The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-02 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

PORTSMOUTH.
The half-yearly meeting of thisnompany was field on
Ilhn la, at the of Great Go-rge-s rent, Westminster;
sir. R. D. Manglos, \I.P., in the ctiair
Mr. Honta, the secret try, read the minutes of the
last mewing, --whioh were c-ihfirined. The report stated
that the pr.g.iee of the works lisd, under all the circum-
stances of the ca.Ne, be,,n satisfactory to the directors.
The works now oiktend almost cot tinunu-ly from the
junction with the _Lohdon and &nth-Western. Railway
at Godalmine; to Hasletnere. Ground has been recently
broken also beyon d that to wn, and arrangementsfor a consi-
able length of h.-id at Lisa. are nearly completed, which
will enable the oantractor to commence the works in
that neighbourhO Id. It is exrected that the first section
of the line from tGodalnaing to. Witley will be ready for
traffic next, autos in, ant that an arrangement for the
workin,, of the tr.,.ffic conducive to the public interests
and satisfactory to the shareholders will have been raids
by that time with: .me of the existing railway companies.
The directors reached the •shareholdte that ever ,sioce
the incorporation of the company in 1853 circumstances
highly adierse to the construction-of a new railway-have
been in operation. 'lThere was now, however, a prospect
uf a favourable change, and the directors were prepared
to avail themselves of it in order to press forward the
works to as speedy a completion as the extent of int-
provernent in the Looney-market would justly' warrant.
The directors wish to be understood that their opinions
in respect to the in trinsic character of the undertaking
remain unchanged ; and that 'its completion. alone je
needed to demonstrtite its usefulness to the dOcernmeno
and-to a large popu,4ation hitherto insufficiently' supplied
with railway acconoodation, or altogether withentA
as. wellas its value to the shareholders. - The report of
Messrs. Locke and Erri'ngton, the engineers, states that
at Boriton•the tunnel, 48t,-yards in length, through the
chalk, is now finished except ti.,, faces. At Hashimoto
some hindrance has occurred from slips in the embank'
ment, but now the work is proceeding more rapidly.
'Considerable' progress has been made at Witley. See
bridges and the requisite culvert's for the embankrnekte
have been built.. Upwards of 50,0 men and 75 horsesitrs
now employed upon the works.. The capital account to
the 23d of March showed that 108,7891. had been Ile
ceived and 101,9451. expended, leaving a balance of
6,835/.

The CHAIRMAN congratulated the shareholders on the
recent announcement of peace, and hoped, among other
inestimable benefits, they woul4l find the money-market
in a more easy position, oas O. enable them to raj.°
the requisite capital to push I arward the works 'with
vigour, and to come earlitr inter dividends. They were
at present In ?leg tiation for tell os of arrangement wa.
-ti.er companies for working the line.' They They hadd-podia
t-. for in junctions with the Soutl t-Eistern line at Shill:
ford; an i with the South Western at Gadalining,
they h..ped to Make terms with on e or both of those oozy
pantos which v. ould he satisfactor y to the shareholdire
and useful to the public and the Government. It' roli
‘desirable the proprietors should r, tfrain from asking i 0
discreet questitins on the subject, and he thought-tlig
had vtry muc better leave the in; ttrer entirely the
hands oft r directors.

Mr. SOLOMON Lbonght they shoulg I endeavour to open
the line in the fix,* iasta ice frotn .‘vant to P-etersfielk,
Mr. BEST was of opinion that it was the intereso3l
the South-Western Company to wr.ric' the line. •
Toe CHAIRMAN explained that the. y had considerea
every poin., and tbat . by an arrangement with- tb6
South-Western Company they might I.lrm such.a
tiol with he S u!1:-Eastern line as would '"save them
an ()Inlay 01 20,6001

Tae rep rt wa unenimonaly
aloPted, fir.Robir.
wa re-elected a director, and the allowant. le to the 00'
tor ,vaq r-cbiced Prow 50/. to 251. each per pnnurn.
Mr. S monon expr • sed him.elf -atilified %vith the
seed;, g- of the Karen or-, ; nd stated that be Lkad 1311 coo:
fi ierice in them. He cr ir eluded by moving a cord)r
f thanks to th cha romp and threctorr k for tbtfS
able m3na of the ct nnpany's affairs, wr'lioh svitl
carried n a imousiv.

