The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-12 00:00:00

MA Y 12, 1846.

RAILWAY COMMITTEES

(YESTERDAY.)

The Select Committee a GROUP IV.p pointed to consider the merits of the
schemes comprised in this group re-assembled at the usual hour
this morning, Mr. B. W. Rope in the chair.

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cohpeetrigaactashee
who was opplOsEedEtoirtighe line, d h 1
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forpromoters landholder,
Mr. HILL appeared this morning
fraud and willfully deluding the public and the Committee, but his
opening address was interrupted by
The CHAIRMAN, who thought it w
charges until the case for the as better to postpone these
brought to a close. promoters of the scheme had been
After some discussion, this course was adopted, and the land-
holder's case postponed accordingly.
The engineering evidence of the Perth
sumed. and Inverness was then re-
Mr. Alfred Jee, the engineer in chief of the Sheffield
and Manches-
ter line, was the first witness called this morning. The
summit
Sheffield and Manchester line was 967 feet above ihe surface o
thoei the
The gradients were consequently as severe, if not more severe, than.
those on the line under consideration. The cost of locomotive power
on the Sheffield and Manchester line was 6d. per mile, and for cost of
nalintenance of way, locomotives, carriages, &c., 2s. 6d. per mile
more. Mr. Mitchell's estimate for working this line, namely, 3,0001.
a year, was, In his opinion, more than sufficient for the traffic likely
to come upon it.
On cross-examination, the witness admitted that he had never
been over the line, and formed his judgment from papers which
had been put into his hands between eleven and twelve o'clock that
morning. He assumed that the locomotive power in the case of this
line would be Is. per mile. He estimated the cost of a locomotive line
on his own line at about 1,0001. a year.
This closed the engineering evidence.
The roam was then cleared, and the Committee, after a short con-
sultation, determined that they would consider the case as between
the Great North of Scotland and the Perth and Inverness reads in
the first instance upon the engineering merits.
Mr. AUSTIN said then it became his duty to comment upon the
case of the Perth and Inverness promoters. He contended that the
Committee could not, in the peculiar circumstances of these two cases,
decidegupon the engineering evidence without Baying ,reference to the
subject of local atcommodatien, or' without looking at the general
system of the two schemes. The Learned Gentleman, after com-
menting upon the engineering evidence adduced on both sides, di-
rected the attention of the Committee to the fact that the Great
North of Scotland line comprised only 138 miles of rails, while the
rival scheme j for accomplishing the same object took up 221
miles and a half. Now the cost of the first, which was
proposed to be wholly a double line of rails, was
estimated at a million and a half, while the cost of
the other, which was only partially double, was 20,444,0001.
while to make the line double it would take 203,0001. more, or
20,787,0001, giving a saving of a million in favour of the Great North
of Scotland line.
The CHAIRMAN said the Learned Counsel was including the cost of
the line from Nairn to Aberdeen, which was hardly fair, when he
was comparing a line from Perth to Inverness with the Great North
of:Scotland.
Mr. AUSTIN said then he would not touch again on costs, but come
at once to an immediate comparison with the engineering merits of
the two lines. Well, then, the summit of the Highland line was
1,450 feet high, while the summit of the Great North of Scotland
only reached an altitude of 500 feet. On the Great North line the
severest gradient was lin 100, on the Highland line lin 70. On the
Great North line out of 138 miles there were only 15 miles
on a gradient of I in 105, while on the highland line
there were 15 miles under lin 150. On the Highland line there
were 8 miles of 1 in 75, 7 of 1 in 84, 21 of 1 in 100, a of 1 in 102, and
lofl in 104. This summit and these gradients, he boldly asserted,
were unprecedented. Mr. Mitchell, the gentleman who laid out the
line, the Committee would see from this, was the greatest mountain
climber that had ever been heard of. He beat Napolean outright,
and quite eclipsed Hannibal, He recollected reading a work of
several hundred pages, written by a gentleman at Cambridge, and
detailing how Hannibal crossed the Alps, but after this line will have
passed, he had no doubt there would be quarto's written about Mr.
Mitchell.—(Laughter.) He thought then he had shown that this line
reached the greatest altitude with the severest gradients through
the wildest country, and with a single rail, of any line known in Bri-
tain. Besides the decision of the Committee in its favour, then there
was only one thing that would surprise him, and that was the mak-
ing of the line. Now lie came to the question of cost of making,
and after the evidence of Mr. Lee, it was important for the Com-
mittee to take this question into their serious consideration. Mr.
Lee had told them that upon the Sheffield and Manchester, a line
infinitely more superior to this in point of gradients, and nothing
near its length, the cost of working swallowed up a clear half of the
gross receipts. What, then, would be the cost in this case?
That was an important point for the Committee to decide, and
one which alone he thought ought to prove fatal to the passing of
this Bill. lie said then there was sufficient to justify the Committee
in refusing to hear any further evidence in favour of the Perth and
Inverness line, and to say that their sanction to the Great North of
Scotland Bill ought not further to be delayed.
The Committee postponed their decision till to-morrow, and ad-
journed shortly after four o'clock.