The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-18 00:00:00

EVEN INO EDITION •

MANCHESTER AND LEEDS RAIL-
WAY.-HALF-YEARLY MEETING.

The Half-yearly Meeting of the Manchester and Leeds
Railway Company was held at the Company's Offiees,
1 Clowes's-buildings, Hunt's Bank, on Thursday last, at
noon ; and it was numerously attended by the Proprie-
tors. We observed one circumstance which has lately
been a feature at the half-yearly meetings of several
other railway companies, on entering the building, and
which we recommend to all those companies for adop-
tion,.--the presentation to every Proprietor of the half-
yearly Reports of the Directors and Engineers„ and the
financial statement fdf the same period. By this means
every Proprietor was enabled to possess himself of the
facts, and to make such. inquiries as he deemed de-
sirable on points which mig a appear to him not suffi-
ciently elucidated in the Re.
_rt, or on which he might
think further inforrnatii , ght to be given to the
Sharehol3ers at large.
Mr. Hatca Hoc a' OATH, Chairman of the Board
of Directors, took the' hair, and said that this was the
Seventh Half-yearly Meeting of the Company, convened
as usual by circular and advertisement, as the Act re-
quired, in the newspapers of Lancashire and York-
shire. Having read the advertisement from the Man-
chester Guardian, he stated that the same advertisement
had appeared in the Leeds Mercury. The first business
would be to authorise the register of the Proprietors,
Ilay attaching to this document the common seal of the
Company. Having put this to the Meeting, it was
unanimously agreed to ; and the Chairman accordingly
affixed the seal, and signed the register.
Mr. crOLIN JELLICORSE, the Secretary, read the pro-
ceedings of the last Half.vearly Meeting ; and the
Chairman then called upon William Entwistle, Esq. to
read the Report of the Directors for the past half-year,
which he did, and which we subjoin :
Since the last Half-yearly Meeting of the Proprie-
tors of this Company, the works have been urged for-
ward with all possible energy, so that the majority of
the contracts, notwithstanding the wetness of the season,
are in a satisfactory state, and will be completed during
the ensuing summer ; and the remainder, as the Di-
reartors have every reason to believe, will be so far ad-
vameed as to admit of the Line being opened through-
out before the close of the year. In confirmation of
thin prospect, the Directors refer with much pleasure to
the Engineers' Report, by which it will be seen that
the practicability of completing the works, and fulfilling
the., expectations formerly held out to the Proprietors
" , al' opening the entire Line to the Public in all 1840,"
is placed beyond all reasonable doubt. A lithographic
se action of the summit tunnel, showing the state of the
w +orks up to the 29th February, is annexed to this Re-
p airt, by which it will be seen that, according to the
i x aiform rate of progress lately maintained—viz. on an
a verage about 163 lineal yards per month for the last
*ix months, and after allowing for the decrease of pro-
gress consequent Mon the successive junction of the
.several shaft-lengths, the whole will be complete by the
e ad of November.
The expenditure during the half-year ending on the
31st December, 1239, has been 534,134/. 12s. 6d. as
shown in the subjoined statement, which has been met
by money received on account of calls, by loans taken
up on mortgage of the tolls of the Company, under the
powers of the Acts of Parliament, and by loans secured
by the bonds of the Company, which the Directors have
accepted in anticipation of calls, and for the re-payment
of which, by a special resolution of the Board, a suffi-
cient portion of the calls remaining to be made is specifi-
cally appropriated ; so that, whatever shall be the
amount of loans so'occepted on bond, an equal amount
at least will always emain uncalled for upon the
shares held by the 'eters, and will only be even-
tually called up for t ayment of those bonds when
they shall fall due. T loans are accepted for pe-
riods of two to five years,ifin the same manner as those
upon mortgage of the tolls ; and this course was sug-
gested to the Directors by the fact of a large surplus
sum having been' tendered upon the mortgage loan.
They were thus inarced to consider and finally to adopt
the above means of securing such loans, which the Direc-
tors are happy to add have met with the confidence
and approbation of the public, and the sum of 195,000/.
has been already received on this security. Should the
Proprietors concur in the same views, the Directors

