The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-20 00:00:00

GREAT LUXEMBOURG.

for the half-year ending
The report of the directors states that the gross receipts
the 31st December last amounted
to £125,991, for the corresponding half of 1863 to £116,564,
and for the same half of 1862 to £115,334. The net earnings
for the past half year amounted to £69,060, against £63,341
for the corresponding half of 1863, and £63,575 for same
half of 1862, exceeding those for the corresponding half of
1863 by £5,719. The working expenses amounted to 45.2
per cent. of the gross receipts, being lower than any pre-
vious half year. The rolling stock and permanent way had
been maintained in efficient repair ; the relaying of the per-
manent way had been proceeded with where necessary. The
net revenue had exceeded that of the corresponding period
of 1862 by £5,485, which latter was the most productive
year since the opening of the railway. This was the more
important as it had been attained in the face of an unavoid-
able reduction of the tariffs forthe transport of goods. Steps
were being taken to insure the opening of the portion of the
Ourthe line o ending from the present main line at Marloie

to Melreux (9 miles) in May next. The remaining part from
Melreux to Liege, would, it was believed, be completed at
the end of the present year. The net earnings of the canal
had amounted to £2Ol, being £B4 in excess of the earnings
of the corresponding half of 1863. After deduction of the
amount required to meet the interest and reimbursements
of obligations (a 5,6.08) there remained £33,558. The Board
proposed to declare a dividend of 6s. 6d. per share, leaving
a balance of £BOO to the credit of the resent() fund, carry-
ing forward £258. The original Board of Directors was
appointed in the year 1846, and eontinued • nine years in
office, in the course of which they received on shares
£1,010,501, and on obligations £338,034; total, £1,348,535 ;
the engagements then existing and repaid by advances
from bankers were £60,000, making together £1,408,535.
There were nine miles of railway opened for traffic, some
rolling stock and other material being very imperfect.
The works between Brussels and Namur had been par-
tially constructed, and scarcely anything had been done
between Namur and Arlon. At the date of the acces-
sion to office of the present Board there had been ex-
pended the whole of the £1,408,535, for which they pos-
sessed nine miles of railway ; and since that period they
had by the expenditure of £1,325,560, become the proprietors
of a further length of 132 miles of railway, with a rolling
stock sufficient for the present working of the same, and
they had also more than 17 miles of canal. In 1860 the pre-
sent Board was re-elected for a second period of five years,
which was about to terminate. The directors, therefore,
desired to call the attention of the proprietors to the progress
of the company, and to the more important acts of their
administration during this second term of office. The traffic
receipts, which in 1859 amounted to £112,951, had gradually
increased, and for the year 1864 had attained the sum of
£232,240, and the shares had nearly doubled their price
since the year 1859. In 1861 the branch railway towards
Longwy, 7f miles in length, was completed at a cost of
£60,514, or less than £B,OOO a mile. The Ourthe Valley line,
in course of construction, would be about 40 miles in length,
and by means of it the distance from the coal basin of Liege
to the Grand Duchy and to the manufacturing districts of
the Moselle (France) would be reduced nearly 30 miles. The
directors concluded their report by stating that if during
their first five years of office they saved the company from
impending ruin, they had during their second term of office
been able so far further to ameliorate the affairs of the
company as that, in spite of the faults and frauds committed
from 1845 to 1855, a fair return for the capital embarked in
the undertaking was now placed beyond all reasonable doubt.