The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-24 00:00:00

SOUTH-EASTERN.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
yesterday at the Bridge-house Hotel, London-bridge;
the Hon. J. M. Byng, the chairman, presided.
Mr. S. Smiles, the secretary, having read the
notice convening the meeting, the report was taken
a read.

The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said it would not be necessary for him to
occupy much of their time on that occasion. In

acme respects they had gained, and in others they
had lost during the half-year, and it was, perhaps,
. matter for congratulation that upon the whole they
had been able to hold their own so well. (Hear.)
The opening of the new coast line to Margate and
Ramsgate had necessarily had the effect of abstract-

ing traffic which in former years has been carried
over this railway, though they had happily been
enabled to make up for that loss by gains at other
points. That they had been able to do so had been
entirely attributed to the working of the Charing-
cross Railway by this company. (Hear, hear.) The
cost of that line had, indeed, been very great, as all
lines passing through London must be ; but when
they thought of its cost it was also right that they
should think of where they would now have been
without it. With other rival metropolitan lines
possessing favourable termini at various points of
London, it would have been impossible for them to
have held their ground if they had remained cooped
up at London-bridge. (Hear.) As it was they had
carried more passengers in the last half-year than
they ever carried before. (Hear.) Y Including the
journeys of season-ticketholders, they had carried
upwards of 16,000,000 during the year, a number
which he believed was exceeded by only one other
railway in the kingdom. It was true most of the
traffic was for short distances, between London and
the suburbs, and principally upon the North Kent
and Greenwich lines, and this it was which had
been so much increased by the opening of the
Charing-cross terminus. For example, on the
Greenwich Railway alone they had carried 301,533
more passengers than they had in the corresponding
half-year. Of this increase, about 100,000 had
been at Spa-road, the station nearest to London-
bridge. (Hear.) There had also been an increase
in the number of passengers carried upon the main
line, but whereas the increase there had been prin-
cipally in first-class passengers from Charing-
cross, the increase in the suburban passengers
had been almost entirely third-class. The Char-
ing-cross second and third class traffic was, how-
ever, but yet in its infancy, and he could not
entertain a doubt but that it would yet prove a
source of large and constantly increasing revenue
to the company. (Hear.) They also looked to
the residential traffic as a large source of future in-
come arising from the West-end terminus. Parlia-
inent had granted powers to the Chatham Com-
pany to construct duplicate lines in Kent, and to
enter into competition with them for traffic at
Chatham, Canterbury, Dover, Ramsgate, and Mar-
gate, and other important places. Whatever might
be said of the justice or injustice of this course,
there was no good in complaining of it. (Hear, hear.)
They had to face the fact that the Chatham Com-
pany had been placed by Parliament in a position to
compete with them effectively at many points, and
in this way seriously to injure them. To avoid that
injury they had entered into the agreement about
two years ago. They had now had two years' ex-
perience of its working, and felt justified in saying
that it had proved an advantageous arrangement to
both companies. (Hear, hear.) This was shown by
a few facts. For example, during the last year the
gross receipts had been £67,000 more
aswthanbtehfoeyrewtehree
during the Exhibition year, which
date of the agreement, and when the other company
were running against them atocmomcnpoetitn
competition fares.
traffic
es. The
receipts of this company from
had been greater during the past yeare to Dover
was
were
even before the new duplicate line
opened. There had also been a considerable
nabaledinFcorlekae-
se
in the receipts from local traffic at Dv
Folke-
stone compared with the receipts preceding the date
of the agreement—(hear)—but had the two cora-
Paniesbeen in competition with each other the results
would have been very different. (Hear, hear.)
W. G. THOMSON, deputy-chairman, seconded
the motion for the adoption of the report.
After some observations by Mr. HAMILTON, Mr.
ADAMS,
I LDES7 and other
port was dopes' and
.proprietors, the re-
-130 share, a dividend of 17s. 3d. per
being at thean rate of £5 15s per cent. per
annum, was declared on the Ca la 't stock of the
company, payable on the 2d of pMarch.
The retiring directors, the Hon. J. M. Byng, Mr.
Warren, and
aNnlcir.
also
Barlo', Captain D.
reelected,
M.P., were unanimously
Child, the retiring auditor.
The meeting was then made special, at which cer-
tain by-laws were approved ; the conversion of the
5 per cent. preference shares into stock was autho-
rised, and the directors were empowered to borrow
on mortgage £113,000.
The proceedings closed with a vote of thanks to
the chairman and directors.