The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-10 00:00:00

LONDON AND CROYDON

RAILWAY.

A Meeting of the Proprietors of this railway was held,
at the London Tavern, at twelve o'clock yesterday.
W. A. Wilkinson, Esq., in the Chair.
The CHAIRMAN said he was sorry to see so thin an
attendance of Proprietors, but he believed generally
Directors attributed a scarce attendance to the su-
perior confidence on the part of the Proprietors
in the management and integrity of their Directors.
The half-yearly general meeting of Proprietors, had been
adjourned till that day, for the purpose of taking a ballot
for four Directors, in the room of those who haesigned.
As four gentlemen only had been nominated, and as
there were only four vacancies, it became unnecessary to
take the vote of the Proprietors, and, therefore, they
would be elected to the office forthwith. There had been
already two Reports laid before the Proprietors, at their
half-yearly meeting, but the Directors had thought it
necessary to trouble them with another.
The SECRETARY then read the Report, which stated
that the Directors had had an interview with Mr. Cu-
bitt, and had made arrangements with him for an loves-
tigation into the accounts, to be furnished from the
engineer's office, but which were not yet completed.
They had also allowed Mr. Gibbs's engagement with
the Company to terminate on the 29th September,
and had requested Mr. Cubitt to view the line
and report upon its present state. The extraordinary
traffic occasioned by the fair at Croydon had been con-
ducted with every convenience to the public, and with-
out accident. On the second day of the fair, 11,209
passengers were conveyed along the liner the trains
were run on that line every 20 minutes, from eight in
the morning till two on the following morning, and
during part of the day every ten minutes ; and the
Greenwich trains were run as usual every quarter of
an hour, making ten trains each way, or twenty trains in
the whole, passing and repassing each other on those
lines within the hour. And the Directors could not
help thinking that if the Parliamentary Committee on
Railways could have witnessed the facility and utter ab-
sence of confusion with which all that was managed, tl.ey
would not have expressed so strong an opinion as they
had done of the insufficiency of the present manage-
ments for the traffic of the four Companies
having a common terminus at London Bridge. The
Directors intended to seek an interview with the
Directors of the Greenwich Railway, for the purpose
of discussing any alteration of the respective termini of
the two lines which the late report of the Committee
might have rendered it advisable to effect. The re-
port further stated, that if the interests of the
Brighton and Croydon Railways were alone to be con-
sulted, the most obvious course would be an immediate
application to Parliament for a Bill to enable them to
take the spare ground of the Greenwich Railway, for
the purpose of completing an independent line, in order
to meet the objections of the Parliamentary Committee,
the outlay for which line would be abundantly met by
the tolls at present levied by the Greenwich Company,
but they believed that the Proprietors of the first
named Companies would not desire to take any
course which would be detrimental to the Proprietors of
the Greenwich Railway, provided the Directors of the
latter Company should be disposed to obviate the pre-
sent difficulties by an enlargement of their own line.
To be prepared for every contingency they had directed
their Solicitor to give the necessary Parliamentary
notices for effecting the desired object, without reference
to any particular existing interests. The report then
stated that 14,740/. of the first instalment upon the
new shares had been subscribed, and they wore
proceeding to distribute the amount in equal pro-
portions amongst the claimants upon the Com-
pany. For the liquidation of all just claims they would
be obliged to raise 53,000/. on mortgage, for which they
had not received the vote of the Proprietary. On this
point they regretted to state that in the accounts deli-
vered in to the Proprietors, most of the sums which
were entered by the engineer as " estimated, or part es-
timated," to be due had been found, accordimg to
custom, to have been erroneously estimated, and it was
therefore to be apprehended that the whole reserve,
which it was hoped had been provided for con-
tingencies, might be swallowed up, and the Di-

rectors would be left without any fund upon
which to draw in case of accident. Under those
circumstances, although they felt they could not call
upon the Proprietors for any further supplies at pre-
sent, they thought it right to warn them that, if any
event should occur rendering necessary, however small
an outlay of capital, resort must be immediately had to
that disagreeable process.

The ofiAlltMAN said that their Deputy Chairman
(Mr. Roberts) had proposed a plan, which he would pre-
sently state to the Proprietors, and which was a very
feasible one, for vesting the management of the four com-
panies in one Board. That would probably go a great
way towards removing the objections of the Parlia-
mentary uommittee to a common terminus.

