The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-16 00:00:00

WEST FLANDERS.

The report of the directors states that they have sum-
moned the shareholders in order to obtain their approval of
a convention made provisionally with the Societe Anonyme
de Construction de Tubize. At the last half yearly general
meeting the directors informed the shareholders of the mo •
tives which led them to solicit the concession of two new
lines, in order to develope the traffic and to counteract the
effects of the competing line from Ostend to Ypres and
Armentieres. The concessions were approved. The direc-
tors subsequently ordered the surveys, plans, and estimates
to be proceeded with, and during their preparation over-
tures were made to them by the Societe Anonyme de Con-
struction de Tubize to lease the whole of this company's
lines, including the new lines, to construct the latter, to
pay the interest upon the capital, and supply the necessary
sums for the gradual reimbursement of this capital. The
principal features of the conventions are :—That the West
Flanders lines shall be leased to the Tubize Company from Ist
Jan., 1865, for the whole duration of the concession, and for a
rent of £36,000 per annum. During the first six years. how-
ever (which will be the least productive, owing to the fact
that the new lines have to be constructed), the rent will
only be £32,000 for the first three years, £33,000 for the
fourth, and £34,000 for the fifth and sixth years. The
Tubize Company become responsible towards the Govern-
ments of Belgium and France, in lieu of the West Flanders
Company, for the execution of the obligations imposed
upon the latter by the original contracts of the conces-
sions. The advantages of the convention are clearly
shown by the following figures :—ln the year 1862 the
sum available for dividend was £11,967, after discharg-
ing the ordinary cost of working and the payment of
interest on the loan and the preference shares. This enabled
the directors to pay a dividend of 8s 9d on the ordinary
shares. The corresponding amount of X 13,256 in 1863 would
again have allowed the same dividend, had it not been for
the circumstances explained at the last general meeting. The
rent for the first three years of the lease, after deducting the
expenses for management, estimated at about £3,000 per
annum, and the above-mentioned charges, will leave a sum
of about £14,750 applicable to dividend. This sum will be
augmented by Ll,OOO for the 4th year of the lease, £2,000
for the fifth and sixth years, and £4,000 for the seventh
and following years. The agreement was ratified on the
10th of June by the Conseil General of the Tubize Com-
pany, and is definitively binding bn them ; but, before it
can take effect, it must receive the approbation of the Bel-
gian Government, which the directors have every reason to
believe will be readily obtained.

Railway Traffic Returns for the Week.
Miles Opened. Receipts.

Railways. ,----";--. --w--A-:----
1864. 1863. 1864. 1863.
£ £
Belfast and N, Counties 136 136 2,609 2.264
Belfast and County Down 49 49 1,013 868
Blyth and Tyne 2B 28 2,113 1,870
Bristol and Exeter l2li 1216 6,885 6,948
Caledonian 252 234} 18,801 16,211
Cockermouth& Workington B' 86
Cork and Bandon 2O 20 407 371
_ _

