The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-28 00:00:00

RAILWAY" INTELLIGENCE.

GREAT NORTHERN.
The half-yearly meeting of proprietors was held on
Saturday, Albion Tavern, Aldersgate-street. Mr. E.
Denison, M.P., was in the chair.
The Secretary having read the advertisement con-
vening the meeting, and the seal of the company having
been affixed to the share-register,
The CHAIRMAN said—The report having been in your
hands nearly a week, I think we may assume, for your
convenience, that it has been read, and I hope it has
afforded you much satisfaction. (Hear, hear.) There- I
fore, we will assume that it has been read. You will
find by the published capital account that we have ex-
pended the enormous sum of 9,500,0001. ; and, accord-
ing to the best calculation that we are able to make, the
whole money necessary to be expended for the comple-
tion of your line and all the works will be the addi-
tional 1,000,0001. which you permitted us to raise when
I had last the honour of addressing you ; so that, in
round numbers, your expenditure, as regards capital,
will be 10,500,0001. If you will do me the favour to re-
fer to the account, you will find that of that 10,500,000/.
not much more than half of it will appear debited literally

to the construction of the works. Works, constructions,
and so forth, stand at present at 5,285,000/. ; and, per-
haps, 200,0001. or 300,0001. wants adding to that. Now,
on your behalf, and on behalf of the public, I sincerely
lament that, although the construction of a railway should
have cost 5,500,0001., in round numbers, yet that, never-
theless, all other expenses of every sort should have
very nearly doubled that sum—parliamentary expenses,
compensation for land. Interest certainly has been
divided among you ; and, therefore, one has nu right to
complain of that, because you have received a certain
amount of that among yourselves. But it is a fact
Which I think is worth observing, that although the
line will have cost 10,500,0001., not above half that sum
has been expended in the actual construction. The
line, then, having cost altogether 10,500,0001., it is
worth while to occupy one or two minutes in considering
what you have got for your money. I believe lam cor-
rect in stating that you have got one of the best con-
structed lines in the kingdom, with a terminus in London
at all events most convenient to the public, most advan-
tageous for all the , purposes of railway traffic, and
although it wears a magnificent appearance, I believe,
as compared with others, it will not be found to be a
very costly construction. But the line itself, to which
I am rather more disposed to call your attention than to
the station, is a matter of serious importance to you—
at all events, if not to you, to those who come after you,
because it will be found, on examination, that from
London. to Peterborough, which is 76 miles, the line is
so constructed that, with very little additional expense,
as compared with other lines, two additional lines may
be laid down, so that it would be a railway constructed
to carry four lines. The embankments are already
formed for four lines ; the bridges are three-arched
bridges, so that an additional line would run
through each of the side arches ; and, in point
of fact, with the exception of the tunnels, in
respect of which there would be little difficulty, in case
two lines should be laid down, you would be able to
have four lines laid down between Peterborough and
London at an infinitely smaller expense than the same
thing could be done for any line that has its terminus in
London. I wish to be as correct as I possibly can, as

