The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-18 00:00:00

caur of traffic, not to Birkenhead ()illy, but to Man-
chester also. Fourthly, we have reason- to expect that
the Birkenhead docks will, at no remote period of time,
be sufficiently completed to admit large vessels,, when
the trade of that port;innit be -very largely increased.
Fifthly, we have every reason to believe that the local
traffic upon the-Shrewsbury Company's lines is suscep-
tible of very large extension, particularly in coal. We
shall have besides for the first time appropriated to our-
selves a through traffic from London to the manufactur-
ing districts of Lancashire, passing over 223 miles of
railway belonging to ourselves ; and ultimately there
can be no doubt that a more economical and a
more efficient mode of working the line can be accom-
plished under a united and combined, system than is
possible to be the case under a divided management and
separate establishments. Our traffic must gradually and
rapidly increase to such an extent as shall not only com-
pletely cover all the deficiencies which we have now to
meet, but shall justify all the expectations we have ever
formed of our northern lines.

Mr. Saunders, the secretary, read the report, of which
the following is an abstract :

"The accounts for the half-year, to the 30th of June,
1854, in comparison with those for the corresponding period
in 1853, present the following results, the same extent of
railway being open during each period :

"RECEIPTS.

1853. 18'54. Increase.
Passengers, mails, szc £329,188 £365,602 £36,414
Merchandise, parcels, &e 169,035 226,937 57,902
Other sources of revenue 24,275 28,348 4,073

522,498 620,837 98,389
Working expenses 933,837 262,618 28,781

Net revenue

.288,661 358,269 69,608

" CHARGE.
For interest on loaus and
dividends on preference
capital 145,229 195,825 50,596

2143,432 162,114 19,012
" TRAFFIC.

1853.

1854. Increase,

Number of passengers con-
veyed 1,554,495 1,809,146 224,651
Number of tons of goods
conveyed 319,174 426,464 107,290
" The foregoing statement of the comparative revenue
and expenses, as well as of the business transacted, cannot
fail to be satisfactory, when it is perceived that the addi-
tional traffic has been conveyed over your lines at a cost of
only 28 per cent., notwithstanding that the main increase
has consisted of merchandise and minerals ; and also that
the difference of the revenue has been more than adequate
in the first year to pay the increased interest on loans and
dividends on the preference stock, which, in fact,repre-
sent the capital expended ou the purchase and construc-
tion of the Birmingham lin
" if it had not been for the unexpected obligation to dis-
tribute a considerable proportion of the existing revenue
among the shareholders of the two Shrewsbury companies,
under the circumstances so fully represented in the circulf.r
statement which accompanied the accounts, the directors
would have been able to recommend the usual dividend of
4 per cent. per annum on the ordinary stock. This, too,
would have been attained under many admitted disadvan-
tages, in having been obliged to open, for local traffic only,
a railway of most expensive construction between Oxford
and Birmingham, completed into the very centre of the
latter town, without any connecting line beyond it.
"Scarcely as yet bad any through traffic from the north
been procured over any portion of the Birmingham and
Oxford Railway, although it must bo obvious that, upon
the opening of the Wolverhampton section in continuation
beyond Birmingham through the South Staffordshire mine-
ral district, and upon the possession of the two Shrewsbury
railways, there will be, at no very distant period, an abun-
dant return, as well for the capital expended on those un-
dertakings, as for the sacrifice of present dividend rendered
imperative upon the shareholders.
'ln making up the accounts of the half-year it will be
seen that the directors have given effect to the system
which was approved at the last half-year ly general meeting,
of charging the revenue account in fixed amounts for the
discharge of all those Parliamentary and legal disburse-
ments which come under the definition given in the direc-
tors' report of the 20th of February last as fairly belonging
to that class of expenditure.
"The sum of 2,5001. has been appropriated for that pur-
pose in the first half-year of 1854, leaving 2,5001. or 3,5001.,
as the case may seem to require, for the next account, to
make up the fixed charge therein specified at 5,000/. or
6,0001. per annum.'
"The directors think it right to report that the accumu-
lations already to the credit of the Insurance account
against accidents,' in consequence of setting apart a fixed
annual sum, as recommended by the board, exceed 11,0001.,
after meeting all existing, claims upon it.
"The only unadjusted accounts which remain to be men-
tioned as having relation to revenue are those with the
South Wales Railway Company, on the one hand, under
the agreement for a lease of one-third of the revenues of
that line not yet finally arranged ; and with the Midland
Railway Company on the other, who are indebted to this
company, in addition to other claims, for the rent agreed
to be paid by the Bristol and Gloucester Railway Company
for the use of the line between Gloucester and Cheltenham,
which has been now running since 1816, which agreement
was duly confirmed at the time by the proprietors of both
companies.
" The directors have urged through their professional
advisers that these long outstanding claims upon the Mid-
land Company, which by agreement had been at one time
under legal investigation, when the referee (Mr. Justice
Crompton) was raised to the bench, should now again un-
dergo a similar process, with a view to obtain a final adju-
dication by some impartial person competent to decide all
matters in difference between the two companies.
" They entertain little doubt that the sum to be awarded
to this company in respect of the Bristol and Gloucester
agreement,with
during eight years, will be more than commen-
surate any deficiency which may have arisen on the
South Wales Railway lease to the present time; and more
especially as, in the latter case, there will be a set-off of
some expenditure incurred for their account at Gloucester,
besides some other claims in diminution of the loss during
the first two years of the lease.
"In the hope that these two items may be simultane-
ously adjusted, and settled within a short period, the di-
rectors have no hesitation in recommending that both the
claims shall, for the present, remain over as matters of ac-
count likely to compensate • each other, and to be then
balanced; but in the event of continued delay in either
case, they suggest that the proprietors should for the future
set apart a moiety of the South Wales dividend to meet
any arrears of claim, until the whole shall have been dis-
charged, whether by any award under the Midland refer-
ence, or by the effect of a progressive improvement in the
South Wales traffic.

