The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-16 00:00:00

traffic receipts and working expenses, we find that
in 1864 the amount acquired from passengers was
£660,148, against £595,932 in 1863. Ihe num-
ber of passengers conveyed in 1864 WAS 4,700,014,
and there was an average of 1,618 season ticket
holders for the year. Parcels produced in 1864
£56,054, against £50,006 in 1863 ; horses, carriages,
and dogs, £26,485, against £26,537 in 1863 ; and
mails, £9,603, against £9,494 in 1863. The total
earnings of the passenger trains last year were thus
£752,219, against £681,968 in 1863. Goods pro-
duced £594,265 last year, against £533,402 in 1863 ;
live stock, £44,394, against £42,182 in 1863 ; and
coals and minerals, £367,719, against £275,095
in 1863. The aggregate earnings of the slow trains
last year were thus £1,006,378, as compared with
£850,679 in 1863. The dividends on the shares
held by the company in other railways produced in
1864, £9,511 against £9,360 in 1863 ; and the navi-
gations owned by the company in Nottinghamshire
andLincolnshire produced £l9,oo3last year, against
£20,414 in 1863. Transfer fees, interests on cash
balances, rents, &c., completed the company's re-
venue in each year. On the other side of the
account, the amount expended by the company in
the maintenance and renewal of way last year was
£187,404; against £156,704 in 1863 ; in locomotive
power, £274,943, against £229,230 in 1863 ; in re-
pairing and renewing carriages and waggons,
£75,826, against £58,560 in 1863 ; in traffic
charges (coaching, minerals, and merchandise)
£206,709, against £190,946 in 1863 ; in compensa-
tion for accidents and losses, including law costs,
£20,868, against £33,994 in 1863 ; in law charges
and Parliamentary expenses, £16,639, against
£16,761 in 1863 ; in rates and taxes, including law
costs and appeals, £29,953, against £28,136 in
1863 ; in Government duty on passenger traffic,
£23,763, against £21,573 in 1863 ; and in naviga-
tion expenses, 1£6,863, against £6,839 in 1863.
The balance of the working expenditure was made
up of office expenses, station rent, and insurance,
lighting, electric telegraph service, mileage, and
demurrage of stock, clearing-house charges, &c.
The expenditure made in the maintenance of way
has largely increased of late, having been £439 per
mile in 1864, against £384 per mile in 1863, £349 in
1862, £337 per mile in 1861, 363 per mile in 1860,
£350 per mile in 1859, £349 per mile in 1858,
£368 per mile in 1857, £315 per mile in 1856, and
£2BO per mile in 1855. Although the extra expendi-
ture on the way may take or 4 per cent. off
the dividend on the ordinary stock, there can be
no doubt that the stability of the Great Northern
as a railway property is very materially increased
by the care shown in this important particular.
The distance run by trains last year was 7,290,373
miles, against 6,495,272 miles in 1863. Of these
distances, 3,109,263 miles and 2,946,484 miles re-
spectively were traversed by passenger trains, the
balance referring, of course, to the mileage of goods
and mineral trains. The growth of the train mile-
ageois reflected in the fact that in 1858 it amounted
to 5,826,801 miles; in 1859, to 5,822,848 miles; in
1860, to 6,215,412 miles ; in 1861, to 6,320,629
miles ; and in 1862, to 6,188,128 miles. It may be
interesting to add that in 1855 locomotive power
cost an average of 8.29 d. per train mile run ; in
1856, B.old. ; in 1857, 8-26 d. ; in 1858, 8.24 d. ; in
1859, 7.94 d. ; in 1860, 8.07 d. ; in 1861, 8.15 d. ; in
1862, 8.79 d. ; in 1863, 8-47 d. ; and in 1864, 9.05 d.
