The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-14 00:00:00

DUTCH RHENISH.

The receipts for the fortnight ending the 30th of
September amounted to £10,777, and for the cor-
responding period of last year to £10,268, showing
an incres of i:509. The receipts since the com-
mencement of the present year on the Ist of
Alay, including the above, amounted to £106,947,
increase, as compared with the cones-
sphaonwthinngg an
period of last year, of £6,453. The work-
ing expenses for the fortnight amounted to £3,786,
or 35.13 per cent., and for the corresponding period
of last year to £3,503, or 34.98 per cent., showing
an increase of £193. The working expenses from
the 1s
of May last to the 30th of September,
amounted to £38,641, or 36.13 per cent of the re-
ceipts. The working expenses for the year 1862-
63 were 39.08 per cent. of the receipts.

PERNAAIBUCO.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
yesterday at the London Tavern ; Mr. R. Benson in
the chair.
The report, an abstract of which has appeared in
The Sum, was taken as read.

The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said the most interesting subject to the share-
holders was the proposed extension of the guarantee
to the whole of the capital expended, for which they
had waited patiently. He was sorry
to say h
a t s
no o long
definite
na so patiently.
of the question had
say
a
yet been accomplished. Their manager at Rio had
not been able to obtain the result of the proceedings
on this question. The reports of the commissioners
in Brazil and London on the finances of the company
had been referred by the Government to an engineer
officer, Captain Medeiros, who made an elaborate
report on the subject to the Governor. The manager
had sent them a very imperfect document as to the
result of that report, from which it appeared that
Captain
Medeiros had reduced the addition to the
guarantee of £477,874, which, added to £1,200,000,
the original guarantee, would make L 1,677,000. It
appeared he had disallowed about £150,000 for
over-payments to Mr. Furness, tho contractor, which
was important, inasmuch as it gave them a claim to
resist those charges. There was a loss of £B,OOO
incurred in working the railway during construc-
tion, which had been disallowed, and was very unfair,
for when a profit was shown on the working the
Government took advantage of it, but when a loss oc-
curred it seemed they refused to allow it. The money
expended on stores for the railway was also dis-
allowed ;it amounted to £28,000. They thought it
very absurd to suppose that the line could
be worked
without a floating capital ; at all events, they should
charge interest against revenue in respect of such
floating capital. As to Mr. Furness's account, they
claimed £55,000 in shares, and they were told by
their legal advisers that they had a
strong case.
Putting aside all they might get from the account
with Mr. Furness, the effect of the recent report
would be to reduce the guarantee from 7 per cent.
to something more than 6 per cent. The account
of those matters was very imperfect, but it was
understood that the Minister of Public Works would
make the report of Captain Medeiros the basis of
the settlement. Another item objected to was for
interest on capital during construction. The smallest
amount was £15,000, and the largest £BO,OOO.
Supposing that all those objections were adopted,
the guarantee would be reduced to 51 per cent.,
but he could not believe the Brazilian Government
would act so illiberally towards them, bearing in
mind that theirs was the first railway and had cost
about the same per mile as the other guaranteed
railways. Tao works were quite as good, if not
better than those of their railways, upon which 7
per cent was guaranteed by by the Government.
With regard to the question of interest, he could
not uuderstaud the objection, because the Govern-
ment had demanded and received interest on their
own shares in the undertaking. Of course, what
they receive from the Brazilian Government in re.
speet of the additional capital they would receive as
as a boon, because they could not demand it. The
directors had recommended the proprietors not to