The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-03 00:00:00

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LONDON THURSDAY
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STAFF ORD S HIRE AND SHROPSHIRE
JUNCTION RAILWAY.

A Special Meeting of the Shareholders in the above Railway
having been convened under the provisions of Lord Dalhousie's Act,
to be held on MONDAY NEXT, the 7th day of September, at Eleven
o'clock in the Forenoon, at the Office of the Company, No. 6, Gray's
Inn-square, London, it has been deemed important by many of the
Shareholders that a Preliminary Meeting should be held to adopt
measures in order to protect their just rights and interests. With
that object they are invited to attend a Meeting of the Scripholders,
which will be held on FRIDAY NEXT, the 4th day of September, at
Twelve o'clock, at the Office of Mr. H. 1). Mead, 34, Pall-mall,
Manchester, when a report will be made and measures submitted
for consideration deserving their attention. It is of still greater im-
portance that the meeting in London, at the time and place above-
mentioned, should be attended by all Scripholders, or by parties re-
presenting, them.
To insure admission to each of the meetings it will be necessary
that the Scrip should be produced.
Parties holding Scrip in the country, and having no facilities for
transmitting it to London to be used on their behalf at the meeting,
may forward it to Messrs. Barr, Lofthouse, and Nelson, solicitors,
Leeds, with instructions, which will be complied with, and the Scrip
returned. By order,

T. L. MAItSDEN, Secretary, pro tem.
Leeds, September• 2, 1846.

11F,MOVAL.

DR. CULVERWELL has REMOVED to No.
10, ARGYLL-PLACE, REGENT-STREET, (leading to
Great Marlborough-street,) where he may be consulted, as usual,
Daily till Three, and in the Evening from Seven till Nine; and
where also his several publications, of which entirely new and en-
larged editions have recently been published, may be obtained.

I-I0 T WEATHER.—TRAVELLING.—SEA-
SIDE.—The REGISTERD PALETOT in London, only at
22, Cornhill, opposite the Royal Exchange; and the chief Llama
Cloth Warehouse, 114, Regent-street. Do not be deceived by a
similarity of name. placed In the windows of a few petty shops in the
neighbourhood of the Patentees. Each Paletot is stamped " H. J. and
D. NICOLL, 114, Regent-street."

NATIONAL LOAN FUND LIFE ASSUR-
ANCE SOCIETY,
26, CORNHILL LONDON.
Capital £500,000.
Empowered by Act of Parliament.
This Institution embraces important and substantial advantages
with respect to Life Assurances ant Deferred Annuities. The assured
has, on all occasions, the power to borrow, without expense or for-
feiture of the Policy, two-thirds of the premiums paid (see Table) ;
also the option of selecting benefits, and the conversion of his in-
terests to meet other conveniences or necessity.
Assurances for terms of years are granted on the lowest possible
rates.

WESTFIELD AND SEDLESCOMD, AUG. 30.—We cannot
speak too highly of our hops in this neighbourhood ;
they are now past improvement, having arrived et ma•
Wray, and picking commenced. There are some who
think the duty will pay nearly 200,090/.
WADHURST, Aua. 29.—Picking has commenced in
this parish. They come in much lighter than they were
expected, and in many instances requiring 90 to 95
bushels for a cwt. The usual calculation in average
years is about 60 bushels to the cwt.

lIORSMONDEI7, Auo. hop picking will be
general in this parish about the middle of the week. We
have seldom seen a larger flower or a more luxuriant
show than is to be witnessed in nearly the whole of our
grounds this year, and from present appearances we
judge that both quantity and quality will be found to be
excellent.

(From the Maidstone Gazette.)

MAIDSTONE.—The hop picking began very generally
yesterday. A few planters began in the middle of last
week. The hops have been improving, the weather has
been very favourable for them, and we shall have ex-
ceeding good samples both for colour and quality. The
college ground is in very beautiful order, and Mr.
Gurney's ground is said to be even still better.
'WATERINGDURY, TESTON, MEREWORTH, AND NET-
TLESTEAD.—SeveraI of the great growers have begun
picking, and the quantity and quality answers their ge-
neral expectations. This is a favoured district, and the
hops are better in quality than usual.
GOUDHURST.—We are now picking at many places,
but the prevailing opinion is that it would have been
better to have deferred it for a week or ten days later,
being convinced that they have lost considerably in
weight by so doing. If the weather continue still and
warm, they would do well to let them stand at least a
fortnight longer.

