The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-19 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.
The ordinary half-yearly general meeting of this com-
pany was held yesterday at the Bristol Terminus.
The notice convening the meeting having been read,
The CIIAIRMAN addressed the proprietors as follows :
Gentlemen, we are now passing through that period of
pressure consequent on the first opening of the northern
lines, which we always foresaw, and for which, as far as
it was practicable, we had made preparation. We
knew that about this time we should be obliged to carry
the capital expended on those lines to account. We
knew also that until the traffic should be fully developed
we could not expect any direct return for that expendi-
ture, and the amount that we take from our reserve, in
order to meet the demand thus occasioned, has been set
aside specifically and expressly for that purpose. Our
accounts will show that the interest on the money ex-
pended in the construction of the Birmingham and Ox-
ford line is all now carried against our current revenue.
Nor is this all—the expense of working the line, and
the establishment necessary for it, are very considerable,
while as yet we receive a very small return for it. We
never did look at the districts south of Birmingham as
proving the most productive portion of these lines. We
have always looked upon the Wolverhampton line,
which is still unopened, and to the district beyond it to
the north, which also is still closed to us, for the great
bulk of our traffic in that direction, and while we are
incurring this great weight of expense, we are receiving
I may say no return for it. These difficulties, for
which we were prepared, have been accompanied by
others which we could not have foreseen, in the extra-
ordinary season through which we have passed, and in
the rapid rise in the price of labour and materials of every
description. Iron has advanced from 61. or 71. to 91.
or 101. a ton, and the charge for maintenance of way
has, from these causes, increased from 45,0001. in the
last year to 60,0001. in this half year, and the repairs of
the locomotive stock and the carriage plant have in-
creased by the same means in about the same ratio, and
to complete the whole, at the very time when all those
charges fall upon us, we are obliged to make a reduc-
tion in our rates and charges over our entire line—a re-
duction which, as you are aware, has been imposed upon
us by the Legislature on the opening of the Birming-
ham and Oxford line. Fortunately, the opposite side
of the accounts presents a more favourable result. The
traffic—the passenger traffic—has rapidly increased.
The extent of that increase upon our own line you will
find stated in the report, and considerable as it was in
the last half year, it is satisfactory to see that it has
increased in a still greater ratio in the few weeks that
have passed of the present half-year, and including the
last week, it is now averaging 56,0001. a week. During
the first few years of our South Wales contract we al-
ways expected to incur some loss, and we calculate that
for the last half-year we shall have to make payment to
them of 7,0001. or 8,0001. We are not able to state the
precise amount, as we have not yet received the award
of Sir W. Cubitt, which has been delayed, partly by his
absence on the continent and partly by ill health, but I
believe it is nearly completed, and we are In the expecta-
tion of receiving it in a very short time. But I have
been looking into the receipts of the South Wales lines,
and it is my duty to say, though the length of those
lines has only been increased from 100 miles to 130
miles, the receipts have almost doubled in the last year.
This, too, though the mineral traffic, which is the most
important part of the traffic of that district, is as yet al-
together undeveloped. I trust, therefore, that the time
is not very remote when we may look to the South
Wales line as a source, not of loss, but of profit, to the
Great Western Company. (Hear, hear.) And we hope
you will consider, therefore, that the wonder is not that
we have been obliged to encroach as we have done upon
the reserve fund, but that we have been enabled to
maintain our dividend undiminished, in spite of the con-
currence of so many adverse circumstances. (Hear,
hear.) It is possible we may still have to incur some
adverse pressure in the next six months, or during an-
other year. But when you consider that the South
Wales traffic is in its infancy, that the northern traffic is
scarcely formed, and that we have already incurred the
greater portion of the expense of these lines, you will, I
think, agree with your directors that there is no cause
for entertaining mistrust or apprehension of our future
prospects, but that, on the contrary, you will think with
us that we are every day rapidly approaching the period
when we shall have entirely surmounted the difficulties
which we always knew would be inseparable from the
first opening of our northern lines. The session of Par-
liament which is now terminating closes upon us under
a more favourable aspect than it opened. The appoint-
ment of a Government committee has never been
ominous of much good to railway enterprise. If it does
nothing else, it unsettles the public mind as to the state
of a large class of property. The various objects of the
different parties concerned in that inquiry soon became
apparent by the evidence of the first witnesses who were
called. The London and North Western Company evi-
dently hoped they would be able to use the committee
as the means of securing themselves in the possession of
their large territory, and of protecting themselves not
only against the formation of new lines, but against
the combination of old lines, and for such protection
they were prepared to concede very large powers to
the Government. We were as much opposed as they
can be to the extension of useless and unprofitable
lines. We deprecated as much as they could a rash and
ruinous competition, but we felt convinced that in these
days it would be utterly hopeless to attempt to obtain
that absolute protection which some of the companies re-
