The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-18 00:00:00

DITRSLEI.7 AND MIDLAND JUNCTION.

A line is projected from the town of Dursley to the
Midland Railway (Bristol and Birmingham branch),
from which it is distant three to four miles.

INVERNESS AND ELGIN JUNCTION
RAIL WAY.

It will be seen by our advertising columns that the
promoters of this undertaking now give the northern
public full opportunity to insure railway communica-
tion from Inverness to Elgin by an extension from
Nairn to the latter place, in continuation of the In-
verness and Nairn Railway. The scheme also em-
braces a branch from Forres to Findhorn, so that the
southern coast of the Moray Firth will be freely
communicated with throughout the whole distance,
and the opposing shores of Ross and Sutherland
shires be invited, with a choice of points for debar-
kation to a foretaste of the vast benefits of an iron
roadway. The Parliamentary machinery is all being
prepared under auspices of great promise. It is for the
community to set it in motion. If they let slip the oc-
casion the fault will be their own. From the negotia-
tions had by the provisional committee, it may be re-
ceived as a fact, though circumstances forbid the nee
of names for the present, that the cost at which the
works will be contracted for and completed is a point
precisely ascertained, and that a third of that sum will
be taken payment of in stock—in other words, that
about 50,0001. of the capital has already been condi-
tionally subscribed. About an equal sum, or net much
more, will enable to go to Parliament. Is it too much
to expect that the counties of Inverness, Nairn, and
Moray, with help from their neighbours and aid from
the south, will be found able and willing forthwith to
engage to contribute this sum among them, and there-
after what more may be needed, payable within the next
three years, for an object of such vast importance, and
as a speculation which is confessedly as safe and substan-
tial an investment as can be found I It is understood
that Morayshire has as much wealth in the shape of bank
deposits alone as would make the line three times over.
Less than a tithe of these funds will serve as the quota
from that quarter. It were a reflection on public spirit
in the worth to anticipate any difficulty in a matter
which holds out no illusory promise of an ample re-
turn to capitalists, while producing inestimable social
advantages to the public. A cotemporary, while
cordially expressing its good opinion of the enter-
prise in a mercantile point of view, acknowledging it to
be the interest of the people of Elgin to encourage in-
creased railway communication from whatever quarter
it came, and complimenting the energy and public spirit
shown in Inverness on this matter as deserving of every
encouragement and support, confesses that it would pre-
fer "seeing a determined effort being first made to carry
the Great North from Huntly to Elgin." It is also
hinted by the same authority, that their Nairn and
Inverness friends " should have at once said to the
Great North Company, 'We are prepared to carry
the line from Nairn to Spey, if you bring up yours
from Huntley to the same river.' " A word in ex-
planation and a plea in advocacy are due in reply.
The Great North of Scotland Company have indi-
cated Elgin as their limit of extension. It is so natu-
rally. The traffic shed is literally at Elgin. It would
as ill become parties connected with the locality be-
tween Inverness and Elgin to intrude pretensions to
any portion of the district beyond Elgin, as it would
our friends in Aberdeen to persist in forcing their man-
agement of the carrying trade of the north country on
this side of that town. Then let our Elgin friends re-
flect, that, in first completing the communication with
Inverness, they are but helping to gather on this side
the momentum which the works of the Great North of
Scotland give on the other, for combined effort for
overleaping the rapid Spey—the point, too, of crossing
which is, we believe, a matter undecided in the counsels
of the promoters of the extension of the Great North of
Scotland. The naturally greater interest of some of
the people of Elgin to get railway communication with
the south is identical with the present movement ; and,
therefore, they are one and all called upon to help to
put this round to the ladder that they may the more
readily accomplish the other. United effort is needed ;
and united effort—a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull
1 altogether, we doubt not, the enterprise will have from
all parties, of every grade and degree, west of the
Spey.—lnverness Advertiser.

TRAFFIC RETURNS FOR THE PAST WEEK.

Mlles
opened,
1854.

NAME OF RAILWAY.

Receipts.

1853.

0+54.