The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-20 00:00:00

tbirb Wbitton

CHESTER AND HOLYIIEAD
RAILWAY.—(THIS DAY.)
The ninth half-yearly gei.eral meeting of this com-
pany was held this day at the company's offices, 61,
Moorgate-street, City.
After the usual preliminary business, the Secretary
read the following report :
" During the six months that have passed since your
directors last met you, considerable progress has been
made in completing the link in the great chain of com-
munication between London and Dublin which it is the
object of your incorporation to supply. On the Ist of
May last your line was opened for the conveyance of
passengers between Chester and Bangor; on the Ist of
the following month the carriage of goods was under-
taken; and on the Ist of August the whole line from
Chester to Holyhead was brought into use, with
the exception of a break of about four miles at
the Menai Straits, across which the passengers are
cart is d in conveyances provided by the com-
pany. Simultaneously with these operations, youa di-
rectors were engaged in carrying through Parliament a
Bill empowering the company to run steam-boats from
Holyhead to Dublin. This object, which had been de-
fected in the present session, your directors bad
the satisfaction of accomplishing on the 22d of
July last, when the Royal assent was given to their Bill,
notwithstanding the strenuous opposition offered to it
by parties interested in confirming the stream of traffic
to other aid less eligible channels. And they are satis-
fied that this decision of the Legislature will confer at
least as much benefit upon the public as upon
the company, whose interests in the rapidity
and certainty of the whole journey are indeed
identical. The vessels having been prepared, in
anticipation of this successful issue of their endeavours,
your directors were enabled to begin running them on
the ht of August, on which day, and since, notwith-
standing the break in the line above adverted to, the
entire journey between London and Kingstown has been
performed with regularity in little more than thirteen
hours. And w hen the short gap in question is filled up
by the completion and opening of the Britannia-bridge,
and other facilities of the railroad are matured, it
may be expected that the time will be reduced to
twelve hours. The efficiency of the steam-boats
that have been built for the service of the com-
pany have greatly contributed to these satisfactory
results. Their speed and accommodation have fully
realised the promises of their builders, and the expecta-
tions of your directors. The quickest passages have
been from Holyhead to Kingstown, three hours and
thirty-two minutes. From Kingstown to Holyhead
three hours and thirty-four minutes. And the average
of the six weeks of their employment from Holyhead to
Kingstown three hours and fifty minutes; from Kings-
town to Holyhead three hours and forty-five minutes.
Your directors are happy to believe that these vessels
(the speed of which is considerably in excess of the rate
which a few years ago was thought to be possible) have
given quite as much satisfaction to the public, who have
had occasion to make use of them, as to themselves.
" At your last half-yearly meeting you were informed
that the Tube through which it was intended to pass the
line across the river at Conway bad just been floated to
the foot of the piers prepared to receive it. It was
placed in its position without any accident or difficulty;
and, from the Ist of May last, the whole traffic of the
line has passed through it. This experience, now of
nearly five months' duration, has tested with the most
satisfactory results the entire soundness of the views of
the eminent engineer who had the boldness to project, and
the ability to construct, this extraordinary work. Since
the Tube has been carrying the trains across the Conway,
no deflection has taken place. The passenger through the
Tube is not sensible of the slightest vibration, and the
noise of the transit certainly does not exceed, if it is
equal to, that experienced in an ordinary tunnel. Your
directors, therefore, have the gratification to be able to
report that the issue of this remarkable experiment has
been signally successful, and such as to justify the most
entire confidence, that the same method of transit
which it is intended to employ, upon a much larger
scale, at the Menai Straits, will equally answer its
important ends, and raise still higher Mr. Ste-
phenson's character. The tubes for the last-
mentioned structure, and the stupendous piers
of masonry intended to support them, are advancing to
their completion simultaneously, and as rapidly as is
consistent with the safety of such a work; and your
directors trust that early in the ensuing spring, the pas-
sage across the Britannia. bridge will be open. When
this object has been achieved, and the magnificent struc-
ture has been placed on a site, the natural beauty and
grandeur of which admirably suit it for the location of
one of the greatest works of art, your directors are
satisfied that it will become an object of the highest in-
terest to men of science in all parts of the world, and
that none of these, nor any travellers of enlightened
curiosity, will visit England without inspecting the
mighty. work with which Mr. Stephenson's name and
reputation will be inseparably connected.
"Her Mejesty's Government having commenced the
railway for carrying the stone from the Holyhead
mountain to the harbour of refuge and packet pier, your
directors expect to be called upon shortly for the first
instalment due from this company on account of these
works; but they do not intend to proceed with the ex-
tension of the line to the new packet pier, until some
considerable progress shall have been made in the works
undertaken by the Government, as above adverted to.
You will have perceived from the statement of the
receipts and disbursements of the company, which has
been for some time hi the hands of the shareholders,
that whilst the latter amounted on the 30da of June last
to 3,007,101/. 18s. Bd., the receipts fell short of that sum
the extent of 24,827/. 10s. 4d., being only
2,982,274/. 8,. 5d., which amount includes the whole of
the subscription which the London and North-Western
Railway Company were authorised to make, both in the
original and the preference shares. Of the 42,000 pre-
ference shares created under the resolution which you
passed in August last, only 31,256 have been taken up.
" Your directors estimate at 200,000% the sum that
will be necessary during the next six months, over and
above what may be raised upon the original shares, to
meet the liabilities which have been already incurred.
Of this sum the London and North-Western Company
have undertaken to advance 120,000/., being the amount
of capital which they are further authorised to subscribe
by the Act of this session, alluded to in the commence-
ment of this report. The remainder your directors trust
to be able to provide either by the issue of debentures,
or by the further sale at par of the preference shares al-
ready sanctioned; a price at which they would certainly
have been eagerly sought for, but fur the unexampled
depression of railway property, in common with all com-
mercial investments. Should it be found expedient to
issue debentures instead of these preference shares, your
directors now solicit your sanction to their taking that
step.
" The results as to the traffic of the partial opening of
the line that bas hitherto taken place have been satisfac-
tory to your directors, and appear to them, as they trust
that they will to you, to afford a good prospect of very
considerable farther development as soon as the line is
completed throughout, and time has been afforded for
personal intercommunication, and trade to flow into the
new channel thus afforded to them. As long as the line
was open to Bangor only, and the company's fast steam-
vessels had not been placed upon the passage across St.
George's Channel, the traffic, as might have been ex-
pected under the circumstances, was almost purely local,
,he original Parliamentary estimate for which was as
'ollows:

