The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-29 00:00:00

when Mr. Gooch succeeded to his present sismatioa ;
He (the chairman) considered that the Norfolk Com-
pany had great reason to complain of the printed
statements of accounts published by the Eastern
Counties Company. He was most desirous to main- '
tain the good feeling which existed between the two
companies, but he regretted that the Eastern Coun-
ties directors bad not communicated with himself or
his colleagues before they published their statement,
thet mutual explanations might have been given.
Mr. Waddington, the chairman of the Eastern Coun-
ties Company, acknowledged in his speech the other
day that the Norfolk Company's trains were charged
at the same rate of milage as the Eastern Counties.
Now, surely, as in their district coke could be ob-
tained at a very low price, and their trains carried
much less dead weight than those running near Lon-
don, they might be and ought to be worked at much
less cost. He had, with the consent of Mr. Wad-
de-gton, placed four locomotive engines on the Nor•
folk line at his own expense, in order to demonstrate
the fact that a light traffic could be carried on
eant
gainsems awllerceoset
Barsrycionmgpoarnedoweitth heavy traffic.
cvatar iex pTenhdesie.
tore of less than 101 b, of coke per mile, while the
Norfolk Company were charged at the average of
the through traffic with 261 b. or 271 b. per mile.—
(Hear.) He also considered that the Norfolk Com-
pany was charged excessively high for maintenance of
way. It must be remembered that they had a large
extent of single line, they had gravel in every cut-
ting, and ran through a singularly favourable coun-
try, and he thought they ought not to be charged au
equal amount with a road running through the fens,
and injured by the heavy traffic nearer London. His
own conviction was that their line could, by itself',
be worked at a profit. He believed there was no
occasion for discouragement or
_hopelessness, but he
recommended them to maintain a due appreciation of
the value of their own property, and not to be induced
to give it way by instalments, which he must say,
with all possible respect for those who put them forth,
were not based upon truth. There were some ques-
tions of account open between the Eastern Counties
and the Norfolk Company involving a consider-
able amount. Those questions had been re-
ferred to Mr. Quilter on behalf of the Eastern
Counties Company and to himself (the chair-
man) on behalf of the Norfolk Company. They
were proceeding harmoniously in their investi-
gation, and he hoped that in two or three weeks
every item would be closed. He considered,
' with reference to their arrangements with the
Eastern Counties Company, that they ought not to
be charged with interest upon stations and plant
which had passed out of their hands, and which they
were not using. The total amount received by the
Norfolk Company for the sale of surplus land seemed
to have been 9,5221. 17s. 6d., and out of that sum
they had paid off a mortgage-bond of 4,0001., and had
made various payments for debts carrying interest to
the amount of 9,4691. ss. 3d. The directors had re-
duced the mortgage debt by 17,0001. He had
already stated that their income might be taken at
120,0001. per annum, and with reference to their
prospects for the futiare, he might point to the cer-
tainty of a large increase to their traffic from the ex-
ertions being made on the eastern coast with regard
to the fishing trade. At Yarmouth, within two years,
thirty-six boats, for the deep seafishing had been
placed on the station, and the produce was brought
up to London. At Lowestoft nine fishing-boats were
regularly employed, and their catch was sent to town
daily. The experiment had been tried of sending off
a steamer from Lowestoft to the fishing-ground every
day to bring the cargoes for conveyance to London
by railway instead of sending them round by cutters.
For the first four or five weeks the steamboat did not
pay her expenses, but she was now earning upwards
of 30/. a week—the cost of maintaining the boat
being 151. a week—and the traffic brought to the
line exceeded 3,0001. a year. A company had been
formed, without any responsibility attaching to the
Norfolk Railway proprietors, for establishing a com-
munication between Lowestoft and the European
States north of the Texel, and the result had been
that traffic exceeding 6,000/. had during the last
year been brought to the two lines of railway. He
was satisfied, also, that when the railways projected
in Norway were completed they would obtain a large
additional amount of traffic. There was a branch

line of railway contemplated which would necessarily
add to the business of the Norfolk Company. An
extension line was to be carried to Halesworth, the
enable
capital being provided by the resident gentry and
landedproprie proprietors,proprietors
t o
them the r
to eenctteorrs
intoh had to
tragic
ffia sek the
ar-
rangement with the proprietors of that line. He con-
sidered that the preference stock, as to the validity of
which some doubts had been entertained, should
be placed upon an unquestionable basis, and a re-
solution with that object should be submitted to
the meeting. He begged to move that the report be
adopted.
Major COURT did not think they were in a position
to receive and adopt the report, because that report
had not been delivered to the shareholders previously
to the meeting, as was, he believed, required by Act of
Parliament. He considered that if a branch railway
was to be established, as had been intimated by the
chairman, the project ought to be submitted to the
shareholders, who should determine upon its expe-
diency. He protested against the accounts being
received, unless they were thoroughly investigated by
the auditors.