The SECRETARY then read Mr. Cubitt's report of
the present state of the line. The object of Mr. Cu-
bitt's inspection was to observe arAl report the state of
the line on its being given up by Mr. Gibbs into the
charge of Mr. Richardson, the new Superintendent Re-
sident Engineer. _

The CizatamAN said that with respect to the build-
ing at New Cross, to which Mr. Cubitt had alluded
in his report, by adopting the suggestion of that gentle-
man, they should only be following the example set by
the Dublin and Kingstown Railway ; and with respect
to the other part, as to not removing the earth at For-
rest-hill, the suggestion of Mr. Cubitt was in ac-
cordance with the opinion of their present engineer.—
(Hear, hear.) It was necessary now for the present
meeting to pass a resolution relative to the sni of
53,000/., which it had been determined should be bor-

rowed on mortgage. That sum had been agreed on at
the former meeting, and it was only necessary now to
put the formal resolution, if any Proprietor would be
good enough to do so.
Mr. CAM. then moved a resolution to the effect,
that the monies received, not being sufficient for the

purposes of the Railway, a sum of 53,000/. should be
borrowed at interest, in one or more sums, as the Direc-

tors should think fit, and that the Directors be em-

powered to mortgage the property of the Company for
that purpose.
Captain PAGE seconded the resolution, which was
carried unanimously.
A PROPMETOR wished to know whether the creation
of 6,000/. shares would be sufficient to meet every exi-

geney ?
The CHAIRMAN hoped that it would, and leave a
surplus. _ _ _

A PROPRIETOR wished to know whether the Di-
rectors had taken any steps to examine the
receipts as well as the expenditure of the Com-
mittee He wished to know whether all

the sums due from the Shareholders had been paid up.
In one instance a gentleman had been credited with
5001., which he had never paid.
The SECRETARY said that that money had been paid.
A PROPRIETOR—But have not other errors taken
place ?

The SECRETARY observed that the error that had
been alluded to had been occasioned by a Banker's clerk
coming and filling up an order to register those shares,
by mistake, and they were accordingly registered. Those
shares belonged to a gentleman in the country, and ho
had paid the amount on them. He believed no error
had arisen since.

The PROPRIETOR only wished to call the attention of
the Directors to the fact, in order that it might be
avoided in future.

The CHAIRMAN said that the next business of the
meeting would be to elect four gentlemen to the direc-
tion, in the room of those who had resigned. The
names proposed were Robert Holland, Esq., M.P ; Ben-
jamin Baines, Esq. ; John Lewis Ricardo, Esq. ; ard
Newman Smith, Esq.

_ .
Mr. COOPER believed that two of the gentlemen who
had been mentioned as Directors, were members of the

Stock Exchange, and if they were elected they would
then have in the Direction of the Company no less than
four persons belonging to the Stock-Exchange. Now,

he considered, with every respect for those gentlemen

_ .
who belonged to the Stock Exchange, that it was not
to the interest of the Company to have a moiety of
their Direction members of that body. He thought it
would be much more desirable to have some of that
number merchants.

Mr. ItoBERTs said that they were pledged to elect
those individuals, and he did not see how they could
deviate from it.

Mr. CoorEn would not propose any resolution upon
the subject, but he thought the Direction ought to be
differently constituted.

Capt. PAGE said that it was mainly by the members
of the Stock Exchange that the Company were indebted
for the excellent position in which they had been placed.
It was his intention to move that a sum of 500/. should,
be placed at the disposal of the Directors, in order to
remunerate them for the excellent manner in which
they had discharged their duties.

Mr. CAPEL thought if they were men of business,
and inclined to do their duty, it mattered not whether
they came from the Stock Exchange, or were merchants
in the City.

The CHAIRMAN said that the duty of the Directors
was to perform the pledge they had given, by sub-
mitting the four gentlemen who had been named to the
Proprietors to act as Directors.
A PROPRIETOR considered that, bearing in mind the
84. taro: to which members of the Stock Exchange were
Proprietcas, 4 was not at all unreasonable that a moiety
of the Direction sliGuld be composed of members of
that body.
The four gentlemen proposed were then declared to
b 8 dented Directors.
A PRoPitiEToa said that as reference had been made
with respect to carrying cattle on the railroad, perhaps
the Directors would forgive him for suggesting that the
station should be between the Grand Surrey Canal and
the Greenwich Viaduct, as it would be necessary to
7c ;amp quiet place for that purpose.
,-,l;ggestipn in private that Pro-
The cii•App.l%.l said the Directors would be most
Pro-
prietors to re
rsmighet
eimv6akea,nbYut he did not consider the present
moment as fitted for that purpose.

Mr. ROGERS suggested, in case of the junction of the