The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-01 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

SOUTH-EASTERN.
The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the Bridge-house Hotel, Lon-
don-bridge ; Mr. E. W. Watkin, M.P., in the chair.
Mr. T. A. Chubb, the secretary, having read the
notice convening the meeting, the report, au abstract
of which has appeared in The Sun, was taken as

read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report and statement of accounts, said it would be
his duty to make some observations in elucidation
of and in addition to the half-yearly report. The
last six months was a period of great trouble and
difficulty, and it was not easy to pass through it
successfully. He had endeavoured to give them a
calculation at the August meeting by which each of
them could form an opinion as to the dividend they
would be likely to have at this time. He told them
that it would require an addition of £713 a week to
the traffic to pay the same dividend as compared
with the corresponding period of 1865. He told
them that if the weather should not be favourable,
and if they found the cholera to prevail, they could
not expect the receipts to keep up, and the prospects
of the dividend would be varied to that extent. The
result was that they now recommended a dividend
at the rate of 3 per cent. per annum. Instead of
having an increase in the receipts of £713 a week,
or £20,000 for the half-year, they had had a de-
crease of £lO,OOO and an increase in the expenses of
£16,000, which was comprised under three heads,
£7,000 in rates and taxes, which arise from the dis-
tress prevailing within a distance of 20 or 30 miles
from London, and the very unjust system of rating
companies had increased the amount. The remain-
ing £9,000 arose from extra expenses incurred in
consequence of snowstorms in January, the in-
creased mileage of trains, and the placing of the
working stock in thorough efficient order for the
French Exhibition, which latter absorbed £4,500,
and was not badly employed with a view to en-
able them to do more business. Those causes
had reduced the dividend for the past half-
year, giving them one of 3 per cent. instead of
41 per cent. at the corresponding period. They
had charged £44,000 against revenue for in-
terest on unproductive capital, which was certainly
a full amount. The Cannon-street station was opened
before it was fit to open for general traffic, and the
consequence was that great delay and confusion
arose before it could be brought into proper working
order. During the first month the Cannon-street
station was open 46,000 passengers used it, but in
the month of January last the number was 160,000
passengers. It took some time to develope new sta-
tions and new lines, so that the interest on the capi-
tal expended on theta would be a heavy cLarge on
the revenue for twc or three years after the opening,
and consequently would have the effect of reducing
the dividend during that operation. If the railway
was his own private property, he would not carr::
forward one shilling for interest on unproductive
capital, but would charge the whole of the interest
to revenue. If railway companies would make that
sacrifice in the first instance by charging against re-
venue the whole of the interest on unproductive
capital expended on new lines, there would not be
so many extension lines made, and they would pro-
bably be constructed more economically. But in a
company they had to consider those who had invested
their money for an income, and therefore it would
be very hard for such persons to suffer a diminution
of dividend while the unproductive works were being,
constructed, and until they were brought into pro-
fitable operation. There were shareholders such as
Mr. J. Bibby, of Liverpool, and Mr. J. Stuart, of
Manchester, on the board, who held a very large
amount of stock in the company, and who could
easily wait until the new lines became profitable, but
there was a large number of proprietors who could
not wait for the result, but depended on their divi-
dends for income. One C. 11130 of the falling off of the
traffic receipts was the great commercial depression
which had affected all passenger lines within a circle
of 10 miles of that city. Of course when travelling
people suffered losses the railway companies also suf-
fered in their receipts. The South-Eastern line was
Fre- eminently a passenger line, and was more sensi-
