The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-03 00:00:00

SUTHERLAND.

The first ordinary meeting of this company was
held on Saturday at Inverness ; Mr. Matheson,
M.P., in the chair.

Mr. Dougall, the secretary, read the report, which
stated that the bill for the incorporation of the com-
pany passed through Parliament without opposi-
tion, and received the Royal assent on the 29th of
June last. The works of that portion of the line
extending from Ardgay Station of the Highland
Railway to Kirkton, near Golspie, a distance of 25
miles, had been let to Messrs. Brand and Son, con-
tractors, and were in active progress. A deviation
of the line near Dunrobin had been found desirable,
and the directors proposed to apply to Parliament
in the ensuing session for a bill to authorize its being
carried out. Up to the 31st of August last £11,814
had been received and £1,396 expended.
The CHAIRMAN regretted that the Duke of Suther-
land, the chairman of the company, and Mr. Loch,
his commissioner, were unavoidably absent. The
works of the line were going on satisfactorily. Mr.
Brand, an efficient contractor, had taken part of
the work, and no doubt would be able to complete
it to their satisfaction. All the other business of
the company was progressing favourably. The
chairman then moved the adoption of the report,
and the appointment as directors of the Duke of
Sutherland, the Earl of Caithness, the Hon. T. C.
Bruce, Mr. Matheson, M.P., and Mr. Loch, and
that Messrs. J. K. Greig and P. Anderson be re-
elected auditors.

Mr. PATTERSON seconded the motion, which was
agreed to unanimously.
The Hon. T. C. BRUCE proposed a vote of thanks
to the chairman, and the meeting separated,

HIGHLAND.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
on Friday at Inverness ; Mr. A. Matheson in the

Chaff

The report, an abstract of which has appeared in
The. Sun, was taken as read,

The C HA IRMAN moved the adoption of the re port, and
said it was the first general meeting of the shareholders
since the passing of the Amalgamation Bill consti-
tuting them as the Highland Company. Ile then
entered into a history of the lines now forming the
undertaking. The first was the Inverness and Nairn,
authorised in 1853 and opened for traffic in Nov.,
1855, the next was a line from Nairn to Keith, which,
having identical interests, were amalgamated.as the
Inverness and Aberdeen Junction in 1860. The
next step was the promotion of the Inverness and
Ross-shire line as far as Invergordon and ultimately.
to Bonar-bridge. The Ross-shire line was amalga-
mated in 1862, and the extension of Bonar-bridge
was obtained in 1863 and opened in 1864. The dis-
tance from Bonar-bridge to Keith was 113 miles.
The Inverness and Perth line was opened to the
public in Sept., 1863. All those undertakings con-
stituted, with two short branches to Burghead and
Aberfeldy, the Highland Railway. The estimated
cost of the Inverness and Nairn was £BO,OOO, but it
cost £llB,OOO ; of the line from Nairn to Keith

£325,000, but it cost £578,000, or £253,000 more.
The line from Inverness to Invergordon was esti-
mated to cost £215,000, but cost £285,000, or £70,000
more; the line from Invergordon to Bonar-bridge
cost £160,000, being within the estimate. The In-
verness and Perth line was estimated to cost 1654,000,
but had cost £1,056,000, or £400,000 beyond the
estimate. This excess of cost had brought the com-
pany into its present position, but in most cases the
estimates of traffic had been largely exceeded. The
original estimates had been too low, and some of the
works executed had far exceeded the extent and cost
of those originally contemplated. That had been the
cause of the falling off in the dividend. They had
more than ample stock on hand to cover every liabi-
lity, although the directors were still personally liable
for about £280,000 of that amount. The outstand-
ing liabilities did not exceed £140,000, while the
amount due to the banks was about £550,000 in all.
He expected that they would only be able to declare
a small dividend in March next---say of 2 per cent.
per annum; but in Aug., 1866, they would probably
pay near 4 per cent., and with an increase in the
traffic of £3OO a week they could declare a 5 per
cent. dividend. Considering the extension and com-
pletion of other lines that would bring than traffic,
he thought their line would become one of the best
paying lines in Scotland.
The Earl of SEAFIELD seconded the motion,which,
after some discussion, was adopted.
It was stated that after all liabilities were cleared
off the expenditure would be £2,740,000. The divi-
dend, at the rate of £2 per cent. per annum, was
declared, and the proceedings concluded with a vote
of thanks to the chairman.