The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-17 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

SOUTH-EASTERN.

The half-yearly meeting of the proprietors in this com-
pany was held yesterday, at the Bridge-house Hotel—Mr.
James M`Gregor, M.P., the chairman of the board of direc-
tors, presiding.
The anticipated contest for the vacant seats at the board
induced a very large attendance of shareholders, and their
feelings being consequently excited, the chairman and
directors on entering were received with mingled hisses
and cheers.

The usual formalities having been observed, the report,
which has already been published in the Sun, was taken as
read.

The CHAIRMAN then said he should occupy the time of
the proprietors on this occasion but very briefly. In re-
ference to the agitation which had lately prevailed amongst
them, he did not think it necessary to do more than state
that the company never was so largely represented as it
was now in that room. (Cheers.) The amount of stock
represented personally, or by proxies, was 4,769,0001. out
of 7,300,0001., and therefore he thought they would all be
prepared to hold that the decision of a majority of proprie-
tors so assembled must be final and conclusive. (Hear,
hear.) His honourable colleagues, whose period of office
had expired, had withdrawn from presenting themselves,
as they wished there might not be any necessity for going
to a division. (Loud cheers.) He had received letters
from Mr. Smale and Mr. Brown, in which they said
that, having seen how amply and conclusively the voice
of the proprietors had been pronounced, they bowed to
their decision, and cheerfully concurred in the result so
obtained. (Oh, and cheers.) He had had the pleasure of
meeting Mr. Forster, but Sir J. Campbell and Mr. Mellor
he did not know. With respect to the latter gentleman,
as a matter of business, he felt bound to mention that a
question arose whether Mr. Mellor was properly qualified
to take a seat at the board.

Mr. MELLOR—Perhaps it will save time if I state at once
that I have no intention of offering myself.
The CHAIRMAN added that if Mx. Mellor had been pro-
posed, the question must have been put, whether he was
beneficially interested to the amount of 6001. in the stock
of the company which stood in his name. Having disposed
then of all points of difference—of all points except those
in which the views of the directors and proprietors were
united—he thought he might fairly congratulate them
upon the present condition of the company with regard to
traffic receipts and profits. (Murmurs of impatience.) He
was quite aware there were subjects more prominent in
their view at this moment than the details of statistics
with which he had occasionally troubled them, but he
could not help remarking that the position of the company
never looked so promising as now. The receipts, which
were 514,0001. in 1850, had increased to 848,0001. in 1853,
and the mileage receipts, which upon 199 miles in 1850
were 2,5911., had increased to 2,9241. on 290 miles in the
last year. (Cheers.) He could only say that if Parliament
confirmed their title to their own property, and gave them
possession of it upon a sure and safe foundation, he should
be as sanguine as ever in the expectation that they would
soon reap the reward of their labours, especially under the
management appointed by such an overwhelming amount
of property at this meeting. (Loud cheers.) With these
few remarks he should move that the report of the direc-
tors be received and adopted.

Mr. RENSHAW (deputy chairman) seconded the motion.
Mr. MELLOR observed that, as there was a question
whether a trustee was qualified to sit as a director, it had
been decided that rather than jeopardise the movement of
the shareholders he should retire, and at the proper time
he should propose another gentleman in his place. (Cheers.)
Mr. G. SMITH wished to put a question to the candi-
dates.

The CHAIRMAN—Is there any opposition to the report ?
(No, no.)
Mr. HAMILTON—I advise the meeting to listen to no one
who comes here with the price of his apostasy in his pocket.
Mr. SMITH thought it his duty to ask a question of the
candidates as to their future policy with regard to the
Bromley extension.
The CHAIRMAN must rule the hon. proprietor to be out
of order. The directors did not propose agitating that ques-
tion on this occasion. The gentlemen now elected to the
board were bound to scrutinise it to the utmost, and it
would be, therefore, more desirable to submit it on a future
day to the proprietors. (Hear, hear.)
The motion was put and carried unanimously.
The CHAIRMAN moved that a dividend at the rate of 12s.
per 301. share, or at the rate of 4 per cent. per annum, be
declared and made payable on the 10th April.
Mr. HAMILTON complained that the directors had reduced
the 501. shares to 301. shares, and this reduced his capital
from 5,0001. to 3,0001. What would be thought of the Go-
vernment reducing the 3 per Cents. to the price at which
they were issued ? It was a most unfair thing to the share-
holders, and gave a fallacious amount as the amount of divi-
dend. (Hear.)

