The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-22 00:00:00

GREAT WESTERN.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was
held yesterday at the Paddington station, the Earl
of Shelburne in the chair.

The report and accounts, abstracts of which have
appeared in The Sun, were taken as read.

The CHAIRMAN moved the adoption of the report.
In regard to the paragraph relating to the amalga-
mation of the West Midland Railway Company
with this company, there was no doubt that the
proprietors had looked forward to a profitable result.
The directors certainly did regard it as a beneficial
arrangement for both companies, and had hoped
that before now the advantages would have been
manifest. But he did not consider the dividend now
proposed, under all the circumstances, to be an un-
satisfactory dividend. When two large companies
united a certain time must elapse before the benefits
of the union could be ascertained. There were some
portions of the West Midland line that were quite
new, and the traffic upon them undeveloped ; but
those sources of apparent present loss would become
in future years sources of certain profit. The Great
Western Company had, of course, to bear a great
part of the present loss, but when a profit came that
company would obtain a proportionate amount of
benefit. In making up the accounts of two such
large companies there must always be items which
told upon one side against the other. The accounts
of the two companies had been blended, but had not
yet been audited in their united shape, and there-
fore he could not further comment upon them.
The companies being now united, there must
occasionally be inequalities on one side or the
other, but investigations directed solely to the
discovery of those inequalities would only
create antagonistic feelings, which would result in
mutual dissatisfaction. The next point in the
report to which he should refer was that relating
to the Metropolitan Railway. Ho would observe,
that the Great Western Railway Company had
abstained for a long time from taking any direct
share in that undertaking, not from any want
of appreciation of the advantages of that scheme,
but because they did not see any prospect of its
being completely carried out ; but now it appeared
in a tangible shape, and was expected to be opened
for traffic in June next. The Great Western Rail-
way had long suffered in comparison with other
lines from the want of a city terminus, especially in
regard to suburban traffic. Recent experiments had
shown that the transit through the tunnelled por-
tions of the Metropolitan Railway could be effected
without any of those disagreeable accompaniments
which were at one time believed to be inevitable.
He, with some of his brother directors, had been
along the Metropolitan line in an open truck, but in
consequence of the complete condensation of the
steam engine there was no unpleasant vapour what-
ever in the tunnels. He looked forward to the open-
ing of that line as an advantage to the Great Western
proprietors as well as to the Metropolitan sharehol-
ders. An agreement had been come to, which would
hereafter be submitted to the proprietors, which,
while it would preserve the rights of each company,
would, he believed, tend to the advantage of both.
The next paragraph of the report which it was neces-
sary to notice was that referring to the East Glo-
cestershire Railway. Before entering on that sub-
ject, he would premise that if there was one thing
which the board of directors had been anxious to
avoid doing per se it was an extension of their lines
and an enlargement of their territory. (Hear.) The
departure from that principle in the present instance
had not emanated from them, as had been errone-
ously supposed. The fact was that the landowners
and other influential persons in the district lying
between Cheltenham and Faringdon had repre-
sented to the board of directors that they were de-
termined to have a railway, and that, although
they were very amicably disposed towards that com-
pany, as they had been before disappointed, they
wished it to be understood that if the Great Western
Company would not help them they should seek as-
sistance in other quarters. At that time this company
had not united wfth the West Midland, and there
were parties hostile to them who were willing to take
up the line if this company had refused to adopt it.
'The question was therefore not so much whether or