The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-14 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held at Manchester yesterday. Mr. G. Wilson,
the deputy chairman, presided.
The report, an abstract of which has appeared in
The Sun, was taken as read.

The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, reviewed the results of the half-year's work-
ing in this and the other great companies by which
it was surrounded, showing that the Lancashire and
Yorkshire did not suffer by the comparison, not-
withstanding the increase of working expenses. The
development of the company's traffic was justifying
the opinion which was entertained, during the cot-
ton famine that on the revival of trade in the manu-
facturing districts this undertaking would for the
moment exceed all other lines in the rapidity of
its progress. Trade had not yet recovered so far as
might reasonably have been expected, nor could it
do so while the price of cotton remained as at pre-
sent. Still the increase must satisfy the shareholders
that the money they had from time to time appro-
priated for augmenting the rolling stock and im-
proving the stations was not