The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-30 00:00:00

INDIAN TRAMWAY.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the offices, Moorgate-street
Sir Macdonald Stephenson in the chair.

Mr. M. B. Scott, the secretary, having read the
notice convening the meeting, 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 his observations upon that occasion
would be brief, owing to the probability of another
meeting being shortly held with reference to the
proposed Pondicherry extension, at which the share-
holders, with the complete information then before
them, would be better able to consider and discuss
the whole question. In the meantime he congratu-
lated them upon what had already been accom-
plished. The Board's promises had been strictly
kept, and the expectations held out had been com-
pletely fulfilled. The railway had been constructed
not only within the capital, but within the mileage
cost originally assumed, and the returns already ex-
ceeded the percentage ever obtained on any colonial
line during the first few months. A weekly mileage
return of £9 would pay 5 per cent., and the line was
earning at starting about of that sum, with a
constantly increasing traffic. The shareholders were
entitled to the full credit of having established the
important fact that cheap light lines of railway,
could be made in India at a total cost for all ex-
penses, including engines and rolling stock, of
£4,000 per mile, capable of transporting loads of
100 tons at 35 miles an hour, at a very moderate
cost for fuel, with working expenses commencing at
65 per cent., which had since been reduced to about
50 per cent., and at its earliest opening paying a
dividend of 4 per cent. The means by which this
satisfactory result had been obtained reflected no
less credit upon the engineers at home and in India
than upon the company's agents, who had exerted
themselves to the utmost to secure the success of an
undertaking which they regarded as-the prototype
and forerunner of a system which must shortly
spread throughout the country. To Mr. Holloway,
the resident engineer, to Mr. Macfayden, and to the
officers of the Madras Railway Company, especial
acknowledgments were due. As regarded the future
the board hoped that at an early date they would be
prepared to lay before them such suggestions founded
upon such concltsive data for the extension of the
works as would meet their unanimous approval,
inasmuch as unless the co-operation of the Govern-
ment was ample and sufficient the board would not
recommend any further extensions. (Hear, hear.)
The well-groufked objections to the original terms
proposed by Cobnel Strachey, and adopted by the
Government, hal been the cause of so scanty and
insignificant an area of the country benefiting by
the great principe of light cheap railways, and it
was to be hopedthat the Government would after
several years' ex)erienee come round to the conclu-
sion at which pnetical men had long since arrived.
That Colonel Stttchey, one of the ablest officers in
the service, framed those conditions, and that the
Government adopted them under the conviction of
their equity, libeulity, and sufficiency, no one could
doubt. They dic their best in the public interest,
and failed. All the board desired was that they
should profit by ,ast experience, and still consult
the public interests. He expressed his confidence