Mr. HARTEY congratulated the proprietors on the
accession of Mr. Peto to the office of chairman of

their board, for he believed that gentleman, from his
character, talent, and honour, would do much towards
bringing the Norfolk Railway Company out of the
slough of despond in which it had long been.--(Hear,
hear.) He believed there were elements of prosperity
in the company, and that if the management of their
affairs was entirely in their own hands they might
have a dividend of two or three per cent.
The CHAIRMAN said, on consulting the solicitor to
the company, he was informed that there was nothing
in the Act of Parliament which rendered it obligatory
on the board of directors to publish their report before
they met the proprietors. With regard to the branch
line to which he had referred, it would not be attended
with the expense of one farthing to the Norfolk Com-
pany, for the people of Suffolk had raised 150,0001.
for its establishment.
The motion for the adoption of the report was then
agreed to.
The CHAIRMAN moved the following resolution :
" That the directors be authorised to apply to Parlia-
ment in the next session for an Act to authorise the
creation of a new preferential stock, bearing a guaran-
teed interest not exceeding 5 per cent. per annum, pos-
sessing the same priority as the existing mortgage debt,
and to be applied solely in liquidation of such debt, and
for the general regulation of the capital of the company,
and to sanction traffic arrangements with the Hales-
worth, Beccles, and liaddiscoe Railway Company."
The CHAIRMAN stated, in reply to a question, that
the Act of Parliament which they Bought to obtain
would extinguish all borrowing powers, and substi-
tute the creation of a perpetual preference stock.
The motion was then agreed to, and, a vote of
thanks having been given to the Chairman, the meeting
separated.

CHARGE OF CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD
THE LONDON AND BRIGHTON RAIL-

WAY COMPANY.

ButGaTosr, AUG. 28.—At the bench of magistrates
to-day (present C. Carpenter and Montague Scott,
Esqs.), William Gregory and George Stallard, were
charged with conspiring together to defraud the Lon-
don and Brighton Railway Company, under singular
circumstances. Mr. George Faithfull, jun., the com-
pany's solicitor, attended to prosecute the case,
assisted by Mr. W. Acton, superintendent of the
company's police. Mr. Lamb attended for Stallard.
Gregory was not forthcoming; and it was stated that
before service of the summons at his residence he had
left the country, and was now in Paris.
Mr. Faithfull, in opening the case, said this was •
charge of conspiracy against the defendants to defraud
the railway company of their legal and proper fare.
The company issued excursion tickets from London
to Brighton, taking persons down and up for 3s. Od.
The ordinary fare from London to Brighton alone by
Parliamentary train was 4s. 2d., and by the ordinary
third-class carriage ss. • 4d. This was an important
consideration in connexion with this case. By
taking a third-class excursion ticket in Lon-
don a person on arriving at Brighton might
take the advantage, if the weather should be wet,
of exchanging his ticket for an excess second
class ticket on the payment of Is. That fact
was as well known to parties in London about the
station as it was in Brighton. Among the parties
who waited about the Brighton station was the de-
fendant Stallard, who was in the habit of baying
tickets from excursionists wid not intendo re-
turn, or get them to give himhotickets which he would
Brighton to London at a
tthheatepoamr:
sell to persons going from
the consequenvcaeywinags
very small profit, and
ties often went to London without
pany a single halfpenny for travelling. I n order to
establish the present charge the company had taken
means to catch both buyer and seller. Gregory
cpur-
chased of Stallard a third-
lass excursion ticket, and
exchanged it for an excess second-class ticket by the
payment of is., and had gone to London'. a second-
class carriage for Is., the orlin
°large of the com-
papy fo,r SIIQII jouplev being 3. This was, to all