The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-28 00:00:00

REVENUE.

1864. 1865. Increase.
From passengers, mails, &c. £770,321 £837,100 £66,779
From merchandise, coal, &c. 773,028 838,674 65,646
From parcels warehouse

rent. 2c 56,214 59,566 3,352

Total £1,599,563 £1,735,340 £135,777
EXPENDITURE.
Maintenance of way (a £165,201 £166,001 £BOO
Locomotive expenditure (b 186,650 194,859 8,206
Traffic expenditure (e 319,217 371,904 52,687
All other expenses (d) 72,958 79,000 6,042

Total £744,029 £811,761 £67,735
(a) Less £3,102 for working joint lines.
(b) Less 3,863 ditto.
e) Add £7,617 ditto.
d) Less 652 ditto.

Total £7,617 £7;617

It will be seen that the locomotive charges are £8,206 in
excess of those for the corresponding period, while the ex-
penses incurred under the heads of carriage and waggon
account, carrying account, and general charges are increased
by £7,826, £18,936, and £12,175 respectively. Of those sums
about £10,500 is included in the charge of £22,901 for
working joint lines and stations. These expenses, together
with the increase in the rent charges and in the interest
account, form the principal items of the additional charges
against the revenue during the half-year. It may also be
stated that revenue has borne the whole of the charges for
interest on capital outlay, together with the proportion due
to the half-year in respect of reconstruction of viaducts and
renewal of permanent 'Way. After providing for all fixed
and preference charges the available balance will admit of the
payment of the following dividends :—On Great Western
Consolidated Stock at the rate of 31 per cent. ; West Mid-
land (Oxford) Stock, 2 per cent.; West Midland (Newport)
Stock, 11 per cent.; West Midland (Hereford) Stock, 5 per
cent. ; South Wales Consolidated Stock, 3+, per cent. per
annum. The balance to be carried forward will amount to
£6,087 9s. bd. It was intimated by the chairman at the last
half-yearly meeting that a proprietor of West Midland
Newport stock had taken exception to the mode in which
the expenditure in resp4ct of the Aberdare Extension of the
Newport, Abergavenny, and Hereford Railway, and the in-
terest upon that outlay, had been dealt with in the accounts
they submitted. The question thus raised being one of some
difficulty and doubt, the directors thought it right to take
the opinion of counsel in regard to the provisions of the acts
of Parliament bearing upon it. That opinion is, in effect,
thatthe expenditure in respect of the Aberdare Extension is
chargeable to joint capital, and the interest upon it to the
joint revenue account. The directors have adopted the view
expressed in this opinion, and the accounts now submitted
have been prepared in accordance with it. While the ques-
tion which has been thus settled does not very materially
affect the interests of the Great Western and South Wales
sections of proprietors, it has an important bearing on the
Newport and Oxford sections, the former of which is bene-
fited by the course which has been adopted. The amount
of the ordinary capital of that section being comparatively
small, the dividend upon it is appreciably increased. The
outlay on joint capital account during the half-year has
amounted to £241,206. The expenditure has been incurred
chiefly in respect of stations and works, rolling stock, and
workshops and machinery. The narrow gauge cOmmuni-
, cation with the Vale of Neath Railway at Aberdare, the
extension of the Wycombe Railway from Thane to Oxford
(forming a second route to that city through Bucking-
hamshire), and the Coalbrookdale branch have been
opened ,for traffic during the half-year. Measures are
being taken for doubling and laying down the narrow
gauge upon the portion of the line between the Barr's Court
station at Hereford and the point of junction with the loop
line in course of construction by the London and North Wes-
tern Company, by means of which the two companies will
be able to work their trains to and from one station instead of
two as at present. On the completion of these works
much of the inconvenience at present felt and complained
of by the public travelling through Hereford will be avoided.
The directors, impressed with the necessity of making some
alteration in the arrangements for the conduct of the legal
and Parliamentary business of the company, have, after
much consideration, appointed Messrs. Young, Maples,
Teesdale, and Young to be the solicitors of the company,
upon the condition that Mr. Young's services are to be fully
and specially devoted to the company, with such assistance
as may be required from the other members of the firm.
During the past half-year the Board has specially directed
its attention to the stations, sidings, and other accommoda-
tion throughout the line, which:the separate companies be-
fore the period of amalgamation were unable to the extent
desirable for the convenient and economical working of the
traffic. The increased facilities which the amalgamated
company has been able to afford to the public have tended
to develope considerably the resources of some of the dis-
tricts through which the lines pass, and the directors con-
sider that they are best consulting the permanent interests
of the company by improving the accommodation and en-
larging the stock of locomotives and waggons, and by the
supply of such modern improvements as will tend to increased
safety and economy in the conduct of the traffic of the line.
To meet the expenditure which is thus being incurred, it is
necessary that the capital sanctioned by the Act of 1861
should now be created, and a resolution will be submitted
to the meeting for authority to raise the sum of £2,000,000
under the provisions of that Act. It will be in the recollec-
tion of the proprietors that the by-law which was passed in
Feb. 1863, required that the consent of the shareholders
should be obtained before the introduction into Parliament
of a bill ' authorising any new railway, or for an extension,
lease, amalgamation, subscription, or guarantee by the Great
Western Railway Company in respect of any undertaking.

