The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-27 00:00:00

NEWRY AND ARMAGH.

Tile following is an extract from the report of the direc-
tors to be submitted to the third ordinary general meeting
of shareholders, to be held in the Market- hauee, Armagh,
on Monday next :
" The half-yearly accounts to 30th June, 1858, showing
the receipts and payments OJ old capital, traffic, and exten-
sion accounts during that period are herewith submitted
to the proprietors. On old capital account it will he
seen that the only receipt has been one on account of
the seventh call on old shares, and the payments com-
prise the sum of £4,177 2s. 51 drawn out of the hands
of the Accountant-General in England by the Ulster
Railway Company, on settlement of the long-protracted
suit, Newry v. Ulster, and which has, from thee to
time, been brought forward in successive half-yearly balance
accounts; the sum of £492 13s. 4d., paid to that company
for loss on sale of Consols, purchased many years ago at par.
and the sum of £4O, old solicitor's account. A consider-
able portion of the two latter sums having been paid out of
new capital, the debt due from the old company to the new
has been consequently increased, and the same now amounts
to the sum of £2,196 6s. 3d., as shown by the balance ac-
count. A reduction and assimilation of the company's goods
rates has been made during the past half-year • notwith-
standing which, it will be seen on comparison of the present
half-year's traffic with the correspending six mouths for June,
1856 and 1857, that a considerable increase has taken place in
. .

the tratlic receipts, which increase your directors have no
doubt will go on augmenting, through booking arrange-
ments being now complete over the Monaghan Extension
and Portadown and Dungannon lines. The Banbridge
line is expected to be opened for traffic in a few months ;
and the Dundalk and Enniskillen line is rapidly approaching
completion to Enniskillen ; all of which must necessarily ma-
terially benefit your present line, as also its extension
inland. The following is a comparison of the traffic for
six months ending June, 1858, with the two corresponding
half years :
- - - -

June, 1856. June, 1357. June, 1858.

Passengers, parcels, horses,
carriages, and dogs £476 9 9 £523 13 9 £609 911
Goods and live stock 264 9 G 305 19 1 422 211

£71119 3 £531 11 10 £1,031 12 10
This increase your directors have no doubt will be highly
satisfactory to the proprietors, showing, as it does, the self-
supporting character of the present limited length of line,
the working charges on which must necessarily be heavy,
continued repairs requiring to be made to the rolling stack,
and renewal of sleepers from time to time being made to the
permanent way, in lieu of worn-out and decayed ones; all
of which, and other sums, properly chargeable to traffic,
appear in this half-year's accounts. The present leco-
motives of the company—purchased so far hack as 1854
—being unfortunately of different construction, have,
with the rolling stock, during the past half-year, proved
utterly inadequate, both in power and number, to carry on
the increased and increasing traffic of the company; and
your directors have accordingly been compelled to purchase
a new and powerful engine, which they expect to receive
from the makers in two menthe. They have also, during
the past half-year, purchased and paid for three covered
goods waggons, which likewise proving insufficient to carry
on the goods traffic, three other goods waggons have been
ordered and delivered, as also an additional pair of timber
trucks, which your directors propose to pay for out of
revenue—several small sums, balance of revenue accounts,
having from time to time been added to general revenue
account, from which account such payments will be
taken. Tim attention of the proprietors is especially
directed to the balance of e 9,769135. Bd., which appears to be
standing to the debit of Mr. W. F. Spackman, in the leger of
the company, and was so handed over by his son, the late
secretary, to the present secretary. Your directors have ab-
stained from pressing for calls made on new shares till they
were in a position to announce that they had entered into a
contract for some portion of the line; and they
are happy to
state that, after several tenders had been received, they had
entered into a contract with the well-known contractors,
Messrs. M'Cormick, Greene, and King, for the
construction of the new portions of tee line BS
extends from Loughgilly to Armagh, a distance of about
fourteen miles—for the sum of £77,000, the company
finding rails and sleepers ; and as a proof of the good
opinion entertained of the line by their contractors, Messrs.
M'Corrniek, Greene and King have subscribed for ensi-
derable number of shares,_ without any addition ta c o
the
contract price. The works will consequently be com-
menced immediately, and be proceeded towards cempletien.
It is right the proprietor, however, should distinctly under-
stand that the time within which the line can be made tnus',
of course, be measured by the promptitude with which all
calls are paid up. A very considerable portion of the land
required for the extension line has been purchased and paid
for since the making up of the half-yearly accounts, and may
at once he placed in the hands of the contractors. A fourth
call of D per share, payable on the Ist of October next, has
been made on the new shares. Your directors continue to be
fully satisfied that au immense and remunerative traffic must
necessarily pass over a direct line from Newry to Armagh.
They consider the contract price as an extremely advan-
tageous and moderate one, compared to what it would have
been a few years back ; and offering, as they believe it to
do, to the proprietors,
in conjunction with the well-
known status and responsibility of their contractors, the
fairest possible guarantee of the line being well and eco-
nomically constructed; Old the English directors, besides