The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-18 00:00:00

ESK VALLEY.

This line of railway, three miles in length, leading
to the lower paper mills in the valley of the North
Lk, Midlothian, and giving improved access to
Roslin and Hawthornden, was opened to the public
on Monday. Its cost somewhat exceeded £27,000,
on which the North British were to pay 5 per cent.,
and also the interest on the loan capital of £9,000.

GRAND TRUNK OF CANADA.
Mr. Brydges, the managing director resident in
Canada, states, in his special report to the board, that
the receipts both for passengers and goods on the
company's lines had been very much less than they
would have been if the company had sufficient roll-

ing stock ; and they had daily been compelled from
the same cause to refuse large quantities of goods
traffic offered to them by the American lines
terminating at Detroit, and by steamers to Sarnia.
This through traffic, if they could have carried it,
would have yielded large returns. In the year
1861 the earnings of the present mileage of the
Grand Trunk, including the Champlain and
Buffalo lines, amounted to £920,579, or £17,700
per week, while in 1866 the earnings amounted to
£1,356,795, or £26,092 per week, showing an in-
crease of £436,216, or £8,392 per week, being 471
per cent. In the year 1861 the working expenses,
exclusive of renewals, amounted to £728,085, or 79
per cent., and the expenses in 1866, also irrespective
of renewals, amounted to £817,027, or 60 per cent.,
being an increase of only £88,942. The profit in
1861 amounted to 1192,494, and in 1866 to
£539,768, showing an increase of £347,274. The
amount charged for new rolling stock since the Ist
of January, 1862, was £203,969. That outlay,
with plant belonging to the Buffalo and Champlain
lines, aided to produce an additional gross revenue
of £436,116 per annum, and an increase of net

profit after deducting ordinary working expenses, o
£347,274, as above stated. Ile had no hesitation
in recording his conviction that £200,000 worth of
additional rolling stock provided in the course of
two years would, within a reasonable time, raise
the company's weekly receipts to an average of
£32,000 a week, or £6,000 a week as against a rise
of upwards of £B,OOO a week in the past rive years.
This would produce an annual income of £1,664,000,
and, taking the ordinary expenses at 55 per cent.,
would yield a profit of £748,800. As to the ques-
tion of currency, they had lost since the commence-
ment of the American war £290,384, the amount
for last year being £76,092, or nearly enough to
pay the full year's interest on the second and third
preferences. The charge to revenue for renewals
in the past three years had averaged £141,200 per
annum, and he considered that they would require
an outlay annually for the next three years of
£123,000, assuming the prices of labour and material
in the United States to continue at their present
rate. It was clear to him that the time had come
for making the necessary preparation for accommo-
dating the traffic to be brought by the intended
intercolonial railway from Halifax to the Grand
Trunk line, and especially upon the 300 miles of the
Grand Trunk Riilway between Montreal and the
Reviere du Loup: In regard to the question of
rails best adapted for the: severe climate he was of
opinion that it would be true economy to relay the
line in future with steel rails, which experience had
proved in England and America would last six or
seven times as long as the best iron rails. The diffe-
rence of cost in renewals with steel rails, instead of
iron rails, to be charged to capital.
The trail; receipts on the company's lines for the
week ending the 30th of March amounted for pae.