EAST MALLING.—There has been great improvement
in the hop plantations in this neighbourhood within the
last ten days. The hops are grown out large, and are
good in quality. One large garden belonging to Mr.
Thomas Browning, sen., comprising forty acres, is ex-
ceedingly good ; a great part of it is laid at a ton per
acre. Picking will commence generally about the 3d
and 4th inst.

YALDING.—Some of the gardens in this parish are in a
splendid condition ; in many the yield will be above a
ton per acre. _ _

EAST PECKHAM. —flop picking commenced here on
the 26th, and the hops come down quite to the grower's
satisfaction ; yesterday the picking was general. There
has been a ground picked that has averaged one bushel
per hill, and 400 bushels per acre.
IIORSMONDEN.—Picking has commenced in this parish
and will be general about the 2d or 3d of September.
We have seldom seen the hops so large as they are this
year. The yield, we trust, will be found nearly equal to
that of last year, and of excellent quality.
ANOTHER ACCOUNT.—Picking commenced in this
parish last week, and four instances out of five left off
picking in consequence of the hops being so much in
two crops, that the weight fell so very short, about seven
and a half cwt. per acre. It will commence again about
the 3d of September. It appears that the largeness of
the 11.)p, which is beyond all precedent, will not make
up for the deficiency of number, being so thin on the
poles.

INCREASE OF FARES ON THE

SOUTH-EASTERN LINE.

On Tuesday the South-Eastern Company raised their
passenger fares to an extent varying from ten to forty per
cent.—an admission, notwithstanding all that has bean
officially said to the contrary, that low fares have failed,
in the county of Kent.
The circumstances under which the reduction and in-
crelse have taken place are of so singular a character,
and public convenience and accommodation are so mixed
up in the matter, that a brief notice of them becomes a
public duty.
Railway companies are induced to reduce their fares
by one or two convictions, viz., that it will produce an
increase of receipts as well as of the number of passen-
gers ; or that t will what is termed drive an opponent
out of the field, or, in other words, enable them success-
fully to-contend in Parliament against a competing line.
In both cases the result must be interesting and instruc-
tive to the community. Without desiring to say by
which of these motives the South-Eastern Company
were actuated, we shall give the old and new fares, and
then briefly state a few facts connected with the re-
duction and the increase.

The following is a list of the fares as they were and as
hey now are :

Ist Class. 2d Class. 3d Class. Increase
s. d. s. d. s. d. per cent.
Reigate, old
„ new 4 0 3 0 1 9
Tunbridge, old 6 6 4 0 2 6
26
new. 7 6 5 6 351

Tunbridge Wells, old 7 0 4 6 2 81
~ new 8 6 6 6 3 10S "'"
Maidstone, old .. 7 0 4 6 2 8
40
fit new 9 0 6 6 4 0
Canterbury, old
9, new l5 0 11 0 6 9
Rarnsgate, old
new ......
Folkestone, old - l6 0 10 0 GOZ
,t new
_ _ .. .... ._

Dover, old l5 0 10 0 601 16
„ new
It will be recollected that at the termination of the
session of 1844 it was known that a very strong contest
would take place in the session just closed for competing
lines through North and Mid Kent.
In September, 1845, the South-Eastern Company re-
duced their fares, and in a very elaborate official state-
ment of " the position and projects of the South-Eastern
Company" it was asserted that by this reduction " a
great benefit had been conferred on the public without
any loss being sustained by the Company."
At the South-Eastern Company's half-yearly meeting
in March last, the directors in their report stated-
- "On the Ist of September last the directors carried
into effect a great reduction of fares, and adopted the
system of granting day tickets, and the directors have
much satisfaction in stating that these measures have
had the effect they anticipated."
_ _ _ _

At that meeting the Chairman (Mr. M'Gregor) also
said, ".I beg leave to congratulate you on the state of
your affairs, which must be highly satisfactory to you.
You are all aware that the resolution of the directory for
reducing the fares came into operation on the Ist of
September, and the result to which we looked forward
has been attained."
It will be seen that these assertions of the directors
and chairman, that the experiment of the reduction of
fares had proved successful, were made seven months
after it had been in operation.
In Parliament this reduction of fares was made one
of the chief grounds on which the South• Eastern claimed
a sort of right to make a North Kent as well as a Mid
Kent line.