tive in its receipts than goods or mineral lines, serv-
ing as a kind of thermometer to ind:cate the state of
trade in the country. The prevalence of cholera and the
war in Germany had had a considerable effect in
diminishing the company's Continental traffic. The
tourists would go out in the first half and return in
the second half of the year. In the month of January
the tjaffic had suffered from low states of the ther-
mometer, a fact that be had witnessed in North
America—the engines and trains being snowed up
on the line, and all sorts of damage and expense
would arise from the delay. They had bad two
North American winters of ten days each in the
past few months. In January the decrease in pas-
senger traffic was £6,895, instead of an increase of
£2,000 ; then there were heavy additional expenses
in clearing the line of snow, and in working, so that
in one way or another they had lost £20,000 in that
month. The war and the cholera had caused a
falling off, as compared with the corresponding half
of £865, in the number of passengers to the Conti-
nent of 26,669, and in the receipts of £16,000. In
1854, owing to the prevalence of cholera, the re-
ceipts for passengers had fallen off to the extent of
£49,327, which showed how sensitive the passenger
traffic on their line was. Mr. Eborall, their general
manager, had prepared some statements showin,g,
that the London and North-Western Railway Com-
pany, having 1,319 miles open, carried 20,000,000
passengers a year, while the South-Eastern on 330
miles carried 17,000,000 passengers,the Brighton on
300 miles carried 16,700,000, the Great Northern
on 400 miles carried 5,500,000, the Great Eastern
on 700 miles carried 13,400,000 passengers, and the
South-Western on 503 miles carried 10,000,000
passengers. It showed that the South-Eastern had
a much greater number of passengers to satisfy and
accommodate on a given length of line than the
London and North-Western. On Feb. 18 last they
had sent out of their three stations—Charing-cross,
Cannon-street, and London-bridge-31,345 passen-
gers, and about as many calmly ,making ab0ut62,690
to accommodate in one day. Ile suggested that the
Cannon-street station when first opened should only
have the local passengers between the station and
Charing-cross to begin with, and when the station
was finished and the scaffold poles, &c., entirely re-
moved out of the way, they should commence the
traffic to and from places on the main line; but the
public, it appeared, would not be satisfied with that
arrangement, and consequently the confusion of
crowding all the traffic at once ensued. That diffi-
culty had been got over by great exertions, and they
would endeavour to increase and improve the service
to and from those stations. The number of trains
running into Cannon-street every day was 264, and
departing 261, making together 525 trains, of which
2al were running between Cannon-street and Char-
mg-cross. As to the effect of these very convenient
stations on the long traffic, he mentioned that before
the Cannon-street station was opened in the second
half of 1864, the number of passengers to Hastings
from London-bridge was 14,075, but for the corre-
sponding half in 1866 the number was 17,475, show-
ing an increase of 6,000 passengers a year to
Hastings, and there could be no doubt that the
accommodation of those stations would have effect
over the whole of the company's lines. In regard to
the French Exhibition, he thought they might fairly
expect a large accession of traffic over their line.
During the year of the first Great Exhibition in Lon-
don, in 1851, the increase of traffic on their line
amounted to £110,950 ; in 1855, the Paris Exhibi-
tion gave them £126,000; and in 1.862, the year of
the second Exhibition in London, they had £71,000
from that source, but they then had the competition
of the London, Chatham, and Dover Company.
He had no doubt from the efforts made that the
ensuing Exhibition would give them far better
results. In connexion with this matter they had
made arrangements with their allies the Northern
of France Railway Company for carrying on a com-
plete and rapid service between London and Paris
in 101 hours—the ordinary service and the new
tidal service. The South- Eastern Company had
also made traffic arrangements for carrying
passengers to and from Paris with the London
and North-Western, the Great Western, the Great
Northern, the :Manchester and Sheffield, and other

