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

GROUP XXXVII,

The Committee met at twe:ve, Lord Seymour In the chair.
MIDLAND, BARNSLEY, SHEFFIELD,
DEWSBURY, LEEDS, AND BRADFORD.
Mr. BAINES (with whom was Mr. Lee and Mr. Wordsworth) on
opening the merits of this project, said it was intended to
connect Dewsbury with Wath-upon-Dearne. It started from
Dewsbury, forming a junction with the line from
Leeds, which received the sanction of Parliament last year,
and was now in course of formation, so that communication
would be opened from Dewsbury by the Manchester and Lee's line
through Huddersfield onward to Manchester. From Dewsbury it
passed on through Cornhill, Netherton, and Darton, to Barnsley.
The importance was enhanced by the connexion which it established
between the main trunk line of the country, the Midland, and the
Manchester and Leeds lines, and the branch had been so laid out
as to shorten the distance between Dewsbury and the localities of the
district, and also London. The Dewsbury district, which it supplied,
was important for the woollen manufactures carried on in that part
of the West Riding. The raw material for that manufacture
was brought from the south and south-east ; from the coun-
ties of Lincoln, Derby, Leicester ; from London, and the
south of England generally ; and the manufactured article
went down to the south of England, the greater part for exportation,
even the waste from the manufactories being sent by thousands of
tons into Kent, for the cultivation of the hop. The opponents of this
branch were chiefly what had been called the Sheffield and Wake-
field line and the South Yorkshire ; the last formed no junction with
the Midland, offering a south conveyance, but depended for
this on the passing of the London and York Railway Bill. In
' remarking on the former of these schemes, Mr. Baines said he
would show that there were twenty gross inaccuracies in the depo-
sited plans of that scheme, differences in height of 5, 12, 13, and even
17 feet, the last occurring at the mouth of the tunnel with a change
of gradient. The curves on that line were quick and inconvenient,
five of them being of a radius under a quarter of a mile, one under a
furlong, one of 25 chains, on a gradient of 1 in 118, and that at the
end of a tunnel. There was tunnelling to the amount of 4,597 yards
long, being one-eighth of the whole line.
Mr. BAINES then called the attention of the Committee to an
agreement which had been made privately between the Sheffield
and Wakefield, and the South Yorkshire Companies, In which they sti-
pulated, among other things, to give up the Dodworth branch to the
South Yorkshire In case their Bill passed, and to transfer to the same
company all the powers of their Act of Parliament in respect to the
portion of their line south of Barnsley station, including the Dod-
worth branch. Mr. Baines trusted the Committee would not hesi-
tate, on hearing the merits of his project in evidence, to pass the Bill.
Mr. Bates, a factory inspector, on being examined, stated that in
Dewsbury, and within two miles of it, there were 101 mills with
6,126 horse power, employing 6,278 persons ; that 206,616 tons of
coals were consumed annually, and that the population was 50,061.
Mr. Stainer and Mr. Burnley gave evidence of the mineral traffic
and the accommodation which would be afforded to the wool fac-
tories.

Mr. Waite, who surveyed the line, stated in the course of his evi-
dence that he had found twenty inaccuracies in the plans of the
Sheffield and Wakefield line as deposited at the Private Bill-office, in
consequence of which it would be impossible to ascertain the heights
and depths, and thereby the amount of the earthwork. He pointed
out an instance where a difference of vertical height on the plan
appeared which would render the construction of the line according
to these sections Impossible.
The witnesses ware cross-examined on the part of the Sheffield
and Wakefield Railway, and Lord Scarborough, Mr. Beaumont, and
other opposing landowners os the route of the railway.
The Committee then adjourned till to-morrow at twelve.

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MAY 12, 1848,