" It is very satisfactory to observe that already the re-
ceipts of that company, even although still an incomplete
undertaking, have increased from 3,7501. per week in 1853
to 5,3001. during the present summer ; and it is confidently
believed by those who are most competent to judge of the
results of the South WTales Railway when finished that the
business is capable of being very largely increased.
" In addition to the amalgamation of the Shrewsbury
Railways with this company, the directors succeeded in
obtaining legislative sanction to two acts—the one for ex-
tending the time to complete the Wilts, Somerset, and Wey-
mouth Railway, in course of execution, and to snake the
short fork line to connect the Borks and Hants Railway
with the main line near Reading; and the other for dispens-
ing with certain works in the town of Birmingham, and
for providing additionalaccommodation in land and stations
both there and at. Wolverhampton.
" Tho Metropolitan Railway, forming a junction at Pad-
dington with the Great Western Railway, and extending
into the city near to the General Post-office, has been sanc-
tioned by the Legislature, and the subscription by this com-
pany of 175,0L;0/. has been authorised by the act.
" The directors are satisfied that, whatever may be the
present loss of traffic inflicted upon this company by the
forced diversion of it over a circuitous line between Oxford
and London, via Bletchley, it will be compensated for here-
after, when the broad gauge must not only be laid, but also
opened for public use continuously from the Great Western
lino at Oxford.

"During the Parliamentary proceedings of the session,
the directors deemed it expedient to offer the insertion of
certain clauses in two of the acts then in progress through
the committee, to set at rest and establish the bona fides of
the company in carrying out two principles, on which, as
promoters of those acts, they had fully declared their in-
tentions, although their adversaries sought to raise doubts
and distrust in the minds of the committee.
"The one related to the construction of additional rails
on the existing Great Western line between Oxford and
Basingstoke, in order to admit of narrow gauge waggons
being transmitted, without impediment, from the north to
Southampton and Portsmouth. The directors of this
company had previously pledged themselves to afford this
means of direct intercourse without break of gauge over
the Great Western Railway, as soon as a connection could
be obtained with the narrow gauge lines in the north.
The advantages of it to the company, as well as its useful-
ness to the public, cannot be disputed. The route from
Birmingham, as the centre of England, to those ports in
the English Channel is fifty-five miles nearer than by any
other railway ; and, the narrow gauge rails being already
added to the Birmingham and Oxford line, there can be
no longer a pretext for diverting any of the traffic from
the manufacturing districts towards Southampton by
any other railway, on the plea of having to change in the
transit from one gauge to the other. These additional rails
will, at all events, constitute the Great Western line be-
tween Birmingham and Basingstoke the main and direct
railway thoroughfare for all traffic passing to or from that
portion of the south coast of England. A period of 18
months has been allowed for the completion of the narrow
gauge rails on the line between Oxford and Basingstoke..
" The
.other cla
Wt h oe l vs ehrrhe awms
bp
ut oi7n
upon which futureus application p lrelatesieso
nto m
styhebetinimaedea.tondEcaornlidaimtieounts
for adding a third rail on each line to admit of the traffic
ibneibnrgoadcar;timegde ccoalliTitionsueostuslory
wtosgangodnnfroovmer

Railways.
" No such power had been somupganhtiiens,tnheerawppalie citatiiiolneofor
the bill to amalgamater these
templatio nt
hteom press
beforefo thethe construction "'nu shtlriue c
necessityt ion of th efebrr broad
ba!ie:
rails over
To
proved commeurfneiectalytioenleasrheaunldd bientfeulililgyihrlee,coig.tnihszle.
make this p
enacted that the Board of Trade must publish in a report
their opinion that it will be attended with advantage to
the public to have such additional rails before an applica-
tion can be made to Parliament for power to lay them.
The effect of this clause will obviously preclude any ex-
pensive contests on the question of gauge until the time
shall arrive when it becomes a certainty that the public
requirements must prevail over adverse objections, and
that Parliament will consequently give the requisite autho-
rity to provide the broad gauge accommodation, in addi-
tion to that on the narrow gauge.
" The Groat Western Hotel at Paddington, having been
completed for cccupation in the month of June, was opened
to the public under the management of a committee of
those gentlemen who had subscribed funds and taken the
lease of it. .. It is a matte: of great satisfaction to find that
ever since the ePenin, of the hotel the accommodation it
affords to passengers gas been resorted to in the moo en-
couraging manner, which gives the promise of a beneficial
return to those who, in an enterprising spirit, embarked
their capital in it.
" The report of Mr. Brunel, the engineer, states that
the Radetock branch will probably be completed and open
in about a month. The Uxbridge branch is completed
all but the permanent way. The permanent way of the
Birmingham, Dudley, and Wolverhampton Railway, and
of the junction north of Wolverlitmpton with the Shrews-
bury lines, is rapidly advancing to completion, and.woilnitr
in a fit state for public traffic on the Ist of next month.
Of the new lines in which the Great Western Railway

Company is interested, the Wycombe Railway has been
completed and opened during the last month ; and the
Hereford, Ross, and Glocester railway will be completed
during the current half year.
It will be nonagary to obtain Totem from the proPrie: