The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-07 00:00:00

LONDON AND COUNTY BANK.

At the half-yearly meeting to day of the London and
County Bank the report presented stated, that the accounts
which were made up to the end of June last showed a net
profit for the past six months (including the balance of
£20,703, 3s. 2d. brought forward) amounted to £61,384
Bs. 2d. after deducting interest paid to customers, expenses
of management; income-tax, and rebate, and making pro-
vision for bad and doubtful debts. Out of this sum allow-
ance had been made for £34,034 2s. 11d, remitted to Ire-
land, in consequence of the adverse decision of the House
of Lord's on Mr. Eyres' appeal. The directors declared a
dividend of 5 per cent. for the half year, free of income
tax, land carried forward the balance of £776 16s. 7d.
The report was after a short discussion unani-
mously adopted.

VIC 7 ORIA STATION AND PIMLICO
RAILIV.A Y COMPANY.

HALF-YEARLY MEETING.—(THIS DAY.)
The ordinary half-yearly meeting of the shareholders in
this undertaking was held this morning at :the offices, 31,
Parliament-street.
IV. Lee, Esq., chairman of the board of directors, pre-
sided.

The report of the directors was as follows :
" Since the directors presented their last report the Brighton
Company's conveyance has been completed. The deeds have
been executed, and the shares representing the Brighton
Company's subscription to the undertaking have been can-
celled in accordance
with the provisions of the act.
The permanent station is sufficiently complete for
the purposes of traffic, and the London, Chatham,
and Dover Company have been f'or some time in
occupation of their booking-offices and platforms.
Referring t,) the capital account, it will be seen that the
amount expended on the Atation works since the last re-
port is £33,479 Out of the balance of the revenue account
the directors recommend a dividend of two per cent, for the
past half-year, ending .June 30th, being at the rate of four
per cent. per annum tor the year 1862."
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the docu-
ment, said he had very few remarks to address to the share-
holders. They were aware they were nearly at the close of
a very valuable speculation, and he had nothing further
to add to the facts contained in the report.
Mr. ELGER. seconded the motion, which was carried
unanimously.

A resolution was also agreed to, declaring a dividend of 2
per cent. for the half •year, which was at the rate of 4 per
cent, per annum.

A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the pro-
ceedings.

-----,
Hops.--In the first half of the present year
70,232 cwt, of foreign hops were charged with the 15s. duty
on entry for consumption here, and at the close of the half-
year there were 48,223 cwt. of foreign hops in bond at our
ports. In the same half-year 4,613,9041 b. of British hops,
chiefly of the growth of 1855-56, were exported; more than
half went to the Channel Islands.

THE NONCONFORMIST EMIGRANTS.—Some little
anxiety having arisen as to the safety of the Matilda
Watteubach, which sailed from London for Auckland,New
Zealand, on the 29th May, we are informed that the vessel
has been spoken, all well, in lat. 7 N., long. 21 W., and
that a copy of the Albertland Gazette, printed on board,
has been received in London.

A COALPIT ON FIRE. NARROW ESCAPE OF
SEVENTY MINERS.—On Tuesday, the woodwork in the
west shaft of Low Gosforth Pit, near Newcastle-on -Tyne,
caught fire, to the dismay of the 70 men and boys who
were working below. The shaft is 180 fathoms deep, and
the sides of it, for a considerable distance upwards, are lined
with wood "deeding," about 21 inches in thickness. A.
few fathoms from the bottom is the furnace drift; and
the heat from this fire is supposed to have given rise to
the conflagration. It appears that the first person under-
ground to discover that the shaft was on fire was the
man who puts on and takes the tubs off the cage. His
attention appears to have been attracted by the roar of
the flames and the showers of sparks which fell simulta-
neously to the bottom of the shaft. The " onsetter" im-
mediately sent word to those " in-bye" to come out ; but
the alarm had spread much speedier than his messengers
could travel. The miners, as soon as the fire broke out,
became sensible that something unusual had taken place in
the pit shaft. The air came rushing in through the work-
ings, in consequence of the increased draught caused by the
burning shaft, with a force that was felt in the innermost
parts of the pit, and near the bottom of the shaft was so
powerful as to extinguish many of the lamps in the hands
of the miners. The miners, therefore, lost no time in
seizing their clothes and rushing to the bottom of the
shaft. Here they remained, waiting anxiously for the de-
scent of the rope in the east shaft to take them to bank. In
consequence of the skeets in this pit having been taken out,
the cage could not be used for that purpose, and the only
way of rescue open to them was the slow and tedious pro-
cess of hoisting them by loops attached to the chain, three
awl four at a time. All were drawn safely up, but had there
only been a single shaft at Gosforth Pit, not a man would
have been brought up alive. With the fire roaring and burn-
ing with the heat of a furnace, it would have been impossible
to have hoisted the men a depth of 180 fathoms through
the smoke and flames. The heat must have been most
intense; and in proof of this it may be mentioned that
the wire cage rope was burnt in two some fathoms from
the bottom, and fell in huge coils upon the tubs in the
cage beneath, which were already in blaze from the
showers of burning sparks which had descended upon
them. The fire engine played down the west shaft for
several hours, and between eight and nine o'clock. it was
_e
conjectured that the fire had been extinguished, and the
engine ceased playing.—Abridged from the Netaeastis
Chronicle.