In the statement put in before Group 14 by the South-
Eastern Company, in the session just closed, they say:—
"Recently they have carried the reduction of fares,
prev;ously low, still further, and have gone to great
expanse in placing their locomotive establishment on
the best footing, and in laying down the electric telegraph.
" Under these circumstances they feel that there
would be a hardship in giving a preference to other cora-
panics, the establishment of which would not be of any
peculiar advantage to the public, but would inflict serious
injury on the South-Eastern Company."
In fact, no one doubts, that much of the strength of
the Parliamentary case of the South-Eastern Company
arose out of the reduction which has just been done
away with, and from the belief that it had proved remu-
nerative, and that it would, as a consequence, be a per-
manent reduction.

The questions that the public have a right to ask and
have answered are-Ist. Were the directors and chair-
man mistaken when they stated the experiment of the
reduction of fares had proved a successful one ; and if
not, why have they raised the fares when the receipts
have gone on continually increasing from the time they
declared the reduction of fares had proved remunera-
tive? Is it that the Canterbury and Ramsgate branch
is not remunerative, and that an increased receipt over
141 miles, is less remunerative than the old receipt over
113 miles? Or was the reduction made, not in good
faith, but for Parliamentary purposes? Our readers
have the short facts of the case before them, and can

judge for themselves.
The peculiar feature in the South-Eastern line is its
circuitous character. Dover by road is 72 miles, by rail
it is 88; Canterbury by road is 56, by rail 82; Maid-
stone by road is 33, but by rail it is 56; Ramsgate is by
road 72, and by rail 97k. The principle admitted by
the South-Eastern Company in its Parliamentary
milsd
basedPeterborough—for
onthesimple
struggle, as well as in their reduction of fares in
September last year, was that the passenger should be
by very circuitous
charged—as between London
(piliirnrocepscot
sadirtieisotnaonfft
hceearset.d if
certain
Thisrdt a.tri pen :tit Le Pslee , served
with fares at the same
line,
rate per mile as those charged by the longer one, such
towns may justly call upon the company having the
circuitous railway to charge them for direct distances
only. Because the legislature chose to sanction a
roundabount instead of a strilight line through
Kent, it does not follow that the public can be
justly required to pay for as well as to travel and lose
time over some unnecessary 23 miles in 56, which is
now the case in travelling betyveett London and Maid-
stone by the South-Eastern line. Tho argument that
the South-Eastern Company cannot, with profit to itself,
carry passengers 56 miles round to Maidstone and charge
them for the distance by road, is a good and valid and
very reasonable argument when. urged before South-
Eastern proprietors, but it is of no force to the people of
Maidstone, nor to those who wish to travel to that place,
when responsible persons go beforo Parliament, and offer
to construct a direct line to Maidstone, and to insert a
clause in their Act binding them to carry passengers to
and fro at a rate below the sum that was levied by the
South-Eastern when that Company ch arged over the direct
distance only. The excess of fare which the principle now
Doverin operation on the Dover line, of charging for circuitous
distances, occasions will beseen from the following
figures :-.--Tunbridge is thirty-two miles by road, and
the third-class passenger.
if charged according to the
Parliamentary restriction, would ,pay 2s. Bd. ; but be-
cause he is compelled to be an additional half-hour on
his journey in order to get over the circuitous nine miles,
he is charged 3s. 5d., or about thirty pet cent. beyond
; the ordinary third-class charge. Canterbury is fifty-six
miles by the road, and the charge by a direct line of rail