The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-14 00:00:00

RAILWAYS IN AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, Sept. 10.—In various foreign journals it
has been said. that the Vienna-Trieste, Tyrolese,
and other Austrian railroads have become the pro-
perty of the Lombardo-Venetian Company, but the
statement is incorrect. In this country it is 'very
nearly impossible to obtain perfectly authentic in-
formation on matters of finance, but the following
account of what has recently passed between Baron
Bruck and the representatives of the above-men-
tioned company has been obtained from a person
who must necessarily have some little knowledge of
the actual state of affairs.
About six weeks ago Baron Rothschild of Paris,
Messrs. Blount and Talabot of the same city, and
Messrs. Laing and Uzielli, of London, came here as
the representatives of the Lombardo-Venetian Rail-
road Company, and informed the Minister of Fi-
nances that they were willing to take the Vienna-
Trieste Railroad off his hands if the terms offered
were acceptable. The price first asked for the whole
line, which is 370 English miles in length, and cost
the State about 150,000,00011. (X 15,000,000)—was
100,000,00011. (L 10,000,000). Negotiations were
carried on for spine time without any result, but a
few days ago the following terms, which will be
binding should they meet with the approval of the
Board of the Lombardo-Venetian Railroad, were
agreed on. _
The Austrian Government will cede the Vienna-
Trieste Railroad, as also the line from Verona to
Botzen and from Innspruck to Kufstein, which to-
gether have a length of 130 English miles and cost
the State about 80,000,00011., for a sum which, if
paid down at once, would be equivalent to about
£5,700,000. The representatives of the railroad
company, however, think it would be advantageous
to pay interest on a part of the capital, and have
therefore stipulated that the above-mentioned sum
shall be paid in eight annual instalments. The
Austrian Government demands a further eventual
payment of £2,000,000 in four instalments, should
it be found that after the year 1871 the whole
"net" (reseau) of railways pays above seven per
cent. on the whole capital. As a kind of indemni-
fication for the tremendous pecuniary sacrifices made
by the Austrian Government, the company, under-
takes to construct-1. The line over the Brenner
Pass from Innspruck to Botzen. 2. A branch from
the Trieste line to Agram and Sissek,'in Croatia. 3.
A branch from the Trieste line to Klagenfurt and
Villach, in Carinthia.
The first of these three lines, which will cross the
great chain of the Alps, and form a direct commu-
nication between Germany and Italy, has been care-
fully surveyed by M. Talabot and others, and it has
been clearly ascertained that it offers fewer and less
formidable difficulties than did the Semmering.
The length of the line between Botzen and Inns-
pruck is about 80 English miles, and its cost is not
likely to exceed £2,800,000. The second line—from
Steinbruck to Sissek—can hardly fail to pay well, as
Sissek is on the Save, and consequently in con-
nection, by means of that river, with Lower Hun-
gary, the Banat, Bosnia, and Servia. Even now
great quantities of corn, rags, &c., are dragged in
bullock carts across the mountains to Fiume. The
line from Marburg to Klagenfurt and Villach is not
likely to pay so well as the others, but it will doubt-
less bring in full 5 per cent.
It is also probable that the two principal lines of
the Francis Joseph Railroad Company will be
handed over to the Lombardo-Venetian Company,
and that the present shareholders will be paid off
in bonds. The lines alluded to are from Pesth to
Marburg, and from Odenburg to Kanisha. The
former will connect the capital of Hungary with
Trieste, and the latter, which is a part of the great
line between Vienna and Belgrade, runs through
some of the most fruitful districts in the south-west
of Hungary. It is very possible that at no distant
period all heavy goods going from Trieste to Vienna,
and vice versa, will, instead of being sent across the
Semmering, go by the Odenburg-Kanisho.Railroad.
The capital required for the completion of all the
lines mentioned will be about £11,000,000, which
sum must be raised during a period of 10 years,
the time that will be granted for their construction.
The Austrian Government will guarantee 5 2-10
per cent. on the whole capital employed, both in
this and in the Lombardo-Venetian concession, and
the guarantee will apply separately to each of the
new lines. This last is a most important feature, as
it prevents any risk of the high dividends, which will
doubtless be earned on the main line from Vienna to
Trieste and on the Lombardo-Venetian lines, from
being diminished by losses that may possibly be
incurred on the branch lines, which are to be con-
structed exclusively with capital raised on bonds
under the separate guarantee of the State. The
receipts of the Vienna-Trieste Railroad have, since
its entire opening in Nov., 1857, been at the rate of
1,000,000 per annum, and a private company can
hardly fail to make them infinitely larger. The
Lombardo -Venetian railroads have now been in
the hands of an Anglo-French Company rather less
than two years, and the receipts have risen from
£520 to £1,040 per mile; the working expenses,
on the contrary, have been reduced from 85 to 50
per cent.
As you will naturally wish to know how it is
the Austrian Government is willing to part with
the Vienna-Trieste Railroad at less than half its
cost, and to give away 130 miles of railway in the
Tyrol, I will endeavour to give some explanation
on the subject. Reasons, political, financial, and
cminereial induce the Imperial Government to act
as it is now doing. The Emperor is exceedingly
desirous to bring the component parts of his vast
empire into as intimate connection as possible, and
neither he nor his Ministers are blind to the great
political and commercial advantages which must
arise from the speedy completion of the great rail-
way girdle which is to be drawn round Austria.
If the Lombardo-Venetian Company should come
to terms with Baron Bruck, the It'alian and South
Austrian lines will be amalgamated, the strate-
gically important Tyrolese line will be completed,
and Lower Hungary and Croatia will be brought
into direct railway communication with the north-

