The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-31 00:00:00

Railway and other Companies.

LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH COAST.
The half-yearly general meeting of this company was

held yesterday at the International Hotel, London-bridge ;
Mr. L. Schuster, the chairman, presided.
Mr. Slight, the secretary, having read the notice con-
vening the meeting, the report was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN said, in moving the adoption of the re-
port, that he would be as brief as possible in the observa-
tions he had to make. They would find an increase in the
amount of interest on capital coming to the charge of re-
venue account. This was from the opening of the short
lines to the watering-place at Seaford and to Bognor. The
latter was not quite four miles in length; the cost was
small, as it did not reach £9,000 per mile. The line from
Newhaven to Seaford was a continuation of theNewhaven
branch, and was rather more then two miles and a
quarter in length, and had two stations on it. The
opening of those branches had resulted in a very favour-
able return of revenue. He mentioned this now because
they would-hair. a miirh Aragar_JunnunttameaLla.aiziaa
that would come into operation, and which he hoped
would be open for traffic before the end of the pre-
sent year. He alluded principally. to the South London
Railway, now in course of construction, which would run
from the new station at London-bridge over the widening
of the areeus-iich viaduct, nearly to New-cross, and then
would turn off to the right by Peckham-rye, forming a
semi-circle in that part of the great metropolis, and thus
connecting their station at London-bridge with their Vic-
toria station at Pimlico. They had often expressed an ex-
pectation that this line would be remunerative to the com-
pany when it came into operation, and the more they saw
of metropolitan extensions the more they were satisfied with
the prospects of that undertaking. When he mentioned
ot ann t
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that its cost would be only about 1-10th that of other me-
taromp.ooli
the result of the traffic would not be less favourable to
them on that account. The result would bo that in a very
short period after the opening of this line the excess of re-
venue would amply compensate them for the charge of in-
terest on the capital laid out on that undertaking. He
thought that was all he had to state with respect to the
capital account, except that during the very heavy rate of
interest that prevailed they had not taken up money at a
higher rate than 44 per cent., and that only to a very mo-
derate amount. As regarded the revenue, it afforded him
great pleasure to tell them of an increase in the receipts
over the preceding year. They had 105 stations on the rail-
ways composing their system, and on looking to the returns
of every station he found that at every one of those stations
there was an increase, With some few exceptions. There
was one new station opened at the Clapham Junction within
half a mile of another at Wandsworth, but the returns of
the two taken together showed a considerable increase over
the corresponding period. They had superseded two sta-
tions in another place by a new station between them,
which was more convenient for the traffic of the district. If
interesting to them he could give a great many particulars
with regard to traffic at various:stations. The traffic between
London and Brighton had increased somewhat, but not in
proportion to the increase on other parts of their system.
It would probably surprise them that, although they were
generally called the Brighton Company, their chief traffic
was not to and from Brighton. The total traffic receipts
between London and Brighton and Brighton and London
formed only about one-fifth of the whole. Ile found from
returns in his possession that the traffic between London
and Brighton last year amounted to £200,676, while the