companies extending over 4,000 miles of railway in
England. They also were prepared to make ar-
rangements for the conveyance of parties of 250
each, second and third-class-365. and 245. respec-
tively—by the night service, so that all classes
might be accommodated. He then referred to what

he—considered the unfair and unjust competition
which Parliament had established against their corn-

pany by granting powers to the London, Chatham,
and Dover Company to invade their district. The
South-Eastern had paid for the line in solid sove-

reigns, while Parliament had authorised the corn-
peting line to be made by capital raised in all sorts
of ways, and by that means took away a great deal
of their traffic, and compelled the company to make
most costly stations in self-defence to protect the
remainder of their traffic. The competing line had
already deprived them of a great amount of traffic.
On comparing the traffic of the company in 1862,
before the Chatham and Dover was opened, with
that of 1866, he found that about 40 per cent. of the
whole traffic then existing had been abstracted ; so
that with the ordinary increase of traffic in four
years they had only just arrived at an increase of

£2,630 in 1866 over 1862, and that, too, notwith-

standing the new stations and everything they had
done to protect and develope their property. So
that after four years of great expense and labour they

were enabled to resume the position they were in when
the competition of the Chatham andnover line com-
menced. They had lost about £200,000 a year of
their revenue by that competition, which they now

would have had if Parliament had not sanctioned
that competing scheme. They were in hopes that
their short line to Tunbridge would have been

opened on the Ist of March, but owing to delays
from bad weather he feared it could not be opened

before the Ist of June next, when there could
be a saving in distance of 13 miles to Tunbridge
and Hastisgs, and also to Dover and other
places on their lines. In October last the Brighton
Company opened a line to Tunbridge-wells, and
made a reduction in the fares of 18 per cent. Con-

sidering:the increased cost of labour and materials
in working railways, he remonstrated with the

Brighton Company in competing with them at re-
duced rates ; the latter refused to charge the same
rates, and, after. some consultation, the South-
Eastern Board resolved to maintain the old rates,

as if there was no competition. The result was that
they only lost 227 passengers and £B3, and if they

had reduced the rates to the level of those charged

by the Brighton Company they would have lost a
great deal more. When all those questions were

settled, the object would be to get the greatest
amount of money out of the smallest number of
trains. The company had now to expend about
£85,585 on works to clear up the completion of lines
in progress. They were prosecuting a bill in Par-
liament to define the whole of their powed for rais-
ing money on shares and loans, and also the position
of the various stocks; to enable them to abolish
temporary loans, and to place the whole of their
capital and position on a sound basis. The surplus
property of the company had been estimated, and
was altogether worth £1,070,000, which they could
use for the purposes of the company when the pro-
per time arrived. The capital of the company would
be £19,700,000 when the lines were completed, and
for which they would have 350 miles of railway,
while the capital of the London, Chatham, and
Dover would be £17,000,000, for which they would
have only 100 miles of rail. It was the most expen-
sive railway for its length in the world, and never
could pay on all its stocks. It was proposed that
the South-Eastern and Brighton should work the
traffic of that line, but that would depend on cir-
cumstances. ;_IIe then explained the efforts he had
made to bring about a satisfactory arrangement
with the Brighton Company, so as to avoid compe-
tition in future, and to establish amicable relations
between the two companies, suggesting that the two
companies might be worked on the principle adopted
by the North-Eastern Railway Company, by a
division in certain ascertained proportions of
the joint net receipts, working the two lines as
one united undertaking. Ile then alluded to the un-
founded attack that had been made upon him some
time ago as chairman of the company ; but having,
with some difficulty, traced out the offender, legal
proceedings were being taken against him. He spoke
in high terms of the valuable services of the four
directors who retired by rotation, and he trusted
the meeting would unanimously re-elect them.
Mr. TECLON, in alluding to the proposed agree-
ment with the Brighton Company, warned the
chairman to be particularly careful how he made
a new agreement with that company, contending
that it should be as comprehensive and full as pos-
sible, so as not to admit of a doubt. He grounded
his advice on the experience he had had as a former
director of the South-Eastern Board. One of those
agreements had been violated in two days after it
was made. He had, in fact, very little confidence
in any arrangement with the Brighton Company,
although he would be glad to see a proper and work-
able one established as proposed. Ile believed the
company's new line in Tunbridge would be of great
advantage to the company when open for traffic.
Mr. PUNCHER, after quoting statistics of traffic,
showed that in one half -year when 293,000 more
passengers were carried the receipts were £7,375
less. In another case; where 1,100,000 additional
passengers were carried, the receipts were £B,OOO
less. He hoped they were not going to carry people
at fares to Paris that would not leave a profit.
They should rather increase fares than reduce them
—and in any arrangement with the Brighton should
endeavour to get their share of the Croydon traffic.
Mr. LEVY also hoped the company would not
work at a loss, and he thought it the duty of the
directors of all the railways in England to endeavour
to obtain a modification of Lord Campbell's Act in
reference to compensation for injuries. Ile sug-
gested that if Parliament would not remedy the
existing injustice of its operation they should charge
passengers an additional amount for the purpose of
accumulating a reserve fund to meet these excessive
charges.
The CHAIRMAN agreed with Mr. Levy that it was
the duty of the directors and shareholders of railway
companies to act together on the subject of Lord
Campbell's Act. The directors had no intention to
reduce the fares, but rather to raise them where ne-
cessary to meet the increased charges of working.
He had great confidence that an equitable arrange-
ment between them and the Brighton Company
would have the effect in a few years of greatly bene-
fiting the property of both companies.
Resolutions were passed adopting the report, de-
claring a dividend at the rate of 3 per cent. per an-
num on the consolidated stock of the company, pay-
able on March 15 ; re-electing the retiring directors
Mr. N. Buckly, Mr. J. Bibby, Mr. J. Stuart, and
Mr. J. Whatman, M.P., and also Mr. Child, the
retiring auditor.
The CHAIRMAN gave notice that at thQ next ordi-
nary meeting he would propose the election of an
audit committee on the plan adopted by the London
and Northern Western Company.
On the motion of Mr. DAVIDSON a resolution was
unanimously adopted, expressing the confidence of
the meeting in Mr. Watkin, the chairman of the
company, after the cowardly and unfounded attack
that had been made upon him.
It was agreed to allow the directors their travel-

