The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-18 00:00:00

// .J

commonly made use of in that room. He was not there thi,4-1-",
as engineer to the line. He was there simply in his ca- ' .(---e
pacity as a proprietor; and until he knew more of the <
loose assertions of Mr. Herapeth end of other gentlemen
~ .
he would certainly prefer to take for granted the dedt:---; ---,• - ,
berate and responsible statements made by the eitt:cteers t
in the report now presented to him.—(Hear, beef.) sjAr. ,
Herapath had said that the working expens& ofethe
Dorchester line were 80 per cent.; bat they had beard. -e ' t-;
from Mr. Reed that they were under 50 per °est.:rind* -
they surely ought to receive such statementr SL tle : , , -
....:.
truth unless they were prepared to prove them falle;r. :::Y,'.:.-r: . '
(Hear, hear, and Question.) He claimed thepliVrtle- -..'eee-'74., -
assert what he felt to be the fact. Now was the its of'----:',P-- y
never. If they did not make the railway now, i ' ' ' "
*setili,j,
never be left to them to decide again.—(Hear, an
Voice—So much the better.) Satisfied be was that a
railway through the district would be made, whether
this company made it or not.--(Oh.) But it was asked
why the landed proprietors did not make the line there-
selves.—(Hear.) The reason was this. 'They thought
that if they made the line to Salisbury they would put
29,0001. pee annum into the pockets of this company—
(Oh)—and that therefore, if they constructed the rail-
way for their own bean fit, they would also make it
for the benefit of the South-Westerns.—(ob, oh.)
They asked for a four per cent. dividend upon
the traffic over the line, because that traffic
would give the South-Westerns 29,0001. a year upon
their main line; so that while they (the landowners) re-
ceived the 4 per cent., they would be giving this com-
pany more than 5 per cent. upon the capital they had
subscribed.—(Oh! oh!) There were authorities quite as
good as Mr. Herapath's. (Mr. Locke proceeded to quote a
passage in favour of the central scheme.) From What
authority did they think he bad read that extract? No
other than Mr. Herapath himsell—(Loud laughter.) It
was from Herapath's Railway Journal of the 29 th of
January, 1847.—(Loud laughter.)
Mr. [(MUTAT)" wished it to be understood that he
was the proprietor and not the editor of Ilerapoth's
Journal. There were matey things in it that he never
saw.—(Laughter.)
Mr. LocKE, in resuming, proceeded to combat the fear
which gentlemen had professed for the competition that
might follow. Surely the shortness of the central line
was the best reason in the world why the Great Western
should wish to keep up their fares. Personally he should
be satisfied with either line; and one or the other they
would have. It was said that the Great Western did. not
wish to move; but they had made up their minds to ad-
vance. They were advancing.—(Cheers and cries of
"It is not true.") He would tell them that it was true.
An agent, authorised by both the companies, bad been
in the district canvassing,—(Cries of " Name!") He
would mention the name of Mr. Dawson.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. DICKENSON said there had been an attempt last
year, which had failed, because the `country gentlemen, _
from whom so much was expected, would do nothing.
The Great Western would do nothing unless the central
scheme was persevered in.
Mr. LOCKE persisted in his statement; and
Captain MOORS= said it was perfectly true. The
fact was well known, and he could confirm it.
Mr. LOCKE was astonished to have heard the contra-
diction, as the circumstance was well known in the dis-
trict. He believed that the time was now or never, un-
less the South-Westerns were prepared to imperil their
eight or nine millions.—(Hear, hear.) Unless they ex-
erted themselves, the time would come when they would
have the broad gauge to Southampton, and then their
vast capital would most materially suffer.—(Cries of
"Oh !") Gentlemen might fancy they knew better than
other people; but he believed, upon his conscience,
that if they did not adopt the plan, they would jeopardise
their nine millions.—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. HELPS, as a member of the committee, which had
reported last year, wished to say a few words. Doubt-
less his opinion would not carry much weight, either
mentally or on the score of experience; but in one rev
specs it ought to carry even more than that of the Hon.
Member for Honiton. It was perfectly disinterested.—
prinsesipyatllhyatinhteer(enster.dLaoseakela)nwdoiswbneedr
(Hear.) The Hon. Gentleman had avowed that be was
terests at the expense of the toand
nt hs
oo
lutg hhh;
se
in did-
not
company's, yet he had ad-
mitted that which ought to make his advocacy received
with distrust.—(Hear.) The Hen
" Now or never." Why he said so .laGstenyteleamr.anltswaiads,
his COngtlnt threat—the burden of his s
Mr. LOCRE—I did not mean it as a threat.'
etiro—(Cheers.)
Mr. HELPS—The burden of the Hon. Gentleman's
by another. Be it 50. Why did not the
speech was that the line would be made, and if not by
"smmPalee lnY'it now?—(Hear, hear.) But the apathy
tohtihse cr
of the landowners was perfectly notorious.—(Hear,
hear.) They had talked of the contingent advantages
which the company would derive; bet that Cut both
wars. Had not this company a metropolitan station
and a greater mileage; besides which, had not the agri-
culturists got their laud to sell?—(Cheers.) It they
only got half what had been made for land, it would
more than ceunterbalance any advantage to the company.
Mr. LOCKE said that three-fourths of the landowners
had agreed to take the agricultural price for the land,
and a great majority would take it in sharea.—(Elear.)
Mr. HELPS said that was very vague; for if the land
was near a road, they would say. " Oh, here is a
frontage; this is building land."—(Cheers.) He (Mr.