total traffic on the whole of their lines amounted to
£1,048,000, being more than five times the traffic to and from
London and Brighton. The total increase of traffic last year
as compared with 1863 was £48,000, of which the Brighton
portion was not in proportion to the rest. It must be satisfac-
tory to the proprietors that their revenue was derived from
so many sources, and that the increase in the traffic was not
confined to a few stations, but spread over the 105 stations.
The revenue of the two new lines lately opened was very
satisfactory; that to Seaford produced £2,275 over a line
two and ahalf miles in length. This was not so much upon
the line itself as in booking from it to all other stations.
For instance, the booking over it to Brightonamounted to
£341, to Lewes to £289, to Newhaven to £133, to another
place £319, and to London £1,177. Bognor, he believed,
was a very nice watering-place, and the traffic was very
satisfactory. The total traffic to and from Bognor during
the half-year amounted to £2,594. This included booking
to and from all other stations. The cost of this line was
about £8,500 per mile. He thought they would agree with
him that such branches as these were not detrimental to
the main line, but, on the contrary, were very advantage-
ous to it. For instance, the general statements in the traffic
table of the railway papers showed an additional length of
five or six miles in the distance travelled or length of line
open for traffic as compared with last year, bat they could
not take into account the cost of the extra length opened,
as to whether it produced much or little. Two miles in
length of additional line might produce £2,000 a week,
and cost £4,000,000, so that those tables did not show
the real state of things. The increase in the
goods traffic was £17,000 out of the total increase of
£48,000 over that of the year 1863. Now, if the proprietors
only considered that the fares and rates had been reduced
by nearly 20 per cent. for passengers and goods over their
line, the result of their working must bo looked upon as
very gratifying. On two former occasions he had ventured
to express an opinion that the reduced rates of charge might
have the effect of reducing their dividends for a compara-
tively short time, but that the ultimate effect would be to
increase the receipts, in a similar manner to the effect of a
reduction in the taxation of the country resulting in an in-
creased revenue. He hoped and expected that their revenue
would continue to increase, and thus enable them not only
to gain their former position, but to recover what they had
lost by the reduction in fares and rates. (Hear.) With re-
gard to the approaching Parliamentary session, he hoped
they would have very little to do with it. They proposed
to ask for powers to fully carry out the scheme of last ses-
sion for a line from Hailsham to Hastings and St. Leonaids
—a part of which was rejected by the committee, because
the landowners had shown that a better line could be ob-
tained brought that part of the ditriot thau that proposed

Mr. HERAPATH thought Mr. Cohen only wanted some
explanations, and did not intend to make any charge against
the directors as to the correctness of the accounts. He be-
lieved that Mr. Laing, the former chairman of the company,
had endeavoured to close the capital of the company at
£7,200,000, but it had since been increased to £12,987,735,
and it appeared they had power to further increase the
capital to £16,222,900. He had no doubt the directors would
be careful as to how they increased the capital to that
enormous amount. The dividend in 1848 was £3 12s. per
cent., and in 1864 51 per cent., which was more than he ex-
pected with so large an outlay. The gross receipts in 1848
were £153,408, and in 1864 £1,048,930, showing an increase
of 123 per cent. The working expenses in 1848 were
£147,132, and in 1864 £447,453, or an increase of 205 per
cent. The train miles in 1848 were £1,119,308, and in
1864, £3,728;653, or 253 per cent. As they had raised their
dividend a half per cent. last year there was no reason to
doubt that they would be able to accomplish the other half
per cent. within a reasonable time.

The CHAIRMAN said the increase of the capital was the
result of railway politics ; the directors had done the best
they could under the circumstances ; they had stood still
long enough. It was totally impossible in the interests of
the company to do anything else than they had done.
Resolutions wero unanimously passed adopting the re-
port ; declaring a dividend at tile rate of 3 per cent. for the
past half,yeaLon_tho_Qthenshares of

the company, payable on Feb. 13 ; authorising the con-
version of the ordinary £5 shares into ordinary stock ; and
also the paid-up portion of the 43- per cent. preference
shares into preference stock._
. _

Tho retiring directors, Mr. C. Lushington, Mr. J. Nix,
and Mr. L. Schuster were re-elected, and also Mr. J. C.
Fitzmaurice, the retiring auditor.
The meeting was then made special, and formal resolu-

tions were passed authorising the directors to create addi-
tional capital by the issue of 5 per cent. preference shares
and ordinary shares at the option of the subscribing share-

holders. Also to raise capital in respect thereof on mortgage
bonds or debenture stock. The agreement with the Crystal
Palace Company was approved; and the transfer to the com-
pany of the East Grinstead Railway for £50,000 in 4 per
cent. preference shares, and the adoption of the deben-
ture debt of £lO,OOO was agreed to.

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

NORTH-EASTERN.

This company's Wharfedale branch lino of railway is to
be opened from the Arthington station, between Leeds and
Harrogate to-morrow, the Ist of February, When the
branch is completed it will extend as far Ilkley. The
Midland Company have also a branch line in course of for-
mation intended to form a junction with it near Ilkley,
which is expected to be opened in the course of a few months.