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

WAR 1N PARAGUAY.

To day's mail, per Douro, has brought us the
Paraguayan account of the famous battle of Curu-
paity, and which we subjoin in abbreviation :
" The fight raged with fury for nine hours, dur-
ing which the allied loss was enormous ; at length
victory decided in our favour, and our scat.;
tered enemies retreated in confusion, whilst
our heroes rent the air with their vic-
torious shouts. 1 do not now pretend, in fact it
would be impossible, to give you here the full de-
tails of a day that must ever be regarded by uur
country as the one on which was achieved the most
glorious victory of our arms.
The little fortress of Curupaity, which must now
be ever memorable, is well defended by nature
and art.

From personal observation, and the accounts of
prisoners, the assailing force consisted of twelve
battalions of Argentine and twelve of Brazalian in-
fantry, a proportionate cavalry force, and a small
park of artillery, which they bad conveniently
planted behind a hastily formed breastwork of sand
bags. To divert our attention from the real point
of attack, a small cavalry and infantry force opened
the day by an assault on the extreme left of our
position, while at the same time the battery on the
island of Curapi in Lake Pirus opened fire ; our
batteries replied to all this, and with such vigour
that at times our whole line appeared as in a
blaze.

As soon as the ironclads engaged our batteries the
Brazilian and Argentine Generals harangued their
men, saying that the road was now open, and they
had only to march up and take the trenches. The
columns of infantry rushed forward to assault our
right and centre, protected by a fire from their bat-
teries. The vigorous and galling fire of our artillery
had a terrible effect on them. The Argentines ad-
vanced on the centre, and the Brazilians on the right,
seeking protection from the fleet. The first at-
tacking columns were completely shattered ; a se-
cond and third time the enemy pushed up obsti-
nately to our lines, whence a shower of shot and
shell poured destruction among their ranks ; the
slaughter of their officers and men at the verge of
the fosse was something horrible. They had faggots
of wood, scaling-ladders, &c., but their ranks were
converted into piles of wood before they
had time to use these appliances ; five men
contrived to get into the fosse. On the right the
Brazilians held out longer, under cover of the fleet
and a close thicket, but our howitzers had so awful
an effect that whole battalions remained dead on
the field, the piles of corpses obstructing the only
practicable passage. They tried every means to
outflank our batteries, some advancing under the
barranca on the river, hut we had a trusty force
there to give good account of them.
At 4 p.m: the enemy were repulsed at all points,
and of the attacking columns nothing remained but

a few hundred stragglers dragging some of their

wounded after them : in fact the forces of Mitre
and Port Alegre were annihilated. The ironclads
seeing the disaster on land hastened to get out of
range of our batteries.

It will hardly be believed that we have barely
50 men hors de combat, thanks to our advantage-
ous position and the visible protection of Divine

Providence.

The battle of Curupaity is, beyond question, the
most brilliant that has yet crowned our victorious
arms. Never before did the Triple Alliance
sustain such an overthrow, and the loss of the
allies is wholly irreparable. Our reverse at Curuzu
has been amply revenged, and the victory of Sept.
22d has surpassed all our anticipations in the
magnitude and splendour of its results. Curupaity
will form the brightest page in our annals, and
its very name will inspire terror and confusion
among our invaders. We tried to avoid such

bloodshed, but Mitre and his allies in their insane
idea of conquering Paraguay have poured out the
blood of thousands of their men, and all to no pur-

pose. Heaven chastises their pride and confounds

their wicked councils.
With us the time for peace is past. Officers and
men are justly irritated at the conduct of the in-

