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

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON, CHATHAM, AND DOVER,
A meeting of B and C shareholders in the Me-
tropolitan Extensions undertaking of this company
was held yesterday at the London Tavern, for the
purpose of appointing a committee of their own
body to represent them and protect their interests ;
Mr. H. D. WTarter in the chair.
The CHAIRMAN said they had been called to-
gether to consider their position, and to devise means
to.protect their interests. They could not protect
their interests without protecting the interests of
the bondholders, and being of great service to the
holders of A shares. In 1860 an Act was passed
for making the Metropolitan Extensions Railway of
the London, Chatham, and Dover Company, extend-
ing from Beckenham to Farringdon station, and
from Herne-hill to the Victoria station at Pimlico.

The capital authorised consisted of £1,650,000 di-
vided into A and B shares-1825,000 in A shares,

and £825,000 in B shares ; the latter were to have
a preference dividend of 6 per cent. per annum
before the holders of the A capital got anything. The
contractors undertook to pay the interest on the B
shares during construction, and for 12 months after
the opening of the line for traffic, at the end of
which time it was expected the traffic would be suffi-
cient to pay the interest on the borrowed money and
on the B shares. The debenture capital authorised
by the act was £550,000. When the prospectus
was issued he made every inquiry of the secretary
and others as to the nature of the guarantee of the
B shares. He was informed that the capital of the
A shares had been taken up, and would be expended
on the works before the B capital would be touched,
and that the interest on the B shares would be gua-
ranteed by Messrs. Peto, Betts, and Crampton dur-
ing the construction of the line, and for 12 months
after the opening of the line for traffic. He was
thus induced to become a large holder of the B stock.
In 1862 it was proposed to issue the C stock, and a
prospectus was issued stating the progress of the
works; that two-thirds of the line had been com-
pleted ; that the line from Herne-hill to Victoria
had been opened for traffic, and that the line would
shortly be opened to the Elephant and Castle. In
1863 it was proposed to issue £1,500,000 in shares
to make the bridge over the Thames, and to com-
plete the line to Blackfriars. He had been induced
from various representations to take a large stake in
the C shares. He subsequently found that there was
power to raise an additional sum on debentures to
the amount of £533,000, which he opposed because
it would take precedence of the B and C shares. But
he was persuaded to withdraw his opposition on the
ground that the line could not be completed without
the additional capital, especially as Sir M. Peto, on
the part of the contractors, had guaranteed the in-
terest of 6 per cent. on B and C shares until a year
after the opening of all the lines, which was up to
Dec. 31, 1866. He was also a debentureholder
was
iu
those Extension lines. In May last year he
asked by the secretary whether he wouldrenew
them, but he declined to so, and the secretary,
would
2d
reply, informed him that thecompabnuyt
o the be
prepared to pay off the debentures,
of July he received a circular stating that the
company could not pay off the debentures, and that
they had no money available to pay the interest then
due. Instead of the line being extended to Farring-
don station, it was cut off at Earl-street, Black-
friars ; and there were various debts now due,
amounting to £250,000. Instead of realising
£825,000 by the issue of the A shares, there was
only £420,000 realised on them, having been issued
at about 50 per cent. discount. The debentures for
which the holders had paid £lOO lawful money for
every £lOO debenture were only credited to the
company as £75, and the £25 went to somebody
else. This was a matter that required explanation,
and there were other matters which the committee
would have toinquire into and consider. Debentures
were issued at a discount of 25 per cent. to the con-
tractors. He had given £B7 10s. per cent. for his
£30,000 C shares. In 1864 £1,600,000 shares were
created, in respect of which £533,000 in debentures
were issued at a rebate of 5 per cent. This was
what he could not understand—to issue debentures
at a discount tothe contractors of 25 per cent. when
the credit of the company was good, and when it
was not good to issue other debentures at adiseount
a Duly 5 per cent. If the reverse had been the case