The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-21 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE

EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held on Tuesday, in Glasgow ; Mr. P. Black-
burn, the chairman, presided.
The report, an abstract of which has appeared in
The Sun, was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said it was the last occasion on which they
would meet as a separate body. There was a steady
increase in the revenue, and for the past half-year
it was larger than they had yet had. The net in-
crease was £17,025, and he believed that the work-
ing expenses had not been increased unreasonably,
considering the increase of the traffic, and the in-
creased cost of the plant and rolling stock. All
those who travelled to Helensburgh must have ob-
served that the trains were much more safe than they
used to be, and a great deal had been done to put
the line in the best order. He was happy to say
the accounts had recently been adjusted to the satis-
faction of this company and the North British Rail-
way Company. There had been some misunder-
standing on the part of the public, and of some of
the shareholders, as to the position their company
took in the united company. They were to receive
a preference dividend of 4f per cent. before the North
British stock, but they were not limited to 41 per
cent., because when the North British dividend ex-
ceeded 3 per cent. the Edinburgh and Glasgow share-
holders were to Participate in the increase till they
got 5 per cent. and the North British 3i per cent.
They then paused at 5 per cent. till the North British
got to 4 per cent., when they would both rise in the
same proportion, always keeping 1 per cent. above
the dividend on the North British shares, so that
their interest in the prosperity of the united com-
pany was very strong, and he had every hope and
belief that the united company would be more pros-
perous than either of the two companies could pos-
sibly have been separately. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. H. DUNLOP seconded the motion for the
adoption of the report.
Mr. CLOUSTON asked if they had got intimation
of an interdict before the Court of Session?

The CHAIRMAN said he had, about half an hour
before, received a printed form interdicting payment
of any sum under the proposal to make compensa-
tion to the company's servants. The case had been
so far heard before Lord Curriehill.

After some discussion, it was agreed to receive
the report without adopting the clause in it as to
compensation.

The CHAIRMAN said they now came to the prac-
tical point, which was " that the • sum of £ll,OOO
be paid in consideration of the services, and as com-
pensation for the loss of their situations, to the after-
named servants of the company :—Mr. Latham,
general manager, and Mr. Jamieson, secretary,
£9,600 ; Mr. Thomson, superintendent, £l,OOO ;
Mr. Tawse, accountant, £5OO ; Mr. M'Gregor,
chief clerk, secretary's office, £500." Now, there
were two questions which came up under this reso-
lution. The first was one of principle—namely,
whether, under such circumstances as the winding-
up of a company or the stoppage of a company the
servants losing their situations were to have any
compensation at all. The second question was what
the amount of the compensation should be. There
might be some of those who took advantage of the
second point—the difficulty of specifying a sum—to
get it settled that there should be no compensation
at all. But any shareholder who held such an
opinion should announce plainly that it was his
opinion that, however long might have been the
services of a servant, and whatever sacrifices a man
might make to serve the company for the best period
of his life, if circumstances over which he had no
control, or circumstances at which he had assisted
for the benefit of the company, operated to his dis-
advantage, ho was to receive nothing from those
who had been his masters, and whom he had served
so long and so well. If that was the opinion of any
shareholder, let him say so publicly and before the
world ; but he did not think many would venture
to do so. But the other was the more difficult point
—the amount of compensation. They had a pre-
cedent in this case. Mr. Latham and Mr.
Jamieson were joint servants of the Scottish Cen-
tral and Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Com-
panies during the ten years they worked together,
much to the advantage of their company ; and the
Caledonian and Scottish Central, in winding up the
affairs of the Scottish Central, agreed to pay to those
two gentlemen six years' salary, as compensation
for the loss of their offices. Now, What were the
directors of the Edinburgh and Glasgow to do ?
Were they to take a less rate, and say that these
parties—the Scottish Central and Caledonian—went
beyond the amount, or were to follow the example
of these companies, and because they had been
generous should they be generous too? He con-
fessed that his own opinion was in favour of deal-
ing fairly and liberally with those gentlemen who
behaved remarkably well to the company. After
some further observations he concluded by moving
the resolution.
Mr. CLOUSTON was desirous that the interdict
should be read.

Mr. JAMIESON, secretary, then read the applica-
tion for interdict, which craved that the respondents
should be " prohibited and discharged from voting,
paying, or applying the sum of £16,000 of the
moneys, funds, and revenues of the Edinburgh and
Glasgow Railway Company, or any part of those
moneys, as a donation or present to the officials of
the company." Lord Curriehill's interlocutor pass-
ing the interim note of suspension, and ordering it
to be served upon the respondents, was also read by
the secretary.
The CHAIRMAN said they were interdicted from
voting the money in the meantime. (Hear, hear.)
As they were thus put under the necessity of post-
poning this vote for a fortnight, until they gave
their answers to the interdict, and had the matter
cleared up, he thought it would be better to with-
draw the resolution, and adjourn in consequence of
the interdict until such time as they were free to
act as they liked with their own money.
After some observations from Mr. CROSS and Mr.
WEIR,

The CHAIRMAN—The following is the resolution
which the directors thought might be proposed :
"Any holder of ordinary stock who intimates that
it is his desire not to contribute any part of this
payment, shall receive the sum he so holds back, in
addition to his dividend, if he intimates this to the
secretary in writing on or before the Ist of October
next."

Mr. CLOUSTON thought it would be less invidious
to say that every shareholder willing to contribute
his proportion should say so.
The CHAIRMAN said they had proxies to the
amount of half a million from shareholders willing
to adopt the whole report as it was.
Mr. ROUGUREAD said if it were confined to only
those willing to pay, the interdieteouldberemoved,
and in that case it would prevent another meeting.
A very long discussion ensued, in the course of
which

Mr. A. ORR EWING moved that a committee c
five shareholders be appointed to consider the gees_
tion of compensation, and to report to an adjourned

meeting.
On a show of hands the amendment was rejected,
and Mr. Clouston's motion was carried ; but as a
poll was demanded, the chairman said he was sure
the majority would be for Mr. Ewing's amendment.
He therefore declared the amendment carried, and
the meeting adjourned.