vaders, and can now only be satisfied by their utter

extermination.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE,

EAST INDIAN.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the London Tavern ; Mr. R.
W. Crawfurd, M.P., in the chair.
Mr. Noad, the managing director, having read the
notice convening the meeting, the report, an ab-
stract of which has appeared in The Sun, was taken
as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said the directors met them on that occasion
under circumstances which justified them in congra-
tulating the shareholders on the prosperous condi-
tion of the company's affairs. They bad been con-
gratulated in the report that the last of their great
bridges over the Jumna had been completed, and
also that the main line in accordance with the con-
tract had been finished, so that a passenger in Cal-
cutta could cross the river to their present terminus
at llowrah, and by one of their trains proceed direct
to Delhi, in the same carriage, the whole distance.
They would see by the Statement of accounts after
paying all claimsforintereston capital to 30th June
last there remained surplus profits of £50,000 above
the usual dividend. A similar sum of surplus profits
also belonged to the Government in return for inte-
rest paid to the company during construction. He
cculd not say what the profit would be during the
current half-year, but he thought their profits would
increase in succeeding half-years. The number of
passengers carried in the past half-year was less than
that for the corresponding half of last year. He did
not know the !cause, but supposed they travelled
longer distances ; the goods traffic had shown a
small increase of 10,000 on 391,000 tons carried in
the corresponding half-year. The gross receipts for
passengers and goods during the past half-year
showed an increase of £245,866, of which £152,131
was net receipts, from which they had deducted
£9,166 to provide for a bad debt. He attributed
the large increase in the company's receipts to the
completion and opening of the great bridge over
the Jumna at Allahabad. (Hear.) This was a sa-
tisfactory result, as it showed they were doing a
larger business between the upper provinces and Cal-
cutta owing to the improved facilities afforded by
the completion of the bridge in the conveyance of
produce to a port of shipment, and also indicated the
future stability of traffic on the railway. The per-
manent way and works had been efficiently main-
tained at a cost of 81d. per train mile, as against
10fd. for the corresponding half of last year. The
whole of the working charges had been carefully
checked, and the result was they did not exceed 411
per cent. of the gross traffic receipts, leaving 581 per
cent. as profit on the working. He had compared
the items of their working expenses with those given
in the Board of Trade return for 1865 of all the
railways in England, which amounted to 48 per
cent. of the receipts. He had made a comparison of
the working expenses on seven principal railways
having their termini in the metropolis, by which he
found that the East Indian line was worked 10 per
cent. cheaper. It was true the latter company was
not exposed to competition ; it was also free from
the items of rates and taxes, Government duty, and
parliamentary expenses, which amounted to 4.88 per
cent.; happily they had no charge of that kind.
They had written off £9,166 on account of a bad
debt, and they had some- slight loss from steam fer-
ries. They had also a charge for the Audit Depart-
ment in Calcutta, which exercised a most efficient
control and check on the expenditure. This depart-
ment more than amply repaid them the cost of it by
the services it rendered to the company. When he
met the proprietors in June last he ventured to
speak with confidence that the surplus profit would
be about £50,000 ; that statement went abroad, and
the result proved it was correct. Their excellent
friends the Great Indian Peninsular Railway Com-
pany announced at their general meeting in October
last that they were the first of the railway compa-
nies in India to divide surplus profits over the 5 per
cent. guarantee, but they would see that this com-
pany had also surplus profits to divide for the same
half-year. The sum set aside to meet a bad debt
had been necessitated from giving credit to a transit
association company for au amount beyond the sup-
posed value of the security deposited with the rail-
way company, and until that was realised they
could not tell the actual amount of the bad debt. He
then referred to the Nulhattee line belonging to the
Indian Branch Railway Company. It was on a
different gauge to the East Indian Railway, and
would require to be reconstructed before they could
work it with their engines and carriages. A great
outcry in India had been made last year that the
East Indian Railway Company had not sufficient
rolling stock to work the traffic, but on examina-
tion, and on a comparison with other lines, it was
found to be amply provided with locomotive and
carrying stock. Had the additional rolling stock
been provided that some persons asserted was ne-
cessary to work the line, it would have cost £750,000,
and the interest upon it would have absorbed the
whole of the surplus profit. It was the duty of the
directors to keep a check on the expenditure of capi-
tal, and they had done so. They had made arrange-
ments for the gradual supply of 225 additional loco-
motives on reasonable terms, and they had already
sent out 24 of them. There had been difficulties in
diverting the traffic from the ordinary routes and in
making arrangements for its conveyance by the rail-
way, but those difficulties had been got over to a
great extent, so that he hoped there would be no
complaints under that head in future. Their engi-
neer-in-chief for the Bengal division, Mr. Power,
had called attention to the necessity of a bridge
over the Hooghly at Calcutta to the company's ter-
minus at Howrah ; his views on that matter were
given in his report to the directors, and should be
read and carefully weighed by the shareholders.
About the end of June last two of the company's
bridges had been carried away by floods, and were
being replaced by bridges having a wider water way,
so as toprovide against such contingencies in future.
The railway itself was a very great work ; it passed
through densely-populated districts, had a great
traffic, was worked economically, and was, in fact,
in a position that 99 companies in 100 might envy.
In the course of time he believed the company would
have very considerable dividends. They would be
allowed in future to charge as much as other compa-
nies for the conveyance of materials over the railway,
and also be allowed interest at 5 per cent. per annum
on their monthly balances in the Treasury of Bengal.
(Hear, hear.) Allowing 42 per cent. for working
expenses, these balances would amount to about
£120,000 a month, which would be a consideration,
and add to their revenues. Against which there
would be the interest on the increasing amount of
capital expenditure. He then adverted to the re-
moval of the offices to Nicholas-lane, the present
offices in Alderman's-walk being required for a new
railway. The death of their lamented colleague,
Capt. Nairne, who had never been absent from the
Board meetings of the company for upwards of 20
years, had caused a vacancy at the Board, which
they had filled by the election of Mr. Noad as ma-
naging director, in acknowledgment of his valuable
services to the company during 22 years. (Hear.)
Mr. J. BEAUMONT seconded the motion for the
adoption of the report.