ing expenses, and a vote of thanks to the chairman
and directors concluded the proceedings.

LONDON, CHATHAM, AND DOVER.
The half-yearly meeting was held yesterday at the
Victoria Station—Lord Harris in the chair.

The report, an abstract of which has appeared iu
The Sun, was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN said the shareholders were aware,
from the report which had been issued, that the
directors had come to the conclusion that it would
be advisable to postpone discussion on the affairs of
the company until a future date, and he should there-
fore propose a resolution adjourning the proceedings
until a future day. The directors had come to this
conclusion after considering the matter very fully, not
only among themselves, but also in conjunction with
the committee of gentlemen who had been intrusted
with the interests of the shareholders in the several
sections of the company, and they had thought
it the most advisable course, seeing that negotia-
tions were still going on, and looking at the many

interests involved. It would require a great deal of
consideration before any terms could be settled, and
before it could be determined what course should be
pursued, so that it would be on all points advisable
to wait, and by the time when it was proposed to
hold the meeting the views of Parliament and the
public would be expressed. The directors had been
in constant communication with the committees of
debenture holders and shareholders of the several
sections of the line, and were at all times ready to
give any explanation which might be required,
and to consult with those gentlemen as to the courses
which might be adopted for the best interests of the
company. He had every reason to believe that the
gentlemen forming those committees were in unison
with the directors on the policy of postponing the
discussion at present. lie proposed that the meet-
ing be adjourned until April 30, at 1 o'clock.

Mr. HARTRIDGE seconded the motion. He said
there were many important questions which were
not matured at the present time, and he thought
the directors had adopted a very wise course in pro-
posing the postponement of the meeting. In a short
time statements would be made in Parliamentary
proceedings which it would be important for the
shareholders to know before they entered upon the
discussion of the important questions before them,
and the postponement would enable them to come
with a full knowledge of the questions to be con-
sidered and accepted by the shareholders.
Mr. TURNER said he had no objection to the mo-
tion, but he desired it to be fully understood that
there should be no settlement of Messrs. Peto and
Betts' accounts without the payment in full of that
firm's liabilities to the company. He held that
Messrs. Peto were answerable to the company for
£1,613,663 on the general undertaking ; £2,075,860
on the Metropolitan Extension ; £250,500 on the
common fund ; £550,000 on the City lines ;
£1,070,000 on the Eastern Extension ; £154,000
on the Victoria Station ; making a total of £5,713,523,
and with the excess of over issued debenture bonds
amounting to £127,378—a total of £5,840,901.
Ile moved a resolution to the effect that there be no
settlement of accounts between Messrs. Peto and
Betts and the company which did not include full
payment of all moneys unpaid in respect of shares
and debentures issued to them.

Mr. WALTERS concurred in the views of Mr. Turner.
Mr. HILLIARD said this subject had engaged the
serious attention for some time of the directors, and
he could state that the Board would take no steps
for any settlement with Messrs. Peto which did not
include the payment of every fraction the Messrs.
Peto were liable for, and the Board did not intend
taking any steps in the matter without the concur-
rence of the shareholders,
Mr. TURNER then gave notice that he would move
his resolution at the next meeting.
The resolution for adjournment was then agreed
to. A short conversation ensued with respect to the
bill of the company before Parliament, and it was
stated that 25 petitions had been sent in against it,
and the proceedings terminatcd.