The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-25 00:00:00

CAPE TOWN.

The report of the directors states that the line had been
efficiently and safely worked since the opening of the first
section in Feb., 1862. The directors, however, regretted to
state that, though there had been an increase of 11,140 pas-
sengers and 3,756 tons of goods in the half-year ending 30th
June last, and in the gross receipts from £13,855 to £10,783,
yet from the depressed condition of the western province,
and the absence of the Government and Parliament in the
eastern, there had not been that development of their traffic
and consequent increase of revenue they had reason to ex-
pect. From increase of mileage run, and the heavy expenses
incurred in replacing decayed sleepers, the working ex-
penses had increased from £13,206 to X 18,116, leaving a loss
of £1,790 on working the line. The item of maintenance of
way and works amounted to £6,600. Of this three-fourths
were solely due to replacing decayed sleepers—a charge
which, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, the
Board were of opinion shonld be placed to capital, and in
reference to which they were in communication with the
local Government. But for those exceptional charges the
line would have been worked to a profit, notwithstanding
the position of the colony. After all payments in the
past halt-year were deducted there was a balance of
£4,418 available for dividend for the three months ending
the 30th of June. It would be proposed, therefore, in ac-
cordance with the resolution of the shareholders at the
meeting of the 15th of April, to declare a dividend of 3i per
cent on the capital stock of the company, payable forthwith,
carrying over a balance of £231 to the next account. From
the traffic returns it appeared that 260,905 passengers and
42,718 tons of goods had been carried over the line from its
opening, in Feb. 1862, to the 30th of June, 1864. For the
month of July last the receipts had been £2,077, arising
from the carrisgea 5,227 passengers and 1,608 tons of goods.
The negotiations with the %Vynberg Railway Company were
broken off by their Board, who had since obtained an Act
granting them running powers over the line of this com-
pany, from Salt River to Cape Town. Such an Act, the
directors were advised, was a direct breach of the agreement
with the colonial Government, by. which " the exclusive
right of having and working a railway on this line was gua-
ranteed to this company." The memorial of the company to
his Excellency Governor Wedehouse, praying him to with-
hold his assent to this measure if passed by the Legislature,
and to remit it home for the consideration of her Majesty's
Government, not having reached him before the local Par-
liament was prorogued and his assent given, the Board had
brought the matter before the Secretary of State for the
Colonies, with the hope of inducing him to advise her
Majesty to allow the act in question, Apart from the in-
jury likely to accrue to this company, and the imminent
danger involved in working the traffic of two independent
companies over one line, in the present temporary and
limited accommodation at the Cape Town station, the direc-
tors felt that this attempt to infringe the Parliamentary
guarantee, on the faith of which the capital of this company
was raised almost entirely in England, ought to be moat
strenuously resisted.

---
SOUTH AUSTRIAN AND LOMBARDO VENETIAN
The traffic receipts on the South Austrian line from the
Ist of January to the 13th inst. amounted on 1,082 miles to
£1,616,718, and for the corresponding period last year to
£1,566,777, showing an increase of £49,941. The receipts
on the Lombardo-Venetian line, 274 miles in length,
amounted to £301,318 against £286,277 on 257 miles for the
same period last year, showing an increase of £15,051.

OXFORD AND THAME.
This railway was opened for traffic yesterday. It is a
single line, on the broad gauge, starting from the Great
Western two miles south of Oxford, and having intermediate
stations at Littlomore and Wheatley, It is 15 miles in
length, and affords direct access from Oxford to Wyoombe,
Aplesbury, and Maidenhead.

ROYAL MAIL STEAMPACKET,
The report of the directors states that the reduction in
the amount of subsidy under the company's new mail con-
tracts, which came into operation on the Ist of January
last, would have prepared the shareholders for a decrease
in the aggregate receipts in the working account as com•
pared with that for the corresponding half of the preceding
year, and it would therefore be satisfactory to them to find
that, in consequence of increased receipts from freight and
passage money, the deficiency on the credit side of the
working account was less than might have been ex -
peoted. On the other hand, higher rates of freight for
the conveyance of coal to the depots abroad, and the
fact that the supplies of stores, &0., wore restricted when
the old oon'ract was drawing to a close and the decision of
the Government as to a now arrangement with the company
was uncertain, accounted for the outlay under those heads
in the half year ended the 30th June last being larger than
it was for the corresponding six months of last year. The
total disbursements in the working account were £7,398 in
excess of the expenditure for the same period of the year
1863. Owing to the increase on the one side and the de-
crease on the other side of the working account, the surplus
fell short of that for the corresponding six months of 1863
by £14,044. After debiting the general reserve fund with
the loss of the sale of the Teviot, there remained a balance
in favour of the company of £36,218. The state of the in-
surance account was very satisfactory, for after charging it
with the bonus declared in April last, the balance at the
credit of the account on the 3)th June last was £240,181.
It was right, however, to men'ion that since that date the
directors had paid £6,581 in settlement of the case of the
Spanish vessel Mercedes, run down by the Shannon. The
state of the accounts enabled the directors to recommend
that a dividend of £3 per share out of the ordinary profits,
and a bonus of £2 per share from the insuftnce fund, bo de-
clared, free of income tax, and that warrants for the same i
be issued on the 29th inst.