The CHAIRMAN stated that the original shares were issued
at 501. each, but a considerable amount was not paid up at
all. Shares were subsequently issued at 251., then at 301.,
then at 331., and last of all at 301., and the whole were con-
solidated at 301., which was as nearly as possible the cash
capital received by the company. (Hear.)
Mr. HOYES said the London and North-Western and
other companies sent out their dividends within a week of
their meetings. Why was it that the dividend here was
not payable until the 10th April ?
The CHAIRMAN said that if the directors had been in a
position to be certain that a dividend of 12s. would be de-
clared, they could no doubt have had the warrants ready
now. But there was some finance in the matter, as they
would find from the succeeding resolutions. Certain things
must be done. The proprietors had authorised certain new
works, and no capital had been raised, and the money used
must be replaced and provided by resolution of this meet-
ing.
Mr. HOYES thought three weeks' delay too much.
The CHAIRMAN hoped it would be the last time it would
occur; and that one effect of a united board would be,
that they might feel confident the dividend they proposed
would be the dividend declared.
A PROPRIETOR wished to know if he was to understand
that the money for the dividend had been appropriated to
another purpose?
The CHAIRMAN said that was so, but it would be forth-
coming in April.
The resolution was then agreed to.
The CHAIRMAN then moved the election of Mr. Matthew
Forster as a director, in the place of Mr. Ironsides.
Mr. DILLON seconded the motion, which he had come
there prepared to propose. Having been requested to speak,
and, in some degree, to art, on the part of a large body of
shareholders, it would have been his painful task, but for
the peculiar position in which they had been placed by
the statement made by the chairman, to have arraigned
some of the past proceedings of the board, and to have
asked for some explanations. It was, therefore, with the
greatest pleasure that he bore his humble testimony to the
very generous and very handsome manner in which the
directors had acted ; and admitted that the course which
had been taken somewhat unmanned him, and was calcu-
lated to raise a suspicion whether he and others might not
have been mistaken in the unfavourable opinions they had
formed. He could vouch for the ability and integrity of
Mr. Forster, and he hoped that the proceedings of to-day
would be the beginning of a united board, whose energies
would be devoted, and successfully devoted, to the promo-
tion of the interests of the company.
Mr. MAXWELL, while he acknowledged the propriety of
the conduct of the chairman and directors to-day, must say
he should have thought it strange indeed if they had per-
' severed upon the course in which they had set out. He
had had some experience in railway management, and in
the working of the proxy system as connected with public
companies, and he must say that he had never yet seen a
proxy that was ordered by a board of directors to be sent
out with the name of the chairman in it. (Hear.) He had
seen proxies in which blanks were left with an intimation
to the shareholders that they might fill them up as they
thought fit, but in the instance to which he was alluding
the name of James Macgregor had a prominent place, and
although an intimation was given at the bottom of the
paper that it might be struck out, there were thousands of
shareholders who would not take the trouble to alter it.
The question for the decision of the meeting was one to
which the railway world looked with considerable interest.
It was whether the servants, and some of them the paid
servants, of the company were to be its masters ; and
whether' the proprietors were to be entirely denuded of
their property. They had had a severe struggle, and they
had been so far successful in teaching the directors and
the railway world a useful lesson ; but they must not stop
here, they must go a great deal further before the matter
would be done with. (Hear.)
Mr M'LAREN understood that Mr. Forster represented
preference stock only, and, if so, he should submit that he
had no interest whatever in common with the original
shareholders, and was therefore not a proper person to
have a seat at the board. (Hear, hear, oh, oh, and great
confusion.)
The CHAIRMAN said Mr.M`Laren had been misinformed.
Mr. Forster was a duly qualified proprietor, which he
would not be if he were a holder of preference stock only.
Mr. M`LAREN called upon the secretary to produce the
register, but the chairman decided the request was out of
order ; and after a good deal of confusion the resolution
for electing Mr. Forster was put and unanimously carried.
Dr. BEATTIE proposed the election of Sir John Camp-
bell as a member of the board ; and the nomination was
seconded by Mr. BELL, and also carried unanimously.
Mr. MELLOR, who had been the third candidate for the
direction, but with respect to whose qualification a ques-
tion had arisen—the stock standing in his name being held
by him as a trustee—withdrew his own name, and pro-
posed to the meeting to elect Mr. Seymour Teulon, to
whose fitness for the office, and opportunities of serving the
interests of the company, he bore the strongest testimony.
Mr. HOYES, without at all objecting to Mr. Teulon,
thought it exceedingly important that the proprietors
should have some timely notice as to who were to be pro-
posed for the office of auditor or director. The names of
the other gentlemen had been before them for some time :
but Mr. Teulon was proposed at the eleventh hour, and if
this were drawn into a precedent, they might find them-
selves compelled on some future occasion to adopt a can-
didate of whom they knew little or nothing. A resolution
had been passed some time ago, which had for its object
to secure that proper notice should be given, and he wished
to know whether the directors had done anything in pur-
suance of that resolution.
The CHAIRMAN said the directors had introduced a
clause into a bill which the company was passing through
Parliament, with a view to give effect to the wishes of the
shareholders. That clause had passed, the committee, but
the chairman of committees had struck it out, upon the
ground that if such a provision were to be adopted at all,
it could only be in some general measure applying to all
companies. The directors had then taken the advice of an
eminent counsel, as to the possibility of affecting the
de-
sired object by a by-law, but had received an opinion to
the effect that any measure of that kind would be wholly
inoperative, and that it would still be in the power of any
shareholder to prose a candidate at the last moment.
Mr. Alderman SaLoatoNs, who spoke amid much confu-
sion, declared that he objected strongly to any gentleman
being pitchforked on the company in a moment, to fill the
important and responsible position of auditor or director.
It was irregular, anti likely to be injurious.
Mr. HAMILTON twitted Mr. Alderman Solomons with his
connection with the East Kent, Reading, Guilford, and
Reigate lines. Whereupon the alderman protested against
any imputation of motives, and asked that his arguments
might be answered.
These encounters caused some confusion in the meeting,
but the motion for electing Mr. Teulon was put and car-
ried, with only two or three dissentients.
Mr. PARKER wished to call the attention of the meeting
to the extraordinary expenditure which had been incurred
in Parliamentary and legal proceedings. The chairman had
first taken his seat at the board in 1844, and in 1845 had
been promoted to the chair. From that period down
to 1853 inclusive, a period of nine years, the legal
and Parliamentary expenses—exclusive of conveyancing,
which had been invariably put into that mare magnum,
that sea, that vortex into which railway directors invari-
ably contrived to throw everything which would not bear
the light, and which they called " the land acconnt"—had
been 479,7111. 7s. 11d. (Hear.) This gave an average
of 55,3011. ss. 3d. per annum. He was an old share-
holder, and he had supported the chairman as long as