Cork, Blackrock, & Passage 66 - -
Corkand Youghal...- 32i 321 572 493
Cornwall 651 53f-; 1,726 1.431
Deeside l7 17 45) 359
Dublin & Belfast Junction B3 63 1,450 1.436
Dublin and Drogheda 75 75 1,915 1,948
Dublin and Meath
Dub. & Wicklow and Wexfd 916 484 3,818 2,793
Edinburgh and Glasgow 173 173 8,115 8.263
Furness, &c 5O 5u 3,230 3,043
Glasgow & South-Western
Gt. Eastern,Nrfk.,&E.Union
Great Northern 353 351 33,800 23,189
Great North of Scotland sB' 58 1,780 1.902
GL Northn. & Westn. (Irel.), 7lt 711 421 180
Gt.Southn. & Westn.(lrlnd.) 3731 329 9,193 8,806
Great Western 10564 10561 67,574 63.294
Inverness & Aberdeen June 864 864 .1,362 1,485
Inverness & Perth Junction 1191 - 1,949 -
Irish North-Western 145 145 1,589 1,783
Lancashire & Yorkshire 402 3951 43,650 38,430
Limerick and Ennis..
Limerick and Foynes 284 261 169 296
Llanelly 461 461 658 737
London & North-Western
London and Blackwall t
London & South-Western
28,2 , 9 25,924
Lond. Brighton, &S. Coast 261 2501 20,763 21,293
London, Chatham, & Dover 72 721 7,697 5 843
Do. Metropolitan Extension 114 101 2,250 1,300
Man.,Sheffield, & Lincolnsh
Manch. S.Jun.&Altrincham 9l 94 1,519 1,446
Maryport and Carlisle
Metropolitan 34 31 2,575 2,0 i
Midland (incl. N.-Western).. 641 630 45,564 43,083
Midland GL Westn. of Irind... 262 2596 4,438 4,950
Mould:old
Monmouthsh. Rail. & Canal , 44 44 2,620 2,358
North British, Edin., Perth
and Dundee
N-Eastern and Stock. & DarL 1095 10791 59,368 54,148
North London 9 9 3,596 3,368
North Staffordshire 254 254 9,689 8.u46
Oswestry and Newton.... 5O 42 1,163 1,093
Rhymney l9l • 194 987 779
St. Helen's Canal & Railway 52
Scottish Central 94 94 5,798 5,106
Scottish North-Eastern l3B 138 5,680 5,616
Somerset and Dorset 66 396 813 434
South Devon ...- .....
South-Eastern...-.......- 306 806 25,813 24,766
Taff Vale .......•--- 57 67 5,093 5,778
Ulster . ~„.. 1056 1051 2,745 2,538
Vale of Clwyd. .. ...
Vale of Neath 431 36 2,831 2,t58
Waterford and Kilkenny 3l 31 458 3 3
Waterford and Limerick 77 77 3,990 1,25 u
West Cornwall 274 274 .779 73 t
W.HartlepoolHarbr.&Rail 52 52 4,972 4.419
W'haven,Cleator,& Egrmnt lO 7 770 693
Whitchaven Junction l3 13 1,083 875
Whitehaven & Furness Jun 35 35 1,001 840
FOREIGN AND COLONIAL.
Antwerp and Rotterdam ...•• 52 52 -
Austrian
Bahia and San Francisco ..• - 377 -
Belgian Eastern Junction 26 264 321 300
Bombay, Baroda, & Cen. India 185 1854 3,177 2,296
Buffalo and Lake Huron l6l 1611 2,013 2.296
Detroit and Milwaukie lB9 185 4,348 3,583
Dutch Rhenish
Eastern Bengal - -
1135 1302 63 817
Eastern of France ,170 55,
East Indian
Grand Trunk of Canada lO9O 1090 20,052 16,559
Great Indian Peninsula 553 495 12,325 9,570
Great Luxembourg 134 134 4,512 4,653
Great Southern of India
Great Western of Canada 345 31 5 9,347 9,122
Madras
Madrid, Saragossa &Alicant 650 490 21,399 18,552
Northern of Canada ... ..... - -
Northern of France ...... - -
Norwegian Trunk - -
Ottoman
Paris, Lyons, & Mediterrn lBO5 1713 123,537 124,315
Paris and Orleans 1614 1494 64,550 5.,531
Pernambuco . . 771 77 8,1 703
Royal Danish 69 69 6,794 3,077
Sambre and Mouse 6B at _
South Austrian
Salado - -
Southern of France .....
Victorian 196 196 10,813 11,128
Welland ........... • •,••••••• • • 25 25 317 -
West Flanders 75 75 1,392 1,210
W. and N.W. of France

As Marshal Niel was two days ago taking a drive
in his phaeton at Toulouse, one of the horses fell, and the
shock threw the marshal out of the carriage and broke one
of his ribs. The accident, however, is not expected to be
attended with any serious consequences.

tion of the department, or the requisite alteration
was submitted to the inspector, and on his assent
substituted for the original. These alterations ap-
pear to have been generally accepted by the inspec-
tors, but in the case of Mr. J. R. Morell, who ob-
jected to the proposed alteration, one report was
ultimately sent to the managers as originally pre-
pared by the inspector, and another was altogether
suppressed. The practice, however, daes not seem
to have been perfectly uniform. In matters sup-
posed to be unimportant or perfectly clear from
doubt alterations have been made in the summary
without consulting the inspectors. (See Mr. Lin-
gen's evidence.)
" Your Committee mention here a case which
occurred in 1863 of a report made under section 19
of the Act 24th and 25th Victoria, cap. 107, corn.
monly called the' Scotch Schoolmasters' Acts' In
this special case the report appears to have been
abridged by a mistake of the officer before whom
the case came in the usual course, which mistake
was afterwards corrected by the secretary, who or.
dered the report to be sent to the heritors in its
original shape.

" Your Committee pass from the tabulated reports
to the more important subject of the annual reports.
" The length of these reports also was a frequent
subject of complaint, and instructions for the pur-
pose of keeping them within due limits were issued
from time to time by the Committee of Council.
These instructions were discussed in Parliament in
1858.

