The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-11 00:00:00

The Iron Trade,

WOLVERHAMPTON, Monday.
This morning the several ironmaking firms in the
Wolverhampton district each received a note from
the Mayor of this town (Mr. J. Ford) enclosing the
resolution passed by the puddlers at their meeting
on Saturday, declining to resume work till they had
obtained a pledge from their masters that a code of
rules and a court of arbitration should be estab-
lished for the settlement of future disputes. The
Mayor's note requested the masters to meet a depu-
tation of the men and himself at the Town-hall, on
Tuesday forenoon, and his Worship desired that the
firms addressed would reply as to their willingness

or otherwise to be present. It is the Mayor's in-
tention to be supported during the proposed inter-
view by the presence of the Town Clerk of the
borough (Mr. E. J. Hayes).
To-day the men held another meeting at the Horse
and Jockey, where they assembled on Saturday.
The deputation reported that they had been very
favourably received by the Mayor, who wished
them to resume work and allow the arbitration
matter to be settled after they had gone in. But
they said that they understood the feeling of the
meeting to be strong against any such step until
the masters had at least given them a promise that
a court of arbitration should be established. His
Worship then consented to call the masters together
at the Town Hall on Tuesday, at 11 o'clock, and
asked them to let him know if that time would be
suitable to the men.

The meeting now replied in the affirmative, ap-
pointed the deputation to meet the masters to-
morrow, and sent word to the Mayor that the hour
and day suggested would quite meet the views of
the men.

How far the determination of the Scotch iron-
masters not to submit the question in dispute be-
tween them and their men to arbitration will in-
fluence the masters in South Staffordshire remains
to be seen.

Throughout the extensive Brierly-hill district
work is generally being resumed by the puddlers
to-night. At Messrs. Brown and Freer's, how-
ever, there is a little hitch with the forge rollers,
who want a slight increase upon their former remu-
neration. The claim is based upon a state of things
which is understood to be peculiar to the operations
of the firm named, and therefore of only limited
importance. Messrs. Brown and Freer have
offered to meet their men halfway, and it is believed
that if not upon this, yet, upon some other arrange-
ment, the slight difficulty described will be soon ad-
justed. At both the forges of the Earl of Dudley
at Round Oak all the puddling furnaces have been
" got up," and the country thereabouts no longer
presents the sabbatic aspect by which five weeks it
has been distinguished.
The two blast furnaces at Capon-fields, belonging
to Messrs. Bagnall, are again at work, and those of
Messrs. Grazebrook and Aston will be soon " on."

The statements that union men are resuming work
in North Staffordshire is discredited by the Execu-
tive at Brierly-hill, who announce a confident ex-
pectation that assistance will now be forthcoming
from unionists in South Staffordshire and other
parts of the kingdom in amount sufficient to enable
the North Staffordshire men to remain out till they
obtain their old rate of wages. The Executive em-
phatically deny that any proposition was made, and
consequently, that it was not rejected, at the meet-
ing at Brierly-hill that the men should demand an
advance of ls. a ton. They believe that if the men
resume work and increase the funds of the union ap-
plicable to emigration and other purposes, the time
will soon arrive when they will be able to make the
application for a rise in their wages with more pro-
bability of success than at present is likely without
a longer struggle than they are now prepared to re-
commend.

With equal emphasis the Executive repudiate the
receipt from the Gateshead executive of any offer
encouraging them to recommend a demand through-
out South Staffordshire of the same terms as those
for which the North Staffordshire men are now stand-
ing out. Neither Mr. Kane nor any one else be-
longing to the Gateshead Executive had made
such an offer ; but they repeat that Mr. Kane did send
to them to say that if the masters should persist in
the lock-out then that the members of the Gates-
head Union would consent to being levied for the
support of the South Staffordshire men while they
were thus deprived of work, if they should require
it. The withdrawal of the lock-out has, however,
obviated any necessity for such a levy ; and the let-
ter yet lies unreplied to.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

GREAT NORTH OF SCOTLAND.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
on Friday at Aberdeen, Mr. J. Duncan in the chair.
The report, an abstract of which has appeared in
The Sun, was taken as read. '

The CHAIRMAN, in moving its adoption, said it
must have been a disappointment to the ordinary
shareholders, and to the shareholders of the B stock
to find that the former were to get no dividend and
the B to receive only a very modified one for the
past half-year. The company had had a long time
of prosperity, and now they were getting a rub the
other way. He trusted, however, that it would be
but temporary, and leave no permanent impression.
In the corresponding period ending January, 1864,
there was a balance availablefor dividendof £28,000,
and in the same period ending the 31st of January,
1863, there was a balance of £35,000, but the avail-
able balance for the hag-year ending the 31st Jan.
last had been reduced to £19,000. In January,
1862, the company hadno competition. The whole
traffic from the north passed over it to Aberdeen,
but now, by means of the Highland line, they were
deprived of the through traffic betweenlnveratess and
the south. For the half-year ending Jan., 1863, the
passengers travelling by the Great North of Scot-
land Railway produced a revenue for that half-year
of £19,500, but the return for the past half exhibited
a revenue for passengers of only £16,000, showing
a decrease of £3,500. They had at the former period
the conveyance of the mails, but the Inverness and
Perth line being the most direct one the Government
had adopted that route, giving them that portion of
the mails which went directly through to Inverness,
and the Great North of Scotland had now only the
limited portion of the mails which applied to the dis-
trict through which their line passed.. In 1863 they
received for the mails £3,671, and now they only
got £1,187, being a diminution of £2,484 upon mails
alone in the half-year. The goods traffic showed a
diminution of £832, being £23,047 against £23,879.
The diminution on the traffic had been £7,050 for
the half-year, or £14,000 for the year upon the
whole traffic, as compared with what it was in 1863.
There was also a deficiency in the available sum for
interest and dividends, owing to the former practice
of taking credit forinterest on investments in branch
lines which had been opened for traffic but which
had not become productive. This amounted to be-
tween £5,000 and £6,000 for interest in the corre-
sponding period,, but which had been discontinued
in the past half-year. This, taken together with the
diminution of traffic hementioned, made a difference
or deficiency for the past half-year of £12,000 or
£13,000 as compared with corresponding periods.
The amount expended on the main line was about
£l,ooo,ooo,while the company had subscribed to and
expended on branch lines £500,000, or one third of
the total capital-. There were many of those branches
unproductive, but at the same time several of them
brought a considerable amount of traffic on the main
line. The total amount of traffic on the main line
and branches was about £85,000 per annum, of
which £29,000 was for branches alone, and that, he
thought, justified the directors in having so far laid
out the company's money on the construction of
those branches. The directors were bound to protect
the district from invasion by other companies, and
it was evident that some of those branches were
purely protective. Every project had been laid be-
fore the shareholders, and were from time to time
sanctioned by them. He recommended a reduction
in the rates on the line for passengers with a view to
augment the receipts, and thereby enable the directors
again to pay dividends to the ordinary shareholders.
He had no fear of the result of such a policy, and
he thought they should go ahead in that respect,
particularly as the raising of the rates on portions

of their line had already been found to reduce the
revenue.

A long discussion ensued, in the course of which
the dividends recommended in the report were de-
clared, and on the suggestion of the directors a com-
mittee of shareholders was appointed to investigate
the present position and prospects of the undertak-
ing, and the meeting was accordingly adjourned to
the 26th inst. to receivea report from the committee
on the subject.