The Sun.
London, England, 1852-08-30 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD.
The half-yearly meeting of the proprietors was held
at the Easton-square terminus of the London and North-
Western Railway, on Saturday. Mr. S. M. Peto, M.P.,
was in the chair. The advertisement by which the
meeting was convened having been read, the following
report of the directors was submitted :
" The statement of the accounts of the half-year end-
ing the 30th June last exhibits a gross , increase of re-
ceipts from traffic to the amount of 8,2581. ss. 10d., of
which sum 5,6541. Os. Bd. have been derived from the
railway, and 2,6041. ss. 2d. from the steam-boats. [A
tabular statement is then given, from which it appears
that the net earnings of the railway in the half-year end-
ing June, 1850, was 21,8431. 15s. 4d.; in June, 1851,
28,4771.195. Id.; and in June,lBs2, 27,897/. 14s. Bd.; while
the losses on the steam-boats had decreased from
5,8161. is. 6d. in June, 1850, to 214 3s sd. in June,
1852.] From these comparative statements it appears
i
that traffic, both of the railway and the steam-boats, s
steadily on the increase ; and although the results of
the half-year's working certainly fall short of the ex-
pectations of your directors, there is sufficient proof
that the prospects of the undertaking are gra-
dually improving. The increase of expenditure has
been occasioned by the measures which your directors
have taken, after careful consideration,
with a view to
the eventual advantage of the company, from the in-
creased traffic which those measures are calculated to
secure. The accounts show a net balance of 7,9511. 17s.
11d, to the credit of revenue, from which your directors
recommend the payment of a dividend of 31- 6d. per
share on the first preference shares. The development
of the slate traffic) has been partly delayed in consequence
Hof the alterations necessary to afford to the quarries at
Port Penrhya and.;Port Dinorwic the desired facilities
of communication between the tramways and the rail-
way. The tramways at Carnarvon are not, as yet, con-
nected with yoar liue. The depot for storing the slate
and thus maintaining the means of constant supply, are
in course of construction. This arrangement will, it is
believed, materially tend to secure to your railway this
important branch of traffic. The heads of an agreement
with the London and North-Western Railway and the
City of Dublin Steam-boat Company have been arranged,
and have passed under the seals of these companies re-
spectively. In consequence of this settlement the traffic
in goods and cattle from Ireland, via tic lyhead, will com-
mence immediately. Your directors have the satisfaction
of stating that,with one exception, the several disputed
accounts with contractors and other persons have been
settled on terms which must, on the whole, be consi-
dered favourable to the company. In the matter of the
purchase of the Mold Railway, authorised at a meeting
of the proprietors held on the 30th of March, 1849, Mr.
Stephenson, the referee in respect of the terms of pur-
chase, has given his award, fixing the rate of conversion
at ten shares of 15/. each, in the Mold Railway Com-
pany, for three shares of 501. each in the Chester and
trolyhead Company. Your directors deemed it to be their
duty to withdraw the Bill before Parliament last session,
in consequence of the Shrewsbury and Chester Com-
pany having succeeded, when the Bill was in Committee
of the House of Lords, in obtaining the insertion of a
clause, giving that company a power of interference with
the rates on your line, calculated to affect your interests
injuriously. This disappointment of their reasonable
expectations, arising from a cause entirely beyond
their control, has prevented your directors from'
carrying into effect those financial arrangements for
the diminution of the burthen of your debenture debt,
to which they alluded in their last report; 'dot it
is satisfactory to them t apb'A,t9 state that, although
the course which they [ .astieis‘d. to take has been thus
impeded, they have been enabled to renew all the de-
bentures that have recently fallen due, at a rate of inte-
rest more favourable than heretofore. The annexed re-
port of the resident engineer is most satisfactory as re-
gards the general condition of the railway and progress
of the works:—
" RESIDENT ENGINEER'S REPORT.

" Gentlemen,—l have the satisfaction of reporting
that the permanent way and works of the railway are in
good order and condition. The branches to the slate
wharfs at Port Pairhyn and Port Dinorwic, with the
necessary commtmicaiions with the tramway's, are com-
pleted and in good working order. The slate depot at
Salteney is progressing, and will, I expect, be finished
in the course of two months. The cattle-sheds, yards,
and loading places at Holyhead, necessary for the full
development of the Irish traffic, are completed and
ready for use. The railway from Bangor to Carnarvon
is now open, both for passenger and goods traffic.—l
remain, gentlemen, your obedient servant, _

" HEDWORTH LEE."