, -
In. CIiAIHMIN. in ackr owledging the comp.ifeleA
wished it to be under-tood that he bad not tak the
chair as chairman to the cOmeany; he merely perfertned
the.ilutie4-ror the present, as he was anxious to gib
them all the assistance he could, but his other aviler
ions would not admit of his being chairman of tb.
company. The director.; bad very difficult and analog!
duties to perforni, and they required the frank Igo!
hearty support of tLe proprietors to enable them .t°
carry out the undertaking, in. which they were all deepli
interests.!.
The meeting then Eeparated.

PARIS AND ORLEANS.'' •
The annual general meeting of this company Washelti
in Paris on Saturday. M. Bartholony, the presideill;
took the ehLir.•
The meeting was also made special for the purpose,....ol
authorising tl.e directors to -issue additional capital la
(nett the cost of the extensions of the railway now -0
course of construction, or which this company have 00'
dertalten to execute ; to purchwe certain freehold pro'
perties, centrally situate in Paris, for the purposes of WO
railway, and of other lines having their te►mini in Paris;
t form a grand central merchandise station ; to r.anctioo
the cession of a porti ,n of the railway of this company t°
the Great Central Rsilway Company ; to ratify the are
rangement made with the Paris and Lyons and thl
Great Central Ra;lway Companies for the joint construe'
tion by all three of a new line from Paris to Lyons bi
C rrheil, through the Bourbonnais; and on other fisecir4
bus ness.

The Orleans group of railways is, perhaps, the molt
extensive in Europe Lnder one management; it comprises
no less than 2 266 kiloinetres (1,416 English miles), 0'
which 1,277 kilometres (798 mile-) are now in full worlf.;
898 kihnor tree remain to be made, and are partially VI
course of construction ; it eagirace4 the richest and molt
o,,pnious regions of the north west, west, south-erests
ntre, and south-ea, tof France, radiating from Orleaiis,
and brings the ports along the whole line of the westerd
coat, from Quimper to Bordeaux, into direct, corm:l3oPP-
cation with the metropolis.
The meeting was held in the spacious ball which forill
part of the certral offices of t. a company. It is eapAble
of con-airinz 2,000 persons. Owing to the plan adoPeci,
by this company of giving a jeton (representing six francs)
to ouch sharenolder present, there always• a full AP.
tenda-ce. Upwards of 1,400 shareholders were preset.
-t this meeting. •
The direct-rs' report Yhowed that the balance to the
relit of capital account was 3,000,000 f (120,0001.)%
The revenue account for the oast year showed that*
very large I-urn vas expended in the ret ewal of the,
plrinanent way, the invariable rule of this -companf•
It was explained that the company, would. recsilr.,
.inwards of 40,000 000 f. on the obligations of the Grew!
Central Railway Company fi.r the pertions of thO rail;
.4v ceded to that comosny ; that the New Paris and
Lyons Railway would he made by obligations guaranteed
by all the three corm anie- j 'lndy ; and that, in all pi'
hability, for the sake of convenience, the whole sum to
f.r this btaricth of the expenditure, including
the 40,000.000 f, woo d -by (ibligations of one and 00
-,Avne lora). The prrferettee wool,/ be given to the share.,
ho!ders of the three companimin the distribution of thil
stock:

•
The revenue accr,unt for the year 1855 showed that
57,378.720 f. (2,295.1481.) had been received, AO
30,951,762 f. (1.238,070/ ) expended, leaving a net profit
cm the *..rkiiiv of 26,426,958 f. (1,057,0781.) Of, this sure
254,8751. (10,1951.) aas appropriated to the sinking
t•md to redeem the capital, 12.000 f. (4801.) annuity to
the original concessionaire; 1,873,906 f. (74 9561.) to the
ffirie rs and servants of the company. leaving 24,286,176fg,
'(971,4471) for distlibuti,ti among the sharehotderg, 0"
which sum 9,000,0001. (360,0001), being at the rate 0:
:30f. per share, cv.a paid on the Ist of October last, an";
it w. 5 now prnposed to pay them a further sum 01
15,000,000 f. (600,0601.), being at the rate of 50f. per
41are, leaving a balance for the next account 01
286,177 t. (11,447/ ) The dividend for the year amonnteet,
to 80f. per share, ( r 16 per cent.
The report, at d the series of resolutions propcsl4
thereon, were adopted unanimously. Messrs. Barri,
Cochin, Caillard, Count Benoit d'Azy, and Dufour, the
five directors retiring in rotation and by lot, •were sere'
rally r ,-elected for five years. The re-election of the
auditorg, and a cordial vote of thanks to the chairman
and directors closed the proceedings.
.1
MARKET NEWS:--{Phis Day.)