it is my duty to be. I have asked Sir Wm. Cubitt, and
he says there will be no difficulty whatever, either with
respect to tunnelEr or bridges, in laying down two addi-
tional lines ; that the embankments are all wide enough
for that, and the land has been bought. Now, Ido
not presume to say that, in the year after next, the gen-
eral manager will want the use of four lines, but I am
thoroughly convinced-that, in less than 17 years from
this time, the traffic of the Great Northern into Lon-
don will be such that four lines will be required. (Hear.)
Then, so much for the capital, which again, I sincerely
lament, is unavoidably so large. Then comes the ques-
tion of the chance of repayment in the shape of interest
for the money you have laid out. The earnings of the
railway have been progressing in this wise, that where-
as, in the half-year ending Dec. 31, 1851, we had 241
miles at work, which earned 315,0001. ; that was equal
to 51/. per mile per week. Now, that was autumn of the
Exhibition traffic, and was, of course, an exceptional case
to almost all others; and I admit that, when I looked at the
figures, I was apprehensive that from that time the aver-
age weekly mileage would very seriously decrease; and so
it has decreased, as it did decrease on almost all other lines
in the kingdom that had their termini in London.
Although we have had 283 miles at work for the last
half-year, ending 31st December, the average mileage
stands at 50/. per mile. So that it is, in point of fact,
shutting out the question of the Exhibition, making a
reasonable deduction from that, though we have added
60 miles to the mileage, as compared with the preceding
half-year, the mileage is, in point of fact, better, and it
stands for the average of the last half-year at 501. per
mile per week. I believe 361,0001. was earned in the
half-year ; twice 361,0001. would produce a larger sum
of money, as earned already, than was calculated would
be earned when the plans were before the Parliamentary
committee. But lam equally ready to admit that the
expenditure has far exceeded the estimate ; but it is sa-
tisfactory to find, at all events, the calculations with re-
spect to the receipt of traffic were not over-stated.
Then, with respect to the working expenses, they have
receded from 50 per cent. to 44 per cent., I think, and
there is every reason to believe that they will gradually
decrease. When we proposed that we should have the
privilege.of raising a million of capital, with the usual
borrowing powers, it was suggested by a very intelli-
gent and active shareholder, that it should be cut down
to 750,0001., with the usual borrowing powers ; and
that was proposed by Mr. Hughes, in perfect good feel-
ing beyond all doubt, and it was seconded by Mr.
Waters. Ido not mention that from any ill-feeling to
that gentleman.
Mr. HUGHES—Recollect you have 60,0001. more than
you told us then.
The CHAIRMAN—I only mention it now in order to
show that I think I acceded to his request and to his
suggestion perhaps more readily than prudence or con-
sideration would have warranted me in doing. Now I
will tell Mr. Hughes why I think it probable—l will
not deceive the shareholders—that the whole of the
money which we shall be able to raise under that new
loan will be expended. But, now, look here : supposing
the general manager, in the course of next year, should
come to the directors, and say, "I must have 1,000
waggons more"—he has intimated that already— " I am
quite certain" (says the general manager) " that your
traffic will develop itself in such a way that, with your
present rolling stock, I cannot work the traffic." Sup-
posing that should be the case, and we had not the
money, what would be the consequence ? I should say,
if you had not the money ? Of course I must make that
statement, or my successor must make the statement to
you. You cannot grant the additional sum of money
without our going to Parliament. Ido not mean to
say you can remedy it now ; I only mean to say how
necessary it is to be cautious. I think it will be desir-
able for you, the proprietors—not for us, the directors,
but for you—to have a margin on,which you can fall
back. But, as it stands at present, if we are driven to
the necessity of using the whole of the powers which we
have under Parliament, then you cannot assist us with-
out going to Parliament again.
Mr. BEwicx—Mr. Chairman, allow me to ask Mr.
Seymour Clarke if we have sufficient waggons now for
our present traffic, taking for granted that we have a
small increase.
Mr. SEYMOUR CLA.RKE—I think we have not suffi-
cient plant to develop the traffic in the way the circum-
stances of the line require it.
A SHAREHOLDER—I hope you will want more
waggons.
The CHAIRMAN—My friend says, "I hope you want
more waggons ;" and so do I. But if we have not the
money with which to procure the waggons, and we state
that to you, you might let the half-year go over. You
will bear in mind that we cannot borrow more money
than we have got power, by act of Parliament, to bor-
row. The Secretary reminds me that I have not said
anything upon rather an important subject, which is the
dividend. After all, we are enabled to declare that we
can pay a dividend of 21 per cent. upon the original
unprotected stock, and that we shall recommend to you
to adopt. I take this opportunity of observing, that if
we can pay a dividend of 21 per cent. upon the unpro-
tected stook, which stands at only 4,800,0001., and
which is not one-half of the general expenditure, and
that we have, before we made that dividend, paid all
our liabilities—that is, interest on capital, on preferen-
tial shares, on mortgages, and so forth, at 5 per cent.—
I think, considering that we have paid 5 per cent. upon
a perpetual preferential capital, consisting of about
2,000,0001., and also on 2,500,0001. of borrowed capital,
averaging altogether, perhaps, 44 per cent., I think you
must admit that the line has, in its earnings, done won-
derfully well. This brings me back to a p6int which I
meant to hare commented on, and it is this : that as a
great deal of this money-750,000/., on redeemable pre-
ference capital, and 2,500,000/. at 5 per cent., 41 per
cent., and so forth—may be paid off at a reduction of in-
terest, I am not without hope that the reduction of inte-
rest altogether may, in the course of a year or two,
amount to such a sum of money that, although we shall
have to pay the interest upon the new 1,000,0001., still
that the annual dead weight will not be much arger
than it is. The calculation I will read :—" The interest
payable by the company at present, on the redeemable
preference capital, and on the mortgage debt of the com-
pany, is annually 156,0001. If the redeemable preference
capital he redeemed, and re-issued with all the mortgages
at 3/ per cent., the charge per annum would be 110,875/. ;
that would be an annual saving of 36,0001. a year."
Another matter, and a very important one, is with re-
spect to the Bradford and Halifax Junction Railway.
We have made arrangements with them for working
their traffic. At present the line between Leeds and
Bradford is a very circuitous one, and is in the hands
of the Midland Company, who, looking very properly,
and closely, and sharply, to their own interests, do
not send any more grist to our mill than they can
, very well avoid ; and the consequence is, that we have
had some difficulty in getting what we think is our
fair share of the traffic from Bradford, which is ex-
ceedingly valuable, and parties in that neighbourhood
i are actually making a line ; and we have made arrange-
: ments with them that we should work over that line into
Bradford ; and I have no difficulty in saying that I think
it would be exceedingly advantageous that we should
make this arrangement; and they are going to Parliament
for larger powers, so that they may extend the arrange-
ments with us.
Mr. WATERS— No guarantee ?
The CHAIRMAN—No.
Mr. BEwica--How many miles shorter will the lino
be than the Midland !
The CHAIRMAN—Theirs is 13 miles. This will be IP
miles. It is a working agreement only. I now come to
what is really a very painful subject, and that is the
19th paragraph in the report with respeet to the South
Yorkshire Railway Company. We made an agreement
with the South Yorkshire Company that we would take