The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-27 00:00:00

LEWES AND UCKFIELD.

The half-yearly. meeting of this company was held on
Monday at Lewes—Mr. R. W. Blencowe in the chair.
The Secretary read the report, which stated that the
works had been carried on with the utmost vigour, and the
line was almost completed and ready for traffic. The sta-
tions, which were being constructed by the London,
Brighton, and South Coast Company, were progressing
rapidly, and it was hoped that they would be sufficiently
advanced to permit of the opening of the line for traffic
before the close of the month of September. The directors
having called up £3() per share, availed themselves of the
borrowing powers of the company, as directed by the pro-
prietors, and had succeeded in obtaining upon loan a clnsi-
derable portion of the sum reerired, at the rate of 41 per
cent. per annum, and had made arrangements for other
sums at the same rate.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the report,
said that the progress which they had expected in the erec-
tion of the stations had not been made, otherwise the line
would now have been opened; but he was informed that it
would certainly be ready for traffic by the 15. h of next
month, which was within the time originally proposed, and
1 for the sum originally estimated. Moreover, be believed,
that no complaint hod been madf by either landowner or
cxopier of land at the way in which the directors bad
t-ea'ed him ; and it was very gralfying to be able to add
that the men employed in toe construction of the railway
bat acted in n very creditable manner.
Capt. DALSIAC seconded the motion.
The Hon. H. BRAND, M.P. said that it was a very im-
portant undertaking for the district, and the business had
been conducted with great ability.
The report was unanimously adopted.
Votes of thanks to the chairman and directors for their
services were carried unanimously, and the proceedings
then terminated.

NEWRY AND ARMAGII.
The following is an extrret from the report of the direc
tors to be submitted to the third ordinary general meeting
of shareholders, to be held in the Market-hauee, Armagh,
on Monday next :
"The half-yearly accounts to 30th June, 1858, showing
the receipts and payments 03 old capital, traffic, and exten-
sion accounts during that period are herewith submitted
to the proprietors. Oa old capital account it will be
seen that the only receipt has been one on account of
the seventh call on old stare,, and the payments cern-
pilse the sum of £4,177 24. sd. drawn out of the hands
of the Accountant-General in England by the Ulster
Railway Company, on settlement of the long-prottaetcd
suit, Newry v. Ulster, and which has, from time to
time, been brought forward in successive half-yearly balance
accounts; the sum of £492 13s 4d., paid to !hat company
for loss ou sale of C nsola, pti-eltve,l ?many vetrS ago at par.
and the sum of £4O, old solicitor', ace,:u o. Ac, I,si -
able portion of the two latter sums having been paid out of
new capital, the debt due from the old cqmpany to the new
has been consequently increased, and the same now amounts
to the sum of £2,106 6s. 3d., as shown by the balance ac-
count. A reduc.ion and assimilation of the company's got.tis
rates has been made during the past half-year; notwith-
standing which, it will be seen on comparison of the present
half-year's traffic with the correspsndingsix months Inc June,
1836 and 1857, that a considerable increase has taken place in
the traffic receipts, which increase your directors have no
doubt will go on augmenting, through hooking arrange-
ments being now complete over the Monaghan Extension
and Portadown and Dungannon lines. The Banbridge
line is expected to be opened for traffic in a few mouths ;
and the Dundalk and Enniskillenline is rapidly approaching
completion to Enniskillen ; all of which must necessarily ma-
terially benefit your present line, as also its extension
inland. The following is a comparison of the trrffic for
six months ending June, 1838, with the two corresponding
calf years:—

June, 1856. sun-, lit 7. June, 1858.

Passengers, parcels, horses',
carriages, and dogs... ~ 4176 9 9 £528 13 9 £609 911
Goods and live stock 26t 9 6 305 11 1 422 211

274. 10 3 35 11 10 £1,031 12 10
This increave your directors hare no doubt will be highly
satisfactory to the proprietors, showing, as it does, the self-
supporting character of the present limited length of line,
the working charges on which must necessarily be heavy,
continued repairs requiring to be made to the rolling stock,
and renewal of sleepers from time to time being made to the
permanent way, in lieu of worn-out and decayed ones; all
of which, and other SUMP, properly chargeable to traffic,
appear in this half-year's accounts. Toe present loco-
motives of the company—purchased so far back as 18:54
—being unfortunately of different construction, have,
with the rolling stock, during the pea half-year, proved
utterly inadequate, both in power and number, to carry on
the increased and increasing traffic of the company; and
your directors have accordingly been compelled to purchase
a new and powerful engine, which they expect to receive
from the makers in two months. They have also, during
the past half-year, purchased and paid for three covered
goods waggons, which likewi‘e proving insufficient to carry
on the goods traffic, three other goods waggons have been
ordered and delivered, as also an additional pair of timber
,:rucks, which your directors propose to pay for out of
revenue—several small sums, balance of revenue accounts,
having from time to time been added to general revenue
account, from which account such payments will be
taken. The attention of the proprietors is especially
directed to the balance of £1,76913x. 84., which appears to be
standing to the debit of Mr. W. F. Spacktnan, in the lezer of
the company, and was so handed over by his son, the late
secretary, to the present secretary. Your directors have ab-
stained from pressing for calls made on new shares till they
were in a position to announce that they had entered into a
contract for some portion of the line; and they are happy to
state that, after several tenders had been received, they had
entered into a contract with the well-known conte the
ractors
Messrs. M'Cormick, Greene, and King, f
constri.ction of the new portions of the line as
y
extends from Lougligilly to Armagh, a distance of about
fourteen miles—for the sum of £77,00, the company
finding rails and sleeper) ; and as a proof of the good
opinion entertained of the line by their contractors, Messrs.
M'Cormick, Greene and King have subscribed. for
mist-
derable number of shares, without any addn to the
contract price. The works will consequently be com-
menced immediately, and be procr eded towards campletien.
It is right the proprietor, however, should distinctly under-
stand that the time within which the hue can be made must,
of course, be measured by the promptitude with which all
calls are paid up. A very considerable portion of the land
required for the extension line has been purchased and paid
for since the making up of the half-yearly accounts, and may
at once he placed in the bands of the contractors. A f,urth
call sf gi per share, payable on the Ist. of October next, has
been made on the new shares. Your directors continue to be
fully satisfied that au immense and remunerative traffic must
necessarily pass over a direct line from Newry to Armagh.
They consider the contract price as an extremely advan-
tageouscompared to what it would have
one,and oil'ering, as they believe it to
bena few and
years modebraactke ;
do, to the proprietots, in conjunction with the well-
known status and responsibility of their contractors, the
fairest possible guarantee of the line being well and eco-
nomically constructed; end the English directors, Nadel!