ern provinces of Austria and with Trieste, her
principal commercial port. The- financial advan-
tages are self-evident. Government will be re-
lieved from further outlay for the railroads in
question, and it will, for the next six or seven
years, receive about £1,000,000 in exchange for
property which, although extremely valuable in
itself, will never be properly productive under
State management.

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COLNSHIRE.

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 14, 1858.

we.shall never get at the real conditions of our
public contracts. The end of the Weedon case,
however, is this :—Some of the contractors are still
contending against aspersions cast upon their mer-
cantile honour; some give imperfect evidence, be-
cause their books are in the Bankruptcy Court ;
Mr. Ramsay, the Assistant-Director of Stores,
being considered to be chargeable only with incom-
petency or neglect, has been removed to an inferior
station ; and Mr. Elliott, the principal Military
Storekeeper, has been arrested in America, whither
he had retired with the produce of extensive
embezzlements.—nmes.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, AND LIN-

The total expenses of this company's railways
(including rents, toll, duty, &c.), from July 1 to
September 5,1858, amounted to £48,488, as against
£49,614 for the corresponding period of 1857. The
proportion of the South Junction receipts accru-
ing to this company from July 1 to September
5 amounted to £3,967, as against £6,803 for the
corresponding period of 1857 ; and the expenses
amounted to £2,602, as against £2,676 for the cor-
responding period of 1857. The total receipts
(including rents, &c.) of this company's canals, from
July 1 to Aug. 31, 1858, amounted to £9,783, as
against £11,413 for the corresponding period of
1857 ; and the expenses (including rates, &c.)
amounted to £6;688, as against £6,463 for the cor-
responding period of 1857.

MIDLAND GREAT WESTERN OF IRELAND.
The directors of this company state in their re-
port that the receipts on the line from Dublin to
Athlone and the Longford and Cavan branches
amounted for passengers and mails to £39,931, and
for goods, cattle, &c., to £33,999, total £73,930, for
the past half-year, against £73,226 at the corre-
sponding period of 1857, showing an increase of
£704. The total income from the railway and canal
amounted to £81,154, and the disbursements to
£53,936, leaving a net profit for the half-year of
£27,218. To this is added £4,628 from the preced-
ing half-year, leaving a disposable sum of £31,846.
From this the directors propose that a dividend at
the rate of 5 per cent. per annum free of income-
tax be paid on the capital of the company, leaving
a balance of £646. The accounts of the extension
railway from Athlone to Galway have, as hereto-
fore, been officially audited, and a small deficit of
£64 has arisen in the operations of the half-year;
but there still remains on the year's working, to
the credit of the baronies, £1,015 on this particu-
lar account. The directors advert to the prospect
of Galway being established as a transatlantic
packet station, and state that the interests of the
railway are argely concerned in the success of a
company placing steamers on this route, and the
directors are accordingly affording every facility,
and, on certain satisfactory contingencies, have pro-
mised pecuniary encouragement to the promoters of
the line of packets now sailing from Galway for
the American continent. The directors observe with
regret that since their last effort to arrange the dif-
ferences so unhappily subsisting between this com-
pany and the Great Southern and Western Rail-
way Company by arbitration, no progress has
been made towards an arrangement, but they
are reluctant to abandon the hope that a
settlement may yet be effected. To promote an
object so desirable they are quite prepared, as they
have formerly proposed, to submit all matters in
dispute to arbitration. Impressed with the import-
ance of having the line to Sligo speedily constructed,
the directors are taking the necessary steps for
having the work commenced without further delay.
The capital account for the half year ending the
30th June last shows that £2,584,486 had been ex-
pended. The revenue account showed that £73,931
had been received on the railway, £7,031 from the
Royal Canal, and £192 for sundries, making £81,154.
The working expenses of the railway amounted to
£27,131, and of the canal to £2,493 ; total, £29,624.
The interest on the canal and other mortgages
amounted to £18,619, the income-tax to £650, the
repairs of a steamer for the Shannon traffic to
£1,279, and the Grand Canal balance to £3,763 ;
together £24,312, which, added to the working ex-
penses, makes the total disbursements £63,396, and
leaves, as above, £27,218. The reserve fund shows a
balance of £28,822 in favour of the company. The
revenue account for the railway from Athlone to
Galway during the half-year ending the 30th June
showed that £14,817 had been received and X 14,881
expended, including interest at the rate of 31 per
cent. on £470,000, leaving a deficiency of £64,
which, deducted from £1,079, the surplus of last
half-year, leaves £1,015 to the credit of the account.