" In 1860, in consequence of a report having been
Printed containing remarks on the comparative
morality of Roman Catholic and Protestant countries
the attention of Mr. Lowe, who had been appointed
Vice-President in the previous year, was called to
the subject. The instructions by which the inspec-
tors' reports were regulated were then thoroughly
reviewed. The result was the following Minute of
the Committee of Council, dated the 31st January,
1861 :

" Their lordships having considered the instruc-
tions issued from time to time to her Majesty's
Inspectors of Schools for the preparation of their
anneal reports, find the sum of those instructions to
be that the inspectors must confine themselves to
the state of the schools under their inspection, and
to practical suggestions for their improvement. If
any report, in the judgment of their lordships, does
not conform to this standard, it is to be returned to
the inspector for revision ; and if, on its being again
received from him it appears to be open to the ob-
jection, it is to be put aside as a document not
proper to be printed at the public expense.'
" This minute was never formally laid before
Parliament, being considered to be only explana•
tory of the purport of the instructions previously
issued. It was, however, incidentally mentioned
and discussed in the House on more than one
occasion.

" The revision, which before 1858 was principally
for the purpose of condensation, was from that time
carried into effect in the following manner :—The
secretary, considering that the Committee of Council
were responsible for the exclusion of irrelevent and
objectionable matter from the reports, directed the
officer whose duty it was to read for the press to
examine the reports with increased care.

"This officer used to call the secretary's attention
to passages which he considered objectionable, either
by marking them or mentioning them orally, If the
secretary thought the objection invalid or unim-
portant he overruled it, but if he thought it impor.
tent he sent the report to the Vice-President, with
the reader's marks, and with observations of his
own if he thought any necessary.

di Mr Adderley, while he was Vice-President,
used to read the manuscript repuL to himself, and to
strike out with his own hand those passages which
he thought inadmissible. The inspectors, on re-
ceiving back their manuscripts with the proof, had
an opportunity of seeing what had been objected to
and of correcting the proof accordingly.
" Mr Lowe, on his appointment in 1859, discon-
tinued the practice of striking out passages, and
afterwards, under the Minute of 1861, ordered the
reports containing objectionable matter to be sent
back to the inspectors, that the inspectors might
themselves revise their own reports, and make them
conformable to the instructions.

"But the practice of marking the passages con-
tinued without Mr Lowe's knowledge, whose con.
start habit was to have the reports read to him by
his private secretary, and not to see them himself.
In 1862, however, Mr Lowe accidently became
aware of the continuance of that practice, and im-
mediately, by a note of his private secretary, dated
February 14, 1862, ordered that the reports should
be no longer marked.
" Since that time the practice of marking pas-
sages has been discontinued, and the'manuseriPt re-
ports objected to have been sent to the inspectors,
with a letter calling the writer's attention to the
Minute of 1861, but without specifying any pas-
sage or matter to which objection was taken. In
August, 1863, the usual circular later of instrue-
"state of schools under
tion to the inspectors to make their annual
. reports
contained an additional paragraph, in the follow-
ing words By the term.
you understand facts your inspection"
i‘ practical suggestions for their
ob-
served within the circle of your official experience,
will understand "
and by the ttrmyou
improvement, suggestions
consistent with theprinciples of Minutes sanctioned
by Parliament."—This explanation of the Minute
of 1861 has not been laid before Parliament.
Your committee believe that no instance of mark-
ing the reports has occurred since the 14th of Feb.

" The principle involved in the subject of this in-
quiry and in the resolution is important. Your
committee have carefully considered the action of
the Department, and have come to the conclusion
that the supervision exercised in objecting to the
insertion of irrelevant matter, of mere dissertation,
and of controversial argument, is consistent with the
powers of the Committee of Council, and has, on the
whole, been exercised fairly, and without excessive

strictness. If passeges occur in the reports, as
printed, consisting of inference or arguments which

may tend to support the educational view of the
Department, other passages may be found which
have a contrary tendency. No objection is made to

statements of facts observed by the inspectors with-
in the circle of their official experience, whatever
may be their bearing on the policy of the Committee
of Council.