Mr. WILSON hoped the directors would give up all
idea of making the bridge across the Ilooghly, which,
he said, would cost between £4,000,000 and
£5,000,000.

Mr. FRANKLIN trusted the directors would not
commit the company to any new undertaking with-
out first obtaining the consent of the shareholders.
Ile thought that a smaller bridgeabout 30 miles above
Calcutta would answer all the purposes of the large
bridge, and enable the company to bring their traffic
into Calcutta over the Eastern Bengal Railway, in
which he was interested.

The CHAIR 1,1. N said the directors did not intend to
undertake new works without the sanction of the
shareholders, and never did so. The terms of any
proposed undertaking would be submitted for ap-
proval, and would have a separate capital. He
thought it would not be wise to transfer to another
company 30 miles of their traffic into Calcutta.
Mr. GODFREY said he could understand why
shareholders in the Eastern Bengal Rail way should
oppose the bridge at Calcutta, and recommend one
30 miles from Calcutta, so as to tap the passen-
ger and goods traffic of the East Indian Railway at
that point and bring it over their line. They

had better use their own line. The bridge at Cal-
cutta would cost £1,500,000, and he believed that
would save a large outlay at Howrah if it was
completed in the first instance, which would enable
them to construct a much better terminal station in
Calcutta than at Howrah.

The report was unanimously adopted. The direc-
tors were authorised to pay, in addition to the gua-
ranteed interest on the capital and company's shares
out of surplus profits for the half-year ending the
30th of June, :1866, a dividend at the rate of 10s.
per cent. per annum, free of income tax.

On the motion of the CHAIRMAN, seconded by
Mr. NOAD, the directors were authorised to convert
all fully paid-up shares into consolidated stock of
the company.

Mr. ADAms moved a resolution approving the
election of Mr. Noad to a seat at the Board, and
suggesting that £5,000 be presented to him in
acknowledgment of his services. (No, no.)
The CHAIRMAN explained that there was a fund
of £42,000 at the disposal of the shareholders quite
independent of the Government guarantee.
On the suggestion of Mr. FRANKLIN, Mr. Adams
withdrew his motion, substituting one, which was
carried, to the effect that the meeting cordially con-
curred with the directors in the appointment of Mr.
Noad as managing director, and with a view to
express their appreciation of his valuable services
requested the directors to present him with a suit-
able sum for that purpose out of the funds of the
company.

Mr. NOAD, having returned thanks for the hand-
some manner in which he had been elected to the
Board, said he valued it more than any money they
might vote to him. They were indebted to the great
exertions of Sir M. Stephenson, to Mr. Chas. Fresh-
field, Mr. Chapman, Mr. Nicholson, and Mr. Frank-
lin, who had all ably assisted him in bringing about
the formation of the present great undertaking.
Mr. GODFREY moved a resolution to the effect
that the directors be authorised to pay the arrears
of annuity due to Sir M. Stephenson out of the fund
of £42,000 at the disposal of the company. He be-
lieved the arrears amounted to about £14,000.
The motion having been seconded,
Sir M. STEPHENSON briefly explained the circum-
stances of the original grant of the annuity of 1853,
and the advances subsequently authorized by the
proprietors to be paid out of the reserve fund, and
stated, with reference to the course now proposed,
that it would be the more acceptable to him because
it would in no way affect the guaranteed interest,
or the amount of surplus profits divisible among the
shareholders.

The resolution was then carried unanimously.
On the motion of Jr. WILSON, a vote of thanks
to the chairman and directors concluded the pro-
ceedings.