. ,
I will continue to receive money in similar bonds, the
effect of which will be to disperse future calls over a
' lengthened period ; bnt should any Proprietors prefer
paying: such calls in advance, they will, under the Act
of Incorporation, be allowed interest at the rate of 3
per cent. per annum on sums so advanced. The Direc-
tors have great satisfaction in having thus fulfilled the
expestations held out by them in their last Report of
, " not making any further call before the month of
rebanary or March," an advantage which they feel sure
will be appreciated by the Proprietors, as the late
period has been one of unequalled commercial depres-
tion and difficulty. The Directors, however, consider
it right to announce that they propose to make the
ealle Mentioned in their last Report, viz.," three calls
of 5N.. each upon both the old and new shares" before
the opening of the whole line, the amount of which,
/ together with such loans as may be accepted during the
present year, they fully believe will enable them to com-
plete the present contracts, and to 'provide a sufficient
stock of engines, carriages, and waggons, for working
the whole line. This appears to be a matter of the
atrficrat importance to the interests of this Company,
when the probable extent of business is taken into consi-
denim; ; as, according to the announcements by the
i North Midland, the York and North Midland, the Hull
and Selby, and the Great North of England Railway
Companies, at their late half-yearly meetings, a continu-
esas railway communication will be formed on the open-
in of this line between Manchester and the port of
Pull to the eastward and northward to the town of
Darlington.
The partial opening to Littleborough has always
been considered valuable by the Directors, as affording
the opportunity of forming and training an efficient
establishment for the conduct of the carrying depart-
ment ; and though, from the experience of the par-
tial opening of other lines of railway, they did not en-
tertain any sanguine expectations of profit from so small
and isolated a portion, they are sure it will gratify the
Proprietors to learn, that the receipts up to the' 31st De-
cemher exceeded the expenditure on working that part,
by the sum of 9,239/. 7s.Bd. ; and that, looking either
at the average receipts per mile per week, or the pro-
portion of the cost of working the line to the gross re-
ceipts, which is under 50 per cent., the result, as shown
by statements annexed to this report, will bear a fa-
vourable comparison with the experience of other com-
panies under similar circumstances. This part. has
been open for the general conveyance of goods since the
2d of this month, and the arrangements made for con-
ducting this branch of traffic are based upon the sim-
plest principles, so as to involve the least possible inter-
ference with the Ordinary functions of the carriers, and
have met with their general approval. It is the object
of the Directors of this Company, that the carrying de-
partment should be thrown open to public competition,
without their incurring the responsibility or undertak-
• kg the duties of general carriers.
The Directors have also great satisfaction in repeating
their conviction, that the total cost incurred upon the
main line, including stations, engines, carriages, wag-
gone, &e., will not, at the opening of the line to the
public, exceed the estimates furnished by them to the
proprietors in their report at the ball-yearly meeting in
March last ; and they can assure the proprietors that
it is their constant study to reduce their expenditure
I as much as possible, consistently with solidity of con-

itruction in the works, and an efficient discharge of all
the numerous important duties involved in so large an
todertakiug, being well aware that by such means
the true interests of the Company are most effectually
secured,
The Directors regret that they cannot refer to the
proposed junction line with the Liverpool and Manches-
ter Company with equal satisfaction, as an unexpected
delay at arisen on the part of that Company, who, ap-
pearing arsposed to avail themselves of the discretion-
ary power vested in them by their Act of Parliament,
have taken the somewhat unusual course of raising ob-
jections to a measure previously approved of by them,
and, after obtaining an Act in conjunction with this,Com-
paoy for its execution, have now revived the formerly.
abandoned project of a junction upon the southern side
of Manelaester.
[The Directors then give an extract from the minutes
of the board of Directors of the Liverpool and Manehes-
-1 ter Railway Company, of 16th December, 1839, rela-
I tin- to this subject.

1 the Directors beg to state, that they have had
several interviews with a deputation from the Board of
Directors of that Company, but that nothing decisive
has arisen from thence ; and they therefore conclude
that the views of that Company are not materially
altered in any respect on the points above alluded to.
This resolution therefore appears to call for some
comments from the Directors of this Company, from
its evident tendency to diminish the confidence of the
Proprietors in their statements and estimates.
The estimates of goods traffic now called in ques-
tion were originally prepared for Parliament, and their
accuracy attested on oath by the party who drew them
up, being founded on actual observation of the traffic at
Skipton, upon the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, and at
Castlefield Locks in this town. These were furnished
to the Liverpool Board of Directors by this Company,
but, instead of removing their doubts, were met by as-
surances that from private returns, which they were not
at liberty to submit to this Company,'
it appeared that
the traffic was overstated by
ire than one-hall ; at
the same time it was intimated that those private re-
turns were furnished by the Canal
BoardCompa Companies them-
selves ; and beyond this, the Liverpool did not
produce any documents, or give any other
reasons
their assertion, the correctness of
which this Board
for
oird is
by no means prepared to admit, as the explinatinoneno!
pa
by an ncyofferedin
assurance
from thetheresolutpieen abovertyemployed
, tiered is rnedds mete
i
by thd Board, " that the distinction between local
and
i thorough traffic was carefully attended to ," and this
Board is fully convinced of the general accuracy of
his statement.
Your Directors do not undertake to reconcile the two
statements, and have made the above report solely in
)