"The knowledge, or even a reasonable suspicion,
that the inspectors' reports are subject to alteration,
either directly or indirectly, at the instance cf the
Department, has, without doubt, a tendency to lower
their value, if they are to be regarded as indepen-
dent sources of testimony in matters of opinion or
controversy touching the educational views or policy
of the Committee of Council. It appears, however,
to your committee that, whatever mq have been
the understunding under which the appointment of
inspectors was originally stmctioned, Parliament
cannot be presumed to be ignorant (since the year
1858 at latest), that the heads of the office have exer.

cised a censorship over the inspectors' reports as to
the insertion of argumentative or irrelevant matter;
and your committee are of opinion that some such

power is essential to the effectual working of the
department so long as it retains its present consti-
tution and functions.

" It has occurred to your Committee that it might
be possible to obtain all the information which the

inspectors can be desired to give to the department

or to Parliament, by requiring them to furnish

answers to specific questions, instead of making

general reports, and thus to avoid risk of misander.

standing, either between the Department and the
inspectors, or between the Department and Perlis•

ment, as to the kind of information which the in-

spectore are required to give. It appears, however,
that none of the reports for the last year have been

objected to on the ground of non-conformity with
the Minute of 1861, as explained by the paragraph

of August, 1863. For the information of Parlia-
ment your Committee recommend that all instruct
tions which may hereafter from time to time be

issued to the inspectors, either as to their general or
tabulated reports, should be laid before Parliament

with the annual report of the Committee of Council.

" Note.—The reports withhold, under the Minute of 1861,
are seven in number. Ten reports in all have been sent
back to the inspectors under the Minute, and have been
returned to the office with alterations, and so printed. Such
of the withheld and altered reports as could be obtained in
their original shape are printed in the Appendices; the
others have been destroyed. Some passages which have
been objected to as adverse to the policy of the department
are given in the evidence. References are given in the
Appendix (X) to other passages which may be considered
adverse to the policy of the department, and have not been
objected to,"

Foreign Mail Packet List.

MAILS DUE.

Australia and Mauritius, via Southampton .. July 19.
via Marseilles Aug. 12.
Brazil and Cape Verds, by British packet. Aug. 4.
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena July 29.
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton July 19.
via Marseilles July 28.

Falkland Islands
••
Gibraltar, via Southampton July 19.
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton July L9'
via Marseillee July
July 26.
Z''''
India (Bombay), via Southampton
via Marseilles . . Aug. 4.
P0rtuga1..........
July 20.
Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton ...... "'I
21.
..............
Newfoundland via Marseilles
............ ...July
Oporto and Vigo
. clot.. .. July. 20.
U. S. and British N. America, by Brit. Pa k t.
by U.S. pac e
....
h Causd'an packet,) my 22.
All parts of West Indies, including Cl. Peru) I July 29.
California. and British C01umbia............

29.—The Gustave Adolph, from London to Macao, put in
MURDER ONcapTtalEm:AeSr.e-d-11:713eNcAo:BU
mate.oo Ixtuurno.
here 26th June,
derer'to be sent home.
FALSE WEIGLITS AND MEABljn
return was
had
audb
bl iesehnt
he
ode
year tteeernd ddi
ia.nnytghOetfhp
the
the
ht f
sh
fnumbermu plae,:ts:onfs
uswihnog,
St. Pancras Middlesex
ch
fdaarlseinwgeights and measures. The trades were-7 cheese-
mongers,porkr-ebutchers,
5,43 butchers,baer
bakers,
3 oilmen,7 c oal dealers,
01
8 grocers, 1 stove 1 licensed victualler,
astraibodruae:ogdepernealesstro2'sn's keeping chandler's dealer,shop s The highest fine
amabaajskoeereriL:2s 6d. In some Cases only 2s 6d was
linflictedone 20s, the
atfsehore dasofiffnenedcef,oarnptcliOnsafoarpaenthniyrdpoieffceen7n.
the scale, and a grocer for having a paper weight
under the scale, and a marine-store dealer for having
a largo lump of lead in the scale which was removable.
The rut urns do not give the names of the guilty parties.
NLW ZEALAND VIA PANAMA.—Since the repudia-
tion of the Panama contract by the Ministry, the subject
has been freely ventilated in all the provinces. Canterbury
has taken the lead in a movement to guarantee to the In-
ternational Royal Mail Company the subsidy if they will
carry on the contract, and it is understood that this pro-
vince, as well as Nelson, will join in the guarantee, The
desirableness of communication via F anama is not ques-
tioned, and by some means or other we hope to see it
accomplished. Repudiation of any contract entered into by
our representative—even though he
.may have exceeded hie
powers—will only cause our credit to fall in the estimation
of English capitalists, and with the exception of Auckland
and Otago, and a small section of the community here, the
colony was in favour of the undertaking.