The directors, anxious to give effect to the spirit in which
that by-law was framed, have given one month's notice of
their intention to submit to the meeting the bill introduced
into Parliament for ' conferring further powers on the
Great Western Railway Company for the construction of
works and the acquisition of lands, and otherwise in
relation to their own undertaking, and the undertakings
of other companies and persons, and for other purposes,'
and a resolution will be proposed to the proprietors for
their sanction to that measure. The authority to con-
struct the new lines at Stroud, Bristol, Hereford, Acton,
and ,Ruabon will become obligations on the company
as soon as the bill is passed, and it will be in accord-
with the spirit of the by-law that the opinion of the
proprietors should be now expressed in reference to
these works. The new lines are in length collectively
7i miles. The estimated cost of their construction is
£140,000, and the board is of opinion that they ought be
proceeded with. The arrangement with the Vale of Neath
Company provides for an amalgamation of that company
with the Great Western Railway Company on terms similar
in principle to those which formed the basis of the amalga-
mation of the Great Western and South Wales Companies.
The Vale of Neath proprietors will receive 5.0625 per cent of
the united net receipts, but wit the condition that such pro-
portion shall not be less than £85,000 a year. The Vale of
Neath Railway having been recently relaid throughout its
system with the mixed gauge, the proposed amalgamation
will be the means of completing the Great Western narrow
gauge system between Birkenhead and Swansea, and it will
at the same time connect both the broad and narrow gauge
lines of the company with the important collieries and iron
works in the neighbourhood of Merthyr and Aberdare. The
directors are led to hope for a large traffic from these dis-
tricts which could not have been advantageously secured
to this company while the Vale of Neath remained indepen-
dent. The agreement with the Hammersmith and City Rail-
way Company, which will be in substitution of the working
arrangement under which the traffic of that line has hitherto
been conducted, makes provision for a transfer or lease in
perpetuity of the Hammersmith line upon terms which will
secure to the holders of ordinary stock of that company a
dividend commencing at 5 per cent. in 1865, and increasing
annually by per cent. per annum until 1869, when it will
amount to the maximum of si. per cent. The ordinary capi-
tal of the company amounted on 31st Dec. last to £179,884,
and the preference and loan capital to £114,754. The
agreement with the Metropolitan Company provides for
the running of 24 great Western trains daily, in each direc-
tion, between Paddington and Farringdon-street or Fins-
bury, for which a minimum payment of £25,000 a year is
to be made to the Metropolitan Company. The number of
trains may be increased to 30, in consideration of a propor-
tionate increased payment. The Metropolitan Company
are to join this company in the lease of the Hammersmith
and City Railway, and for the purposes of the joint working
of the traffic of that line, certain powers of using the Great
Western Railway between Bishop's-road station and the
Hammersmith Junction are conceded to the Metropolitan
Company, reciprocal powers being granted to the Great
'Western Railway Company in respect of their Hammer-
smith traffic over the Metropolitan Railway."