SHIP ARRIVALS,—The ship Octavio, 1,065 tone,
William J. Dale, commander, belonging t°
Dunbar, bound to London, arrived on Tuesday
..
afternoonthelate
off the South Foreland,passengers
of 900 chests of Assam tea. The
following
Cga tain Wal-
with a general cargo,.n consisting
were on board :—Mrs. Smyth, Mrs. Lee,
grey 89th.
lace, Bengal Native Infantry; p
gins, Miss Leonard,
Regiment; Messrs. Crabbe Millie pgassage. The vessel
&c. Mr. J. Gibson died
on the
of April rounded the Cape
of from Calcutta on
the 6th
June, crossed' the Line
of Good Hope on the
Matilda
touched at St. Helena on the 18th "1
the 27th of June,
therefrom on the 19th of June. Sho spoke
on June, and sailed
emigrants, and the bark Ecliptic, from
on June 30, in lat. 5.2.0 N., long. 20.45 W., the ship
, long.
Wattenbach, with
1 London for the Mauritius; July 1, in lat. 7 40 N
bark Cockatoo, from Bonny for T • .
21 0 W., the
- July 7, in lat. 12.25 N., 1 P / 26 days; long. 23'30 W, the
American ship Anna Decatur, from Sunderland for Singa-
pore; July 11, in lat. 27'40 N., long. 35.50 W
Ame-
rican ship Lawrence Brown, from ./ the >
Akyab for Falmouth -
and July 28, in lat. 45'15 N., long 25.15 W., the American
ship Piscataqua, from New York for Liverpool. The
bark Medusa, 210 tons, William Lancaster commander,
belonging to Messrs. T. and C. Nichols, London,and bound
for London, with a cargo of wool, ivory, hides, and horns,
has arrived off Plymouth. Among the passengers are the
Lord Bishop of Natal, Capt. Bishop, R.N , Mr. and Mrs.
Churchill, Mrs. Stone, Mr. Buchanan, and families. The
vessel sailed from Natal on the 24th of May; rounded the
Cape of Good Hope on the 6th of June; crossed the Line
on the 27th of June; touched at St. Helena on the 18th of
June, and sailed therefrom on the 19th of June. She left
at Port Natal the ship Catherine, in ballast, for Akyab ;
the bark Syria, in ballast, for Batavia; and the trig Sir
Colin Campbell, discharging cargo. She left at St. Helena
her Majesty's steam cruiser Antelope, which brought in a
slaver on the 19th of June, with 550 slaves on board. June
17, remaining in the rondo, the ship Octavia, from
the schooner Marianna, from
Calcutta for London;
London, discharging
general cargo ; the schooner Pris-
cilla, of Jersey, discharging potatoes. A Dutch
brig, name unknown, called off and sailed ; the
barks Christabel and Bristow. She spoke June 2,
i lat. 31 19 S., passed the ship Thornhill, bound home e;
June 28,
in hit. 4 12 N.. long. 20 32 W., the Kurracl?e'
bound to Marseilles; July 12 in lat. 21 30 N.,01%'1,,he
brig Dashing
Wave, out 18 days, bound for Vera ,r-- ;
and on
July 21, in lat. 36 50 N., long. 34 3 vv,.., passed the
ship Bosphorus, out 95 days, all well from, Bombay for
Liverpool. July 31, she spoke the French barque Armide,
Captain Le Granohe, from London for Savannah, in lat.
44 40 N., long, 12 0 w,, showing Bremen colours, steering
W.S,Wi,

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