Comparing 1864 with 1855, we thus find an increase
of 0.76 d. in the cost of locomotive power per train
mile run, notwithstanding the largely increased use
of coal, especially by goods' engines. We might go
on multiplying details, but we will only notice two
other points—the number of miles of railway
worked and maintained by the company at the
close of last year, and the pare of rolling stock pos-
sessed by it at the swine period. Upon the first
head it may be stated that the total distance main-
tained was as follows :—London to Askern, via
Peterborough, Grantham, Newark, Retford, and
Doncaster (main line), 160 miles; Walton Junction,
near Peterborough to Gainsborough, via Boston
and Lincoln (loop line), 75 miles ; Boston to
Grimsby (East Lincolnshire line), 48 miles; Hert-
ford to Dunstable, 25 miles; Grantham to Notting-
ham, 22 miles; Bourn Railway, 7 miles ; Sleaford
Railway, 27 miles ; Ramsey Railway, 6 miles ;
Stamford Railway, 4 miles ; Norwich and Spalding,
16 miles ; Iforncastle Railway, 8 miles ; Leeds and
Bradford Railway and branches, 23 miles—making
a total of 421 miles, of which 364 miles were
owned by the Great Northern Company. The total
number of locomotives owned by the company at
the close of 1861 was 340—viz., 107 passenger
engb?es, 34 passenger tank engines, 186 goods
engines, and 13 goods tank engines. The other
rolling stock of the concern at the close of last year
may be classified as follows :—First-class passenger
carriages, 146 ; second class, 220 ; third class, 169 ;
composite carriages, 136 ; luggage and parcel vans,
130 ; carriage trucks, 55 ; horse-boxes, 100 ; open
goods and coal waggons, 6,299 ; covered goods
waggons, 1,728 ; coke trucks, 500 ; cattle trucks,
330 ; timber trucks, 200 ; ballast waggons, 211;
goods break waggons, 198 ; road, goods, and coal
vans, and carts, 473 ; and travelling cranes, 23.
The company was also proprietor of no fewer than
791 draught horses.
Such was the Great Northern at the close of
1864, and such it is at the present, save and except
that it has become a little larger, a little more
powerful, and a little more prosperous ; for there
seems practically no limit to the movement of life
and merchandise along this modern " great north
road." A rather long-pending contention with the
Great Eastern Company has been adjusted. The
Great Eastern is to become a joint owner, on equal
terms in all respects, of the Great Northern loop
line from March to its junction with the Great
Northern main line south of Doncaster, on
payment, either in capital or interest, of half
the actual cost of the lines now constructing
between March and Spalding and Gainsborough
and Doncaster, and of a proportion to be agreed
upon or to be settled by arbitration of
the cost of the loop between Spalding and Gains-
borough. The Great Eastern is to be at liberty to fix
its own rates for the carriage of coal, thus securing
the main object sought by it ; the rates for all other
traffic have been agreed to or have been settled by
arbitration. The Great Eastern is also to have run-
ning powers over the Great Northern main line from
the termination of the loop line to Doncaster, and
thence to Wakefieldover the West Riding line, with
access to all places on the Great Northern and Man-
chester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire lines. The Great
Northern, on the other hand, is to have reciprocal
rights in the Great Eastern district. The traffic
between places on the Great Eastern and the Man-
chester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire systems is to be
freely exchanged between those companies, via Ret-
ford and Lincoln, and the Great Northern may also
exchange traffic at Doncaster and Wakefield with
the Lancashire and Yorkshire. In order to conso-
lidate these arrangements and to perfect the route
for traffic from. the s and east of England to
the West Ridingof Yorkshire,
Greathire Nan agreementt has
been entered into by th
Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnsh
Northern and
et,thoef
course, to the sanction of Parliament—to purchase
jointly the West Riding and Grimsby, which runs
in a direct line from Wakefield to
Doncaster, and
through an extensive iron district to Readby and
Lincoln. The Northern, in conjunction with
the nd Manchester,
Sheffield, and
Lincolnshire, is also endeavouring to secure im-
inclNlnid. la
proved access to and better accommodation at
Liverpool, and a third line is now in course of con-
struction between that town and Manchester. In
revenge for this, it has been stated within the
last few days that the London and North-
Western proposes to apply for a new and competing
line to °connect Sheffield with Manchester via
Chapel-en-le-Frith, Castleton, Bamford, and
Hathersage. Whether this project be carried out or
not, there can be no doubt that the Great Northern
will plant its foot in Liverpool, and compete more
earnestly and effectively than it has hitherto done
for a share of the " traffic and movement" incident
to Liverpudlian life

er Majesty's iron paddlewheel vessel Bloodhound,
378 tonsburden, having been stripped of her engines,
&c., was yesterday hauled out of the basin at Wool-
wich, and was taken up to the Admiralty yard at
Charlton to be broken up.