The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-09 00:00:00

Peel River Land and Mineral Company.

Yesterday the ordinary half yearly general met-
ing of proprietors was held at the offices in Moor-
gate-strut-buildings—Mr Hcnry Hughes in the
chair.

The report, which was taken as read, after de•
scribing the operations of the period, precceded :
" The chief cause that, it is feared, may possibly
militate against the revenue when the accounts are
submitted at the annual general meeting, exists at
present in the difficulty of readeing sufficient stock
in the colonies to meet the current expellees, and at
the same time leave the proceeds of the wool clips
.free for a dividend; but on the other hand; whilst
sheep remain unsold, the property owned by the
company is increased, and may be counted on still
further to multiply. The wool already mentioned
as sold has realised satisfactory prices, and the pros.,
pacts are good for the portion still to come forward,
The land sales have been quite insignificant. The
gold licenses produced the sum of £338„10s for the
year ending Dec. 31, 1863, The cash in hand for
wool sold amounts to £13,211 13s, but from the
causes before alluded to, the question arises as to
how far the colonial expenses to 30th inst.
may be
met by further sales of stock ? In the face of the
last advices, which describe a heavy market, with
great difficulty in selling sheep, and bearing is
mind that in the absence of sales an expenditure
for 18 months will have to be met by the proceeds
of one clip of wool, the directors consider the more
prudent course will be to fix on a limited amount as
an interim dividend on account of the profits which
will be shown to have been realised when the ac-
counts are rendered at the next annual meeting.
For this reason the directors now recommend that
£9,000 be at present appropriated towards payment
of a dividend on account, and that the same be de-
clared at the rate of 1.-} per cent. free of income tax,
on the consolidated stock of the company, payable
on and after 15th July next.

The CHAIRMAN, in submitting the confirmatory re-
solution, observed that the incidents referred to in the
report were of a mixed character, but they had had
a satisfactory increase in lambing and a successful
clip. The general health of the flocks was good, and
notwithstanding that extraordinary floods had com-
mitted great devastation both in New South Wales
and in Queensland, this company had escaped with-
out any loss of importance either at the Peel River
or the Ellengowrie stations, Still, owing to the
extreme depressien of the stock market, superina
tendents had not been able to make the customary
sales of surplus stock. Owing to a long continuance
of wet weather the sheep were suffering from lame-
ness, which was likely to increase their casualties,
and the prevalence of scab in. the neighbour...lnd of
Pcel. River wits a cause of considerable anxiety. It
was a matter of some gratification that they could
point out so many favouriable features, and as to the
drawbacks they were aL). more of a passive than an
active character, and even supposing their superin-
tendent should have been unable to dispose orthe
surplus stock before the 31.)th of Juno, tha on);
sequence would be that they would have so many
more sheep and cattle to sell when the state of the
stock market improved. No doubt the depression in
the market came inopportunely upon them just as
they were altering the period of closing the Lica
counts, and the result would tell the more unfavour•
ably seeing that they would have with diminished
sales to meet 18 months' expenditure which would
come into the year's returns. The usual clip of
wool had been successful both an to weight of fleece
and price obtained, and should the remaining bales
bring as high a price as those which had been al--
ready sold, the total produce from this source would
be over £20,000. Under all the circumstances, and
with such an extraordinary wet season, the rain
having fallen more or less continuously for three
weeks, he thought they might congratulate them-
selves that they had escaped so well. No new
purchases of land had been made for the rea-
sons stated in the report, and consequently no de-
bentures (as authorised at the last meeting) had
been issued. He might add that the directors would
not consider any purchase of land advisable unless
it paid the interest upon the debentures, and left
a balapce of profit over. The maintenance of the
customary dividend for the year would depend upon
the 15,000 wether sheep they had reared for market,
upon the price obtained for them, and for the wool
still in hand, and also upon the present year's clip ;
but, under all the circumstances, he trusted they
would accept the proposed interim dividend as sa-
tisfactory. The assets of the company in this
country were—Cash in hand, £1,779 lls. 11d.;
East India Railway debentures, £6,000; Victoria
Bonds, £3,741 10s. ; loan to London and West-
minster Bank, at 4 per cent., £12,000; loans upon
English government securities, at 5 'per cent.,
£2,000 ; total, £25,521 ls. 11d.
Mr. EAGLE seconded the report, adding that the
explanation of the chairman that the expense of
18 months' operations was included in the year's
accounts in some measure lessened the sombre cha-
racter of the report. lie hoped that the directors
would exercise caution in extending their opera'
tions, and suggested that any further capital re-
quired for land purchases should be raised by
preference stock rather than by debentures.
A. SHAREHOLDER thought it would be Well
to expend the balance of
or
ot
of
fe
the director.
i 2
5,
debentures or by
£2s,oooben iturnes ;habnud
before they raised capital on d t
whether they raised money by
preTfenhereceneAsltßomekANwsatsataedq
0800
mended, declared.
conversation, tho report was
waAsfatbersosrobmede by dividend.
to the chairman and directors tera
mivated the business.
Aadovpotteedo,fatnhdatnhkesdividend as recom
•
uthesatti°£l9,foo