_ .
Passengers
Mercbandize and Agricultural Produce 100 ~
Minerals

" This estimate your directors are haplpyl:tloooreport was
exceeded within eight weeks of the opening of the rail-
way, under all the disadvantages inseparable from the
first operations of such an undertaking, in a part of the
country where the inhabitants may be supposed to be
more ore than ordinarily backward to avail themselves of a
iovel means of locomotion, or of carrying on their
trade, having amounted from that period to the end of
July,
to an average of 1,2051. 4s. 93. per week. On
the Ist of August, as above stated, the line was opened
through Anglesea, and the steamers were placed upon
St. George's Channel. From that date the accession of
through traffic has been encouraging, the whole returns
having averaged during the weeks from the Ist of August
to the 9th inst., 2,2071. 13s. Bd. per week. The full ad-
vantages of the line cannot, of course, be appreciated,
nor its value ascertained, until the improved means of
intercourse which it affords are more generally known—
until the considerable break at the Menai Straits is filled
up—and until the mineral traffic has been in some measure
developed. With a view to the latter important object,
your directors have made arrangements with the Mold
Railway Company to become the purchasers of that line
after its completion, which will bring to your railway the
produce of an important mineral district. Hitherto the
traffic in minerals can hardly be said to have com
menced, the first consignment of slates having been
brought upon your line at a very recent date. On the
whole, your directors feel that they can safely assure
you that, whilst the past traffic under the qualifying
circumstances above adverted to, and the general de-
pression of the country, has surpassed their expectations,
so they see reason to believe that it will increase in a
highly satisfactory ratio as the line is perfected, as its
capcities unfol themslves, and as the eople for whose
' use it was constructede become cognizant of its advan-

tages.
The sums above given as the results of the traffic,
neither include any payments from her Majesty's Go-
vernment on account of the Post.office service, nor from
the Shrewsbury and Chester Company on account of
toll. The contract under which her Majesty's Govern-
ment is to pay 30,0001. per annum for a term of years
on account of Post-( ice service, will not, it is believed,
commence till the line is opened throughout—a con-
structiun of the agreement which, of course, equally
postpones the conclusion of that term. Meanwhile, the
amount which the Yost-ollice is to pay for the single
mail, carried daily each way, is to be settled by arbi-
tration.
"At present, the passage between Holyhead and
Kingstown, and Kingstown and Holyhead, are limited
to t o each way daily, one journey being performed by
the Admiralty vessel which carries the ail,m and
are the
other by the vessels of the company. Ne gtn
pending with the Admiralty for undertaking, on your
behalf, the whole Post-office service between the two
countries by the Holyhead route, including the transfer
to the company of all the establishment connected with
that service.
" After a full consideration of all the bearings ofthe
case, in respect to the claim of ©
ori
winginach l
th Arlineshareholders
for interest for the period during
ened, your directors deem it equitable
been partially op
that such interest should be continued until the line is
opened throughout, being the same coustructiou as has
been put by her Majesty's Goverainent upon the