The CHAIRMAN then rose and said—Gentlemen, it
now becomes my duty, in moving the adoption of the
report, to offer to you a few remarks; and I will begin
by stating to you at once candidly that when I took the
presidency of your company, now some fifteen months
since, I then anticipated a more rapid development of
your traffic than the exertions of myself, and my col-
leagues, and the executive have been able to effect.
Perhaps I took somewhat too sargine a view of the pros-
pective progress of our traffic from my not being accus-
tomed, as a director, to deal with such matters, and look-
ing at them, perhaps, more in the light of a man of
business accustomed to direct his own affairs, and not
~xpecting to meet, in regard to them, aith those impedi-
ments which experience has now shown me must be con-
templated in connexion with an undertaking so situated
as the Chester and Holyhead Railway. Nevertheless,
my opinion with regard to its future prosperity remains
unchanged.—(Hear.) The tragic remains to be deve-
loped.—(Hear.) The reasons why it has not been deve-
loped more rapidly, I will now state to you shortly, and
I hope satisfactorily to yourselves. In the first place,
15 months since, as I stated when I became chairman
of your company, I found your line terminating a mile
and a quarter from H ilyhead, having no connexion with
the harbour, without the possibility of loading or un-
loading a single ton of goods, and with the means only
of taking our passengers on board the packets by a
number of omnibuses not very well served.—(Hear,
hear.) Your board applied themselves immediately to
the obtaining from the Government the right of carrying
down a railway to the end of the pier. They wore met,
after strong representations on their part (I must say in
this instance) more liberally by Government than they
were ever met before, and your company have now a
railway complete to the end of the pier at Holyhead.
Together with that railway you have ample accommo-
dation for the conveyance of goods and cattle; you have
a station in every way suitable for your traffic; you have
refreshment-rooms, and in fact everything necessary for
the conduct of your traffic at the terminus. I had hoped,
when I last had the pleasure of meeting you, to be able
to report on the present occasion, not only the com-
mencement, but a considerable development of
your goods traffic with Ireland, but I regret
that it is not in my power so to report, and
the reasons simply are these. In the first place we
have had to deal with the City of Dublin Steam-
packet Company and with 16 railway companies in Ire-
land, and to carry out the numerous details connected
with such an arrangement, which those only are able to
understand who are brought into contact with them and
that I believe
follow them up every day.—(hoar, hear.) It was in-
deed only last week that we obtained the seal of the
companies to the agreement, and completed the various
arrangements with the other companies for the tho-
rough
and it was,
working of traffic over our line. I can only say
a sound disere •
your board have in this matter exercised
the
--could only discretion.—(Cheers.) It is not our fault that
Legislature have granted to us the tail-end of an un-
dertaking;
interests
consider in the
is necessarily, therefore, that your board—as I
dea7ercise of a wise and sound discretion
bound to say that in this may
onw principles of amity with all the
with which the welfare of our under-
takingpowerful support from oumfatter we meet with the most
say, identified ; and I am .
r fiends and allies the London
deservedi to be met—(Hear)—
weCompany; and allow me to add—
matters—n
and North-Western
matters—somewhat
which we
ainndtheafwteary iannwhthicuhse
various
character as one meets with in diplomatic
know will arise in these
whfa t
transactionsof the same
(eecti trying to obtain a little more or a nuieie)
have at last settled down to a fair and proper agreement,"—we
and I hope that in 10 or 12 days from this time we shall
~pen our goods traffic with Ireland.—(llear, hear, and
Itellyou that there
cheers.) When
are, at present, 27
from Liverpool,_besides numerous merchant
steamers
engaged in.. the trade between Dublin
vessels, constantly
and when feeling, as we do, that we are 1
and tbat port;
now on terms of amity not only with the Irish comps.
' butalso with the greater part of the
.English eom.
nies
singular indeed if we did not antiei-
panics, it would be
will,
of that traffic in
time,
come that a goodly portion _
1 —(Hear.) I now come to the
come over your railway. --(Sear') ,
I stated
slate traffic. On the last occasion to you that
we had succeeded, without any cost to ourselves, in ob.
taining a line of railway to the Port of Bangor. Colonel
Pennant has found the whole of the land and works, we
Providing the mill. ;,That raiIWAY bfil been °Puled ,