HERALD.--Lord Palmerston gave his defence last
night, in a house that thundered with enthusiasm.
It followed a full debate, in which Mr. Osborne and
Mr. Walpole acted with effect the leading parts,
and it began with a double faisitlcatiou—tuat Lord
Russell had been selected as a special mark for
slander, and that the national name had been vili-
fied and trodden into dust by the Conservative
party. The Premier is a master of magnificent
commonplaces. He can always secure a cheer by
a loud and lofty appeal to the clap-trap patriotism
of benches occupied by men who fear that other
appeal which will bring them face to face with
the constituencies. Commencing thus, he imme-
diately proceeded after the folio of encourage.
ments by Lord Russell, to prove that Denmark
was as deeply in the wrong towards her Duchies
as Holland was towards Belgium before the separa-
tion--a statement as utterly incompatible as any
statement imaginable, with the subsequent iadigna-
Um of the British Foreign Secretary. Certainly,
however, Lord Palmerston was the only member of
the Government, Mr Gladstone not excepted, who
proved himself capable of even a plausibility in re-
ply to Mr Disraeli, and although his explanation of
the now infamous phrase "Denmark shall not stand
alone," excited laughter, it was at least inure respec-
table and original than the audacities of Mr Layard
and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He coloured
the policy of the Government with considerable
artistic skill, and was strong in his challenge to the
votes of the Whig faction, taking care to divide the
responsibility of all that happened among the lead-
ing Powers of Europe, and insinuating that Minis-
ters never designed or promised to act alone. Fall-
ing back on the case of Poland, he felt his way,
first in the track of Mr Horsman, then in that of
Mr Cobden, as if the question was simply one of
peace or war, and next treating the proposal of a
Congress by France as a show of insanity. The
country will not cars to pursue the First Lord very
minutely through his analysis of French motives or
objeets, for its interest is concentrated on the part
which England has taken throughout these trans-
actions ; but the speech became important when
it dealt with the position of Great Britain re-
latively to the other Powers of Europe, because
that problem has for us, in its solution, a terrible
significance. It declared to the house that Eng.
land had acted in concert with the other Governs
manta from the outset until now, with a view alone
to preserve the peace of the world, and it gave a
singular history, adroit and picturesque, in the
Premier's unique manner, of the transactions which
he and his colleagues have been so perilously forced
to defend. The question, Lord Palmerston affirms,
had been reduced before he proposed arbitration
to a narrow difference between two frontiers
—end he pleads not guilty to the failure of
an attempt which, he boasts, had it succeeded,
would have deserved the approbation of all man-
kind. He accused Mr Disraeli of having fere
ratted out extracts from the blue book, in order to
debate an European interest in a party spirit. He
asked, what is the use of English influence if Eng-
land is never to interfere, thus applying himself to
an issue which was never raised, at all events by
Mr Disraeli. He brought forth the antique to k
about the balance of power and the rights of weak
states, until he seemed to be listening to the echoes
of 1850, with Roman citizenship in the foreground.
In fact, the placid statesman, making himself out to
be a political warrior who had campaigned triumph.
antly in the four quarters of the world, and who _
meets every allegation, however elaborately sup-
THE PRISONERS FROIII TUE ALABAMA.The four
ported by evidence, with " I deny it," designates as
who landed at Cherbourg
a libel the statement that the just influence of Eng- officers of the Alabama .
p sorters on
land has been diminished. We think the public,
theas prisoners
who parole, surrendered themselves on beard
carefully examining his answer to the Opposition,
from Chezboure, il that vessel left the port. Advices
will be compelled to regard it as a tissue of empty in the roadsted b state that the Kearsarge has been replaced
sophisms. For example, begging the whole ques-
hip latter is built y the Federal corvette Sacramento. The
tion of a diplomacy at once futile, arrogant, tee—e-, like her, i on the same model as the Kearsage, and,
and evasive, and pretending to despise the
(title taken o a artned with very largn pivot guns. After having
spatches which have been so calamitous, and
go
in üboard coals and provlsions, the Sacramento is to
protocols which have merely recorded our t
W3i°trhout Eur quest of Confederate vessels cruising on the coasts of
cations, wealth, literature, and science,a
authority °Pe.
Capt. Seraree3 left, Southampton on Thursday for
pointing a syllable to the question why our
in Europe has been so wasted, prostituted, and ex- Capt. Semmes is mucb. better in health, but he still feels
hulked. We are rich, he said; we can protect acutely the lose of his
ship.
ourselves, if attacked; the Administration has been [ADVERTISE3uIIoII ' Ointment and Pills.—
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done everything, in truth, tor-
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which Mr Disraeli said has not_ bean done—upheld applying 'this healing ointment and taking these purifying
the honour of the nation on. the Continent of Europe. pills. T t soothes all distempers of, and extracts all morbid
It was the weaker point in Lord Palmerston's case humwars, from the skin. Old ulcers of the legs, inflam•
heers of his
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utterly irrelevant to the subject of debate. He life.es, can 'sensibly be eased and shortly cured by Rollo-
vaunted of national strength which has crouched Iv ay's never-failing ointment, which re presses excessive,
to foreign defiance, and, instead of justifying Lord 'and stimulates sluggish vascular and nervous action. In
Russell, flattered the volunteers. Denmark has . constitutions breaking down under piles , fistulas, and other
si.milarly painful maladies, a few applicaf ions of this cooling
been betrayed, Mr Disraeli says. Portsmouth is ointment will give comfort, and a persist ,ence in its use will
safe, replica Lord Palmerston, The blue book effect a cure,