The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-18 00:00:00

GREAT NORTH OP SCOTLAND

A special mE,cting of this company was held on
Thursday at the London Tavern ; Mr. J. Duncan
in the caair.

The CHAIRMAN sa'd the object of the meeting was
to submit a bill now before Parliament for the ap-
proval of shareholders in the company resident
in London, to authorize the creation of a pre-
preference stuck, which would rank after the de-
bentures and before the existing preference shares
and stocks of the Great North of Scotland Com-
pany. He believed that a pre-preference stock,,was
not looked upon with much favour either here or in
Scotland, but there was no alternative that he knew
of to extricate the company from its embarrassments.
The company had got iLto debt to the extent of
£300,000 in respect of loans from bankers, and it
had arisen from the difficulty of raising money under
the Parliamentary powers granted to the company.
Neither the shareholders nor the public would take
up the shares, and to carry on the works they were
bound to execute, the directors were obliged to borrow
the requisite money from the banks. The share-
holders had been made acquainted with this state
Item time to tiine, as the half-yearly statements of
accounts showed the item of loans from bankers.
They had lodged with the bankers collateral secu-
rities and transfers of stocks or shares. The interest
on the loans from the bankers fluctuated with the
current rate of interest, which had been sometimes
very heavy. The directors thought that if they could
create a pre-preference stock at a fixed rate of 41
per cent., it would be far better for the company
than having to pay the fluctuating current rates that
had been so onerous for several months past. The
difference between the latter and the proposed fixed
rate of interest would be an actual advantage to
the preference shareholders, particularly to the 5 per
cent., the A 4/ per cent., and the 84/ per cent.i,:e-
ference holders, as they would receive the benefit of
any saving on the amount of interest now paid to
the bankers. The money had been borrowed for the
construction of works ; they had raised £105,000
for the Denburn junction line on the faith of the
powers in that act, in which there was a clause by
which receivers could be appointed not only on the
Denburn junction line, but also on that of the*Great
North of Scotland line, which would override the
preference shares. When that act was passed they
did not think it would have been so difficult to raise
the capital. They hoped to make the 41 per cent. pre-
preference stock as marketable as the debentures,
because it would rank next to them. By amalgamat-
ing the Banffshire Railway with their undertaking
and taking over their debt of £45,000, the company
would be released from an obligation to subscribe
£75,000 for an authorised extension of that line 12
miles in length. There would be no loss on taking
over the debt of £45,000, as the Banffshire line
earned enough to pay the interest upon it, and the
with the Great
Banffshire ordinary shares would rank
had carried
North of Scotland ordinary shares. They
over that line from Buckie
all the way to London. They
Liverpool this week,
shareholders in Glasgow and
r e e ebnatdl yh2e4l
d 0
meetings oof sohf
and after the explanations ivmeneatshnerme,
as
sthety
n
agreed to it as the best to
the necessity and advantage
l h e
means for relieving the com-
pany from its difficulties. of the the g
The traffic had suffered
from bad weather, and he thought everything was
now clown to zero. If they could pay off the loans
from bankers by means of the proposed measure, it
would give them a fair start, and with better wea-
ther and increased traffic he trusted they would go
on improving. He concluded by moving a formal
resolution to the effect that the meeting, having
heard the explanations of the chairman, recom-
mended that the amount of pre-preference stock be
limited to £330,000, instead of £370,000, as men-
tioned in the bill now before Parliament.
Mr. DAVIDSON had petitioned against the bill, and
thought the bankers should be satisfied with a 4 per
cent. pre-preference stock for the debt, instead of
41 per cent. pre-preference.
On the motion of Mr. WATSON, seconded by Mr.
JAMESON, it was recommended that the £330,000 of
pre-preference stock should bear interest not ex-
ceeding 4 per cent. per annum, as the best means of
relieving the company of its difficulties.
The proceedings concluded with a vote of thanks
to the chairman.

DEATII OF Mg. w. J. FFENNELL. —The death is
announced of Mr. William Joshua Ffennell, her Majesty's
center inspector of fisheries. For a few weeks past he had
been suffering from the effect of the cold weather, which,
at the age of 67, obliged him to take more case of his health
than was his -asual custom. On Saturday morning last he
was seized with a fit of paralysis, from which ho never re-

covered.
THE Fox CLUB.—The second meeting of the
Fox Club took place at Brooks's on Saturday night. There
were present the Earl of Albemarle, Colonel T. C.
ensonß. ChatE-
loner, Viscount Eversley, Augustus K. Step ,sq ,
Frederick Dundas, Esq., M.P., Lord Torpichen, Hon. E.
h.
S. Russell, Hon. Fitzpatrick H. Vernon, Sir William Scott,
Bart., M.P., Sir Henry Ferguson Davie, Bart., M.P., Earl
of ZAland, Lord Car" Sir Elward M. Buller, Bart.
M.P., Earl of Fife, Viscount Sudley, (to.
Mr. SOTHERN, wo understand, will take " Lord
Dundreary" to Paris, to figure among the curiosities of the
French Exhibition.
THE NEW LIBERAL WHIP—GLYN vice BRAND.
Mr. George Grenfell Glyn, M.P. for Shaftesbury, is to
be Whip to the Liberal party. Mr. Adam, who now acts
as assistant in the House of Commons to Mr. Brand, will,
according, to the Examiner, continuo to help Mr. Brand's
successor, should the Liberal party rotura to dace'