Helps) was sick of these vaticinations of gentlemen
upon boards—they never seemed to place nay bounds to
their imagination. They had heard of Mitcham—" the
town and suburbs of Mitcham." Why, ho had lately
been there, and he was quite surprised to find what a
desolate spot it really was.—(Laughter.) On the as-
sumption that the company was certain to succeed the
calculation was disastrous. But what if it did not?—
(Hear, hear.) What if they went to Parliament to con-
test an opposition provoked by themselves, and failed in
it?—(idear, hear.) In this, as in all preceding similar
schemes of extensions, the proprietors were led away by
their attention being diverted train dividend. All this
was mistaken policy. Their business was to cultivate
,ho opportunities they had got, and to risk nothing. An
ancient maxim was, " Spartam nactus es, hanc orna;"
but the maxim of the directors of the South-Western
was the very opposite, and. as their dividend showed,
with the worst results.—(Hear, hear.) Ho hoped that
the proposition would be met on this occasion with a di-
rect negative.
Mr. Drcavesoet begged to apologise for the hasty con-
tradiction ho bad given to Mr. Locke—(Hear, hear)—
but he had offered that contradiction in consequence of
having received assurances from the highest authority in
the Great Western that they did not intend to take any
proceedings they could avoid south of their present line.
Mr. REED (a director) said that he did not perceive
the justice of the taunt thrown out, that the directors
were not acting like men of business, in abstaining to
describe the process to which they would resort for the
purpose of raising the capital required. To do so would
be absurd, since every thing would depend, when the
time came, upon the state of the money market; and
therefore, as a man c-f business, he stood godfather to
that error, as soma gentlemen supposed it to be. Gentle-
men had spoken as if the directors bad pledged them-
selves to adopt the extension. They had not determined
on it at all; they were only determined on getting at all
the facts of the case, laying all those facts before the
proprietors, and throwing the whole responsibility
on the proprietors.—(Bear, hear.) There were two in-
terests in that room; and it could not be proved
that the directors had over undertaken an extension for
their own advantage. In this case the directors were
showing that they were alive to the interests of the pro-
perty. They saw their property endangered, their re-
venue jeopardised—the very marrow of the line attacked
—and under such circumstances they were only energe-
tically tically doing their duty by standing on their guard, an
preparing for defence.—(Hear, hear.) Doubts hadebe,:nr
thrown on the probability of getting the work donf
the amount named; but the contractors were responsible
orked out
men, and the South-Western line had
beenlt'v was sug-
altogether by contracts.—(Hear, hoar.)
their tariff, if
gested that Parliament would cut down
ariiamont
they went for this extension. Bat had not
and Parliament would
the power against their consent, seeing that their
not desire such an unjust reduction,
imake a moderate
to
existing fares enabled them Y
eParentee. Garantee was
dividend. Then, as to the doubt.
(Hearn— hear.) No
an uncomfortable word,
ressed hardly on many
doubt the system of guarantees©
fi ceptions, the South-
railways; but, with "clear of guarantees.—(A Pro-
Western had steered,
prietor, '° Don't begi'ens, then.") If that was a
merit it belonged w the
board of directors, for the
eposed the system. They didn't
board had never ef
propose
This was no guarantee at all: and the
it Dow.
eald it be so considered in the City? It was
a-
test w"--
preferential dividend.—(Laughter.) If no profit
would not be payable; bat if there
only a per cent.
arose that tiofits on the extension itself, then it would
shot!.
ld be e-landowners instead of to the South-
° the
Payable cproprietary. He did not argue the
be advantage
Western
of the extension from the possibility or probability of it
being its& eprofitable. He might admit that it would
But, apart from all
loss to the whole company.
be a
other arguments, he maintained that the extension was
necessary to secure to them that which they already pos-
sessed.—(livar, hear.)
Mr. DICKENSON here suggested that, as it was near
six o'clock, the meeting should be adjourned.—(Cries of
~ Yes, yes, adjourn.")
Mr. MALINs supported the proposition of the direc-
tors, and asked the Chairman, as the point was of im-
portance in the consideration of the general
question,
what was the position of the Basingstoke and Salisbury?
The CHAIRMAN had received that morning a letter
from Mr. Coles, the Member for Andover and chairman
of the company formed to connect the line from Basing-
stoke to Salisbury, upon this subject, in which he said
that it was the intention of thecompany to carry out the
line in its integrity, but that, as they did sot wish to in-
terfere with the South-Western, they were ready to
enter into an arrangement. Should no arrangement be
speedily made, it was their intention to apply to Par-
liament next session for powers. This intimation (said
the Chairman) left the South-Western in a dilemma;
and unless the directors got authority from! theTtiis,
pro-
prietors, they could not very well act
FfrectusflaYr.coming
however, was only one among many rehsehnes
could say
to un early decision on the subject. All
shareholders
again, was, that if the South-Western
miles long, and, at points
thought that a country
ninety miles long, and, at points
let alone, they were
fifty miles broad, was going
had only
to decide whether
greatly mistaken. They
others take it, for the purpose
they would take it or lettd
not
say this in the way of a
of injuring them. He the broad fact that they were
threat. But he took
repudiated
b the parties to whom he
systematically
nope
d there would have been some-
reCorred. He hadi
on this occasion; but if the pro-
thing like unanim
wore time for discussion an adjourn-
prietors wanted
s be agreed to.—(No, and Yes.).
meat would perhap
had been Opposed to the central
Mr. Hurourris
but after what he had now heard he was con-
scheme., -
mast proceed
onwards. Still he did not
vinced that they
and he had most decided objection to
like the terms, a _ . a
es and preferential shares.—(Cheers.)
guarantees
eating would
MAN suggested -
The CHAlRthat if the m
agree •-
to the desirability of making the line, they might