The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-20 00:00:00

INDIAN BRANCH.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
on Friday at the London Tavern—Mr. W. Dent in
the chair.

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 he hoped they had all read with con-

siderable satisfaction the report of the prin
cipal engineer, Mr. Lambert; and from that he
thought they might fairly expect that the
Cawnpore and Lucknow line would be opened for
traffic by the middle of next year. This would be
the first portion o f the great system of lines they
proposed to construct in Oude and Rohilcuud. The
line commenced with a junction with the East In-
dian Railway at Cawnpore, about 21 miles from
the river Ganges, which was crossed at that point
by a bridge of boats, and thus made a kind of break
in their line from Cawnpore to Lucknow. The
were, however, in hopes the Government would see
the great importance of connecting by a substantial
bridge that part of India with the kingdom of Oude
as soon as possible. From the left bank of the river
Ganges to Lucknow was 421 miles, the works on
which were nearly finished. The steepest gradient
on the line was 1 in 300, which might be taken as
a fair specimen of the gradients of the intended sys-
tem of 800 miles in length. The least radius of the
curves on the line was one mile, which was practi-
cally as good for working as a straight line. The
facilities on the spot for the construction of those
lines were considerable ; the materials for making
lime, bricks, and ballast were available all over the
country, and labour was cheap and abunant. When
the funds were available for the construction of those
lines there would be no d'fficulty in carrying out
the whole of their system of railways in a compara-
tively short period. They did not intend at present
to make any further call 3n the shares until the
Cawnpore and Lucknow Eno was completed. They
bad obtained correct returns of the goods and pas-
senger traffic that now passed between Cawnpore
and Lucknow, and there could be no doubt that
the expectations hitherto held out to the shareholders
of a large traffic would be realised. There could be
no doubt from the moderate cost of the line, 14,500
per mile, that the returns would behighly satisfactory
and remunerative. With regard to theNulhatee line,
27 miles in length, it had yielded £5OO per month,
as against £430 per month in the corresponding pe-
riod of last year, sho wing an increase of £7O. The
passenger traffic had not disappointed them, but the
goods traffic, instead of being doub!e that for passen-
gers, as on other Indian railways, was not above 25
per cent. of it. They had been told that goods
brought by the Nulhatee line to the station of the
East Indian Railway had been carted away by the
merchants on account of the delay in forwarding
them by that railway to Calcutta ; but if the goods
traffic had been what it ought to have been the re-
turns would have been very satisfactory. The com-
pany had a subsidy from Government of £lOO per
mile of open line per annum for '2O years, being
about equal to 2 per cent. on their outlay, which he
considered was more valuable to them than the 5
per cent. guaranteed to other Indian lines, which
had cost three or four times more per mile than their
company's lines would cost.
Mr. R. W. KENNARD, M.P., seconded the motion
for the adoption of the report.
Mr. SHEWARD said he entertained a very different
• opinion from that expressed by the chairman as to
the prospects of the company. He did not believe
the Government would make the bridge over the
Ganges, and he feared the company could not afford
to make it. The Nulhatee line was to have paid
them 10 per cent., but had not yielded anything
like that sum.
Re thought under the circumstances
that the directors should
give them a distinct pledge
that no other work than the Lucknow line should be
une Ttaken until they had ascertained the result of
ti working of that line.
Mr. POWELL and other shareholders also ex-
pressed a desire that no new works should be com-
menced- until the money they had already expended
on those lines had proved a success.

The CHAIRMAN said the East India Railway Corn _ .

to enable them
parry had ordered 230 new engines,
to carry on the traffic, which they were now unable
to carry, and the probability was that when those
engines were at work the goods traffic on the Nul-
hatee line would be greatly increased. The traffic
was there if they had the means of forwarding it to
Calcutta.
Mr. KENNARD, M.P., a director, said he had been
greatly disappointed in respect of the traffic on the
Nulhatee line, and could not agree to the construe-
tionof any other lines until they knew what the line
to
Lucknow would yield on the outlay.
The Cammui having stated that the desire ex-

pressed by the shareholders should have its full
weight with the Board, the report was unanimously
adopted, and the proceedings terminated.

SAN PATJLO (BRAZILIAN).

A general meeting of this company was held on
Friday at the London Tavern, for the purpose of
confirming the resolutions passed at a general meet-
ing of the company on Oct. 31 last, for carrying out
an arrangement provisionally made by the directors
with the authorised representative and agent in Eng-
land of the Government of the Emperor of Brazil.
Mr. R. A. Heath, the chairman, presided.
The CHAIRMAN said, as the resolutions had been
fully discussed at the last meeting, it was unneces-
sary to discuss them further. He then moved a for-
mal resolution confirming the resolutions passed on
Oct. 31, for accepting the offer of the Government
to provide the additional capital required by the
company for paying the 7 per cent. interest on the
share capital already raised during the construction
of the line, and in consideration of which the Go-
vernment were to participate in all surplus profits
over 7 per cent. instead of 8 per cent. as originally
fixed, and the term for the duration of the guaran-
tee of 7 per cent. was reduced to 50 years.
Mr. CHURCH seconded the motion confirming the
resolutions, which was agreed to unanimously.

Another special meeting was then held.
The CHAIRMAN said the objectof this meeting was
to provide that, in case there should be any difficulty
in receiving the money from the Government or the
order for it, which. Capt. Medeiros promised them
should be available immediately after the confirma-
tion of the resolutions just agreed to, they were to
have the power of raising money on debentures as they
might deem expedient. He then moved formalresolu-
tions authorising the directors to borrow from time to
time on debentures, with or without the guarantee
of the Government, any sums the board might think fit.
Mr. CHURCH seconded the resolutions, and they
were carried unanimously.
In reply to questions it was stated that the next
mail would arrive about the middle of December,
and that there was every probability of some Southern
people forming a cotton colony near the railway.

A vote of thanks to the chairman and directors
concluded the proceedings.

DEMERARA.

The traffic receipts on this company's line for the
fortnight ending the 14th of October amounted to
$4,835, and for the corresponding fortnight last
year to $4,673, showing an increase of $162.