presented by the witnesses required. We thought that if
even the present Parliament (which was extremely im-
probable) should he induced to grant such protection,
that subsequent Parliaments would treat the matter not
as one of faith, but of fiscal policy, and the railway com-
panies would find themselves when they came to en-
counter the powerful arm of the Government and the
Legislature in the predicament of having made great
sacrifices without the possibility of obtaining any real or
permanent equivalent. The committee seemed not in-
disposed to avail themselves in the first instance of the
share of our management and profits which was so libe-
rally tendered to them. Schemes of great magnitude
were discussed in all their details, giving to the govern-
ment power and control over all our lines, all our rates,
all our charges, and all our dividends, which I believe
would be truly incompatible with the safe and efficient
control of the railways, and utterly subversive of the
safety of all railway property, on any other condition
than that if the Government choose to become the ad-
ministrators they should also become, on just terms, the
purchasers of our railways. (Hear, hear.) Fortunately,
the good sense of the committee and the weight of evi-
dence we were able to tender to them by able railway
officers, and by other witnesses intimately connected with
the general traffic of the country, prevailed over such
suggestions, and the committee very wisely determined
to suspend legislation in the present Parliament, until
they could have the opportunity of considering the ques-
tion more maturely, and their labours have resulted in a
report, many of the recommendations of which, we be-
lieve, may prove most advantageous and beneficial to
railway interests, but respecting all of which perhaps it
would be more prudent if we suspended our judgment
until we find those recommendations actually embodied
in the practical form of a bill. Though Mr. Cardwell's
committee did not lead to any legislative measures it led
to many important legislative effects in the suspension of
all the amalgamation bills that had been introduced, and
among these bills for amalgamating the Great 'Western
with the Shrewsbury Companies. The London and
North Western Company were not slow to avail them-
selves of the opportunity to strike one of those bold
blows which they have so often tried, and in which they
have so signally failed in their contests for the Bir-
mingham lines. It is not my intention to express any
opinion whatever on the allegations made by Mr.
Scott and Mr. Geach at the recent meetings of some
of their shareholders. I have not formed any
opinion, I will not form any opinion until I have
a knowledge of the facts of the case on safer
testimony than that of hostile and interested
parties. (Hear, hear.) At all events (and I say it
without asperity, but it is right to set the facts fairly
before you), I do not think it was in the mouthf
has
itself,
the
London and North-Western Company, which
through its representatives, gone
them on men of
so largely into the
practice of splitting votes by conferring
straw, and fabricating seals—l el not think it was in
the mouth of the London and North-Western Com-
pany, under such circurnstances, to taunt us with the
recent disclosures, at variance with good faith and in-
consistent with the intentions of the Legislature—(hear,
hear)—and this too in an overture for peace. I think
there is rather an ungraceful and disagreeable mixture
of the holly with the olive branch in these expressions
of theirs. But be the facts of the case what they may, of
this there can be no doubt, that the object was not to
convict the directors of the Shrewsbury companies of
any of these misdeeds, but to destroy our agreements
with those companies, and to procure for the London
and North-Western Company, an absolute control in
the management of the Birmingham and Shrewsburyeopaoies
Company. The position of the Shrewsbury companies
would not admit of hesitation or delay. We could not
allow these companies to fall into the hands of the Lon-
don and North-Western. We could not expect that
the Shrewsbury companies would of themselves consent
to remain at the mercy of that company, destroying
their fine traffic and depriving them of every shilling of
their dividend. In point of fact, they made a forcible
appeal to us. What they practically said was, either
you should absolve us from our engagements with you,
and leave us to shift for ourselves in the best way we
can, or you should join with us in a struggle to enforce
on the London and North-Western Company the objects
of the engagements between us. (Hear, hear.) The
force and justice of this appeal were irresistible, and re-
sulted in the letter of Mr. Saunders of the 28th of July,
which was read at the meeting of the London and
North-Western Company last week. We adopted the
course then referred to slowly and reluctantly ; we are
not insensible to the great evils of a contest NS i .11 the
London and North-Western—(hear)—evils great to our-
selves, greater to the Shrewsbury companies, but greatest
of all (because of the larger area it embraces) to the
London and North-Western Company. (Hear, hear.)
We had made every effort that was possible to come
to terms of peace and accommodation ; the Shrews-
bury companies had sought an agreeMent with
them separately for the local traffic alone. They made
concessions on every point asked ; they adopted
atoll)!
very words of the proposition made by the ll
feet.
don and North-Western itself, but without eTe
(Hear.) A new condition was immediately imported.
The Shrewsbury companies and the Great Western Com-
pany e
conjointly sought an agreement with them
through traffic. It was equally without effd
to for
the
London and North-Western Company refuse treat
Th
with the Shrewsbury companies for the local traffic
ith them and us
alone, and and they refused to treat And they made to us a
jointly for the through traffic.
proposition as an alternative,
which is the more danger-
d 1 • ton both rontes
h t h ld
ous, because it is plausible all the traffic e usive, a we s 011
make the same charges f