The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-18 00:00:00

SOUTH-EASTERN.

The report of the directors states that the gross receipts for
the half year ending the 31st of January amounted to £699,255
(including £29,669 for steamboat traffic), as compared with
£652,847 for the corresponding period of 1863-4, being an
increase of £46,408. The working expenses during the six
months had been £261,188 ; the rates, taxes, tolls, and Go-
vernment duty, £42,240 ; and the expenditure on the steam-
packet service, £13,587, or a total of £317,016, against
£301,565 for the corresponding period of 1863-4, being an
increase of £15,451. After providing for rents of branch
lines, interest on laons, annuities, guaranteed dividends,
and all preference charges, there remained a net balance
of £226,317 available for dividend on the ordinary consoli-
dated stock of the company. The directors recommended
that a dividend of 17s. 3d. per £3O stock, or at the rate of
£5 15s. per cent. per annum, be paid on the 2d of March,
leaving a balance of £7,530. The total number of passen-
gers conveyed during the half year was 7,568,709, of which
5,012,289 were third class, 1,741,460 second class, and
814,960 first class. The increase in the total number car-
ried was 900,000, of which 789,161 were third-class, 42,270
second-class, and 68,569 first-class, as compared with the
corresponding half of 1863-4. Of the increase of 900,000
passengers 536,624 were booked locally on the Charing-
cross Railway. Several circumstances had concurred to
prevent a larger increase in the receipts from this
source, which would otherwise have been exhibited in
the half year's accounts. Among those had been the
opening of the London, Chatham, and Dover Company's
Metropolitan Extension to Blackfriars and Ludgate-hill,
which had the effect of abstracting traffic from the South-
Eastern lines, and the opening of the same company's coast
line to Ramsgate and Margate. Those losses had, however,
been in some measure compensated by the working of the
Charing-cross line and terminus, which had led to a consi-
derable development of the through traffic, and the result
was a net increase of £23,554 in the passenger receipts for
the half-year. It was expected that the completion of the
direct line now in course of construction between Lewisham
and Tunbridge, by shortening the main line route 13 miles,
would soon place the railway in a more favourable position
with respect to the Ramsgate and Margate traffic, and enable
the company eventually to recover the greater portion of
that which had been abstracted during the past half-year.
The increase in continental passenger receipts had been
£7,523, of which £4,800 was in respect rf traffic between
London and Paris, showing a continuous increase in the in-
tercourse between the two cities. The traffic agreement
with the London, Chatham, and Dover Company was now
in process of completion by counsel, with a view to its being
submitted to and approved by the proprietors. The capiial
expenditure during the half-year had been £332,559, less
£3,362, realised by the sale of surplus lands. The expendi-
ture onthe Tunbridge and Dartford lines had been £147,340,
the city branch and terminus of the Charing-cross Railway
£103,836, additional rolling stock £34,319, and on the main
line, Bricklayers' Arms station enlargement, £18,093. It
was expected that the Tunbridge line would be opened to
Chiselhurst in the course of the spring, and that the Dart-
ford direct line would be ready for opening by the month of
August next. The capital account showed that £13,024,151
had been expended, including £3,226,496 on the Charing-
cross railway and stations.