-
pany, and there could be no_ doubt that the latter
company saw clearly they would derive considerable
advantage from the extra accommodation it would'
afford them for their passenger traffic. He concluded
bimoving the adcption of the report.
Mr. Hero seconded the motion.
Mr. PALLISER entered into some, statistics with a
view ,to show that the company carried passengers on
the line for less thanjd. each. He arrived at this
periods, and
amountumr
ot
taking k i g andatnh number
of
-in the
passengersih6dicffaerrreiend at oneceintlaeperrieocdeiwptisth
coofnrcelcuesiiootns fromncuogimPbaerrinegartriheed raetceoitplatesr
and
numbers. • that 7
The CHAIRMAN explained . theeresult of Mr.
Palliser's calculations were erroneous, inasmuch as
he compared the gross receipts nod the number of
passengers of the Dock Junction line included in the
returns with the net receipts and number of passen-
gers included is the returns at another period, in
which can the receipts per passenger would appear
to be mach less than it really Was ;. and, so far from
carrying passengers for less than id. there were none
carried under a mere fraction less than Id. ; and that,
so far from having received less money, they had re-
ceived 3,0001. more during the past half-year than at
any corresponding period. The Blackwell Railway
had boats on one side of it and omnibuses on the
other, and the directors were obliged to do the best
they could to protect the interests of the company.
The sum paid by passengers for single tickets on'the
railway averaged 4.307 d. each ; for return tickets,
3.154 d. each ; and to and from thetitearn boats, 3.497 d.
each; so that the steamboat passengers paid more than
the return-tickets on the railway.
Mr. PALLISER contended that the steam-boats had
taken away their dividend. .
The Orteramex could not help Mr. Palliser, if be
chose to take that view of the Case, which was nut the

factA.
PR said they had no right to complain
as the traffic from the steam-boats returned more per:
passenger that the return traffic on the railway.
A discussion'then ensued respecting the interest
paid on the borrtiwed money, in the course of which
it was stated tha. it had been reduced from 5 per
can!. to 41 and 41 per cent., and that they always
adverti4at for leans arid' had found few individuals
who were willing-to lend•their money at 4 per cent.
for so long a period as five or seven years. They
had borrowed money from the Bank of England at 41'
per cent. In•answer to a question it was stated that
they estimated the Gravesend traffic at between 8,0001.
and 9,0001. a-year, which was not to be less
when the
Tilbury line was opened from traffic.
. The report Was then adopted.
Mr. TITE, ia reply to a question, stated thatit was
not the fault of the Loudon and North-Western nor
ol
line
any
bad ny otherne net been
pnaeretny that
completed.th e
ll ayd
Theon -Bs Luca,: e junction
Blackwell
A ii
Corn.
pany had to provide the land, a large bridge, had to be
built, and the Warehouses had to be alt
here was no
blame to the engineer or anyone else; the delay was
unavoidable. . 1
Mr. PALLISER moved a resolution to the effect that
in future nesteambosts 'be permitted to collect the
the payment of
make the at Fonchurch-street for
fare for the Madman Wail way ; that the Blackwaii.
ppiieerr-bdeneosp;entbtaotatlillepabseseenkginegr-boats by
upon the pier duet.
bonAtanredsorlauiltiobae. daiscontinued, and that the boats that
share for the h
only u Blackwell-pier terminus have an allowance
The motion
vote of thank a
separated.
the ground. was not seconded, and therefore fell to
ifapproving of the dividend
ao
cordialf , 23.
-year was carried, + .
meeting ato the Chairman and directors, the

The half-yearly meeting--
EAST INDIAN.
vvas held
n yesterday at the offices, Old Brosd-strect; Mr. J.
Baxendale in the chair.
The Secretary read the-report.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the aloption of the re-
port, said he was not aware that he had anything to
of this compay