The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-22 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

GREAT SOUTHERN AND WESTERN (IRELAND.)
The half-yearly meeting of this company was held on
Tuesday, at the offices, in Dublin; Mr. E. M•Donnell in
the chair.
The SECRETARY read the report, which states that
the balance of the account for the half-year shows a
profit of 34,433/. 4s. Id. The construction of the line
from Thurles towards Cork has been proceeded with as
expeditiously as a prudent consideration for the state of
the money market and other circumstances would admit
of. About twenty miles to the junction with the Water-
ford and Limerick Railway, near Tipperary, was opened
on the 3d of July last, with a single line of rails for
passengers, and the second line has since been added.
The directors have every assurance, both from their
engineer, and Mr. Dargan, their contractor, that
a further portion of about twenty miles to Charle•-
villa, will be ready for public traffic by the middle
if November, and to Buttevant, a town in a district
of great importance, within about thirty miles of
the city of Cork, by Christmas next. The report
from Sir John Macneill shows the great progress
already made in the works beyond Buttevant, and
his confident expectation of being able to open the line
to Mallow by the Ist of March next, and to Blackpool or
Kilbarry, within the suburbs of Cork, by the Ist of July.
The traffic shows an increase from the previous half-
year of 6,6561. Os. Gd.; and, since the opening to Li-
merick, there has been a further improvement, raising
the average weekly receipts to 3,332/., being at the rate
of 251. per mile per week, as compared with 211. per
mile, as stated in the last half-yearly report; and it af-
fords the directors much pleasure to be able to add that
this increased revenue has been obtained at a very small
additional cost of working, so that they have every
reason to hope that the next half-yearly statement of
traffic will show such a net profit as will be adequate to
cover the interest on the cost of the 130 miles now in
operation; a position which they have every reason to
believe was never before attained by any railway com-
pany which had yet sixty miles of its line to make be-
fore reaching one of its principal termini. The utmost
care has been paid to limiting the expenditure of the
company, and the arrears of calls have been reduced to
17,0001., in addition to 235 shares forfeited to the com-
pany. The Irish South-Eastern Company's line from
Carlow to Kilkenny has been opened as far as Bagnals-
town, a distance of 101 miles, and it is expected the
remaining portion to Kilkenny, about 10 miles, will
shortly be completed. This company has under-
taken to furnish the carriage and moving power for
working that traffic on terms mutually agreed on. The
directors have also made arrangements with the Water-
ford and Limerick Company for an interchange of car-
riages and traffic between their two lines. The state-
ment of accounts attached to the report shows that the
total amount received on capital account up to the 30th
June last wa52,846,597/., and the expenditure 2,803,671/.,
leaving a balance in favour of the company of 36,8261.
On the revenue account the receipts for the half-year
were 65,3191.25. 5d., and the expenditure 30,8851. Bs. 4d.,
showing a balance in favour of the company of
34,433/. 14s. Id. After a short conversation the report
was adopted—the retiring directors re-elected, and
thanks voted to the chairman. The meeting then
separated.

MIDLAND GREAT WESTERN OF IRELAND—
EXTENSION TO MULLINGAR.
The Midland Great Western Railway extension, from
the Kinnegad station to Mullingar, was inspected on
Wednesday by Captain Wynne, Royal Engineers, pre-
vious to its opening for public traffic on the Ist October.
The inspection was very satisfactory, Captain Wynne
having expressed himself in very favourable terms as to
the stability and safety of the line. The opening will
take place on the above-named day.

BANQUET TO THE SOUTH-EASTERN RAIL-
WAY DIRECTORS.
Bouworm, WEDNESDAY.—A good deal of interest
has been felt here in the banquet given on Monday
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the interests of both companies, and considering the best
mode of concentrating the traffic between London and
Paris on their lines.
The following gentlemen were present :—Messrs.
Charles Lafitte (president), H. Blount, Alexander Adam,
St. Paul, L. Fontaine, fils, J. Baxendale, and Captain
Tyndal, directors of the Boulogne and Amiens Rail-
way ; Mr . Smale, Captain Warren, and Mr. Thompson,
directors of the South-Eastern Company; Messrs. War-
ren, Wright, and Parker, prominent shareholders in the
two lines ; Mr. Whitehead, London secretary to the
Boulogne Railway ; M. Auguste Seguier, secretary in
Paris to the same company ; and MM. Ther, Ibry, Love,
and Desgranges, of the Boulogne Company.
Mr. Macgregor, the chairman of the South-Eastern
Company, was prevented by illness from attending, and
Mr. Pritchard, Mr. Brown, and the Hon. Mr. Byng, the
other directors, were unable to attend, in consequence of
the meeting of the South Eastern Steam Navigation
Company in London the next day.
The PRESIDENT, in proposing the first toast, " Union
between the South-Eastern Company and the Boulogne
and Amiens Company," expressed his great regret at
the mistake committed on the occasion of the opening of
the railway to Boulogne with regard to the non-admission
of the South-Eastern Company. He then, in excellent
English, expatiated on the benefits and advantages to be
derived from the present entente cordiale, and from the
mutual co-operation of the two companies, not only to
the proprietors, but to the public generally. He had
felt an anxious desire to have met the chairman of the
South-Eastern Company that day, and to have tendered
the hand of friendship to him, and said that he knew he
was only speaking the sentiments of all parties in ex-
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Mr. SMALE, on the part of the South-Eastern and
cSotienacmid-ebdoaitnCalolmtphaant yh,aadct niloewnlefdroginedththeeptroeassitd,annt in hisdfully
regret at the illness of their Chairman, and his convic-
tion of the beneficial results to be expected from the cor-
dial re union. He said that when the South-Eastern
Company was in its infancy, ho had been one of its first
supporters. At that time lines had been projected to
the bleak north, the watery west, the chilling east, but
strange to say, the warm, the fertile south, the line of all
thers the most to be desired, that which led to La Belle
France—that which conducted directly to the whole con-
tinent of Europe, had been omitted and neglected. The
company was at length, however, projected, and carried
out through evil report and good report : it had to
struggle with difficulties to an extent beyond belief,
partly from the blindness of the Legislature of his coun-
try, which at one time appeared to throw every impedi-
ment possible in the way of works which have now
proved themselves to be absolutely essential and benefi-
cial to the nation at large, and partly from the cu-
pidity of the soi-disant country gentlemen, whose
exactions, almost uncontrolled as to compensation
and change of route, had swamped many good de-
signs, and deeply and for ever injured others, which,
however, still survived, and as in their own case
would ultimately, as he verily believed, spite of all, prove
ns remunerating as any kind of property in the kingdom.
Ile could not avoid these observations, when he con-
trasted the conduct and policy of the Government of
France on these points with the course pursued by the
British Government and Legislature. He could not sit
down without—at the same time that he notieed the
splendid hospitality of the entertainment—assuring the
directors that the spirit
the language in which the invitation was conveyed by
1
the letter of the honourable gentleman, M. Adam, to
which he did himself the honour to reply on the part of
his board, gave them the highest satisfaction; and he
gave with the sincerest cordiality, " The health of the
Directors of the Boulogne and Amiens Railway, and con-
tinued prosperity to the line."
M. Apex's health was afterwards drunk, and he, in