The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-01 00:00:00

ki/L lIILY IN

-
TEIGN VALLEY.

The adjourned meeting of this company was held
at Newton Abbot on Monday-7-Sir L. Palk, M.P.,
in the chair.

The CHAIRMAN stated that the directors had per-
fected the scheme of arrangement in detail between
the company and their creditors. In accomplishing
this they were greatly indebted to Mr. H. Edwards,
of King's Lynn.

The Secretary (Hr. J. Also') then read the par-
ticulars of the arrangement.

Mr. 11. EDWAIWS explained that the creditors
would have au opportunity of objecting to the
arrangement when the scheme was before the Court
of Chancery, although the arrangement had been
prepared in coccert with the principal creditors,
and the meeting might conclude, therefore, that the
scheme would be passed as it left their bands. The
scheme of arrangement was to the effect that shares
to the extent of £20,7-10 had been paid upon, and
power was taken to issue £5,000 in satisfaction of
certain claims, and a further margin of £5,180,
making up the share capital to the reduced amount
of £31,000. Different classes of creditors would be
paid in B and C debenture stock. It was not pro-
posed to raise money upon those stocks for the pay-
ment of the creditors, but the latter were to accept
payment in those stocks. There would then be
the A Stock, which would be the first charge upon
the undertaking, and upon which as much money
would be raised as would complete the works. Thus
all classes would rank according to their right;. The
total amount of the several stocks and shares would
not exceed the amount authorised by the company's
acts. lie thought they might look forward to a
speedy release from their present embarrassment,
and to the early completion of their long delayed
line.

The scheme of arrangement was then unani-
mously agreed to, and a vote of thanks to the chair-
man terminated the proceedings.

GRAND TRUNK OF CANADA.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was
appointed to be held,' pro forma, yesterday, at the
City Terminus Hotel, Cannon-street ; Mr. A. W.

Young in the chair.

Mr. J. M. Grant, the secretary, having read the
notice convening the meeting,
The CHAIRMAN said the notice just read would
explain the object of the meeting. He was exceed-

ingly sorry that the President, Mr. IVatkin, was
absent in consequence of a domestic affliction
in his family. The report of Capt. Tyler and Mr.

Ebarall on the state of their line and other matters
had not yet been received, but he thought the re-
port would soon be completed. The directors would
require some time to thoroughly consider the joint

report of those gentlemen, and it was, therefore,
proposed to adjourn the present meeting to the 19th
of December next. lie then moved a formal reso-

lution for the adjournment of the meeting to
Thursday, the 19th of December, at one o'clock, at
that place.

Mr. HOYES called attention to paragraph 8 in the
report, which stated that a bill had been prepared
for submission to the Canadian Parliament during
the coming session to consolidate the preference
bonds and stocks by conversion into an uniform pre:

ference debenture stock. He objected to the Board
of directors taking steps without consent to affect
the rights of the bondholders' property. He denied
the right of any body of men, however respectable,
to deal with his interests as a bondholder. He had
called at the office and seen the copy of the bill,

which gave power to three-fourths of any number
of share and bond holders who chanced to attend a
meeting convened for the purpose to decide the
question as to disposing of the rights and priorities
of the bondholders in the company. The time ha d
come, he thought, when there should be a change in
the management of the company's affairs both at
home and in Canada. He would not oppose the ad-
journment of the meeting, but he felt that some ex-
planation should be given thorn before they ad-

journed.
Mr. RITTER said he held about £5,000 in bonds
of the company, and he had taken them on the faith
of the Arrangement Act ; but now it w..s proposed
by the new bill to alter their lights of priority. lie
could not understand how the directors could have
had the boldnes3 to make such a proposition. lie,
for one, would place the matter iu the hands of his
solicitor.

Mr. C. LEGG thought there would be no difficulty
in supplying the bondholders with a copy of the
new Arrangement Bill.
Mr. PRANCE said, with regard to the permissive
bill, there was no time to be lost ; it would come
before the Legislature of Canada in a month, and
would, if unopposed, pass through and become law.
Ile hoped the directors would withdraw the bill. It
proposed to convert the first, second, third, and
fourth preference bonds into a new 6 per cent. de-
benture stock, not to exceed in amount the aggregate
of the four classes of debenture bonds. lle believed
the dividends on the latter now averaged 4 per cent.
on the whole amount, while the new bill was to
raise the interest on the one large uniform stock to 6
per cent.; so that, instead of the preference charges
being £375,000, as at present, they would be raised
by the new bill to £582,000, being an increase of
£207,000. lle believed the real object of the bill

was to enable the directors to spend more money on
the line in Canada, and would have the effect of
raising their capital to £20,000,000. The policy of
the proprietors should be to stop the further expen-
diture of capital, and spend no more money than
was absolutely necessary to place the permanent way
in an efficient state and to provide the requisite roll-
ing stock. They had already expended £17,000,000
in Canada, and there was not now one penny in
actual money available as interest on that outlay.
He thought the preference bondholders must be
idiots if they allowed their rights to be taken away
as proposed by the new bill. Let them make the
line safe to travel upon, and deal with it as a com-
mercial undertaking. At present they expended
90 per cent. of the receipts in working expenses,
and the rest was swallowed up. They must look
into the details of that expenditure, put a stop to
unnecessary outlay, and make it a paying concern.
Mr. CONEYBEARE suggested that the loss on the
greenbacks should be first deducted from the gross
receipts, and not from the gross profits. Ile wished
to see in the accounts the profits on greenbacks as
well as the losses. He held some of the Atlantic
and St. Lawrence stock, upon which he. was paid
his dividends in greenbacks, instead of in sterling.
lie wished also to have an account of the losses sus-
tained by the company on the leased lines.
Mr. E. J. HERAPATII said he held £ll,OOO of
preference bonds in the company, and he considered
that their expenditure was exceedingly heavy. He
did not know exactly what the objects of the bill
were, but from what he had heard it should be exa-
mined carefully, as he did not lik.3 any alteration of
existing rights. It was quite a new thing to con-
vert existing priorities into one uniform debenture
stock. Ile hoped the bill would not be proceeded
with, as the time was too short to form au opinion
upon it. He wished to know what had been ex-
pended on steel rails during the past half year, as
there was in the accounts a charge of £625 for
royalty on steel rails.
Mr. NEWMARCII, the auditor, said he held a posi-
tion between the share and bowl holders and the
board. He thought the lattkr would rather be glad
that the present opportunity hail elicited an expres-
sion of opinion as to the bill, and that the directors
would carefully weigh the observations that had
been made. Ile would, so far as he could, report to
the directors the strong feeling of the inecting on
the question they had discussed. He might men-
tion that there was no intention to mix up any por-
tion of the expenditure with the International Rail-
way. The report of Captain Tyler and Mr. Ebo-
rall was being carefully prepared, and he was in-
formed that they had gone very fully into matters,
which had taken more time than was anticipated.
The net loss on the greenbacks was the balance of
the profit and loss upon them. lle could tell them
that the loss from greenbacks and the American
war had greatly retarded the results anticipated
from the operation of the Arrangements Act.
If it had not been for the American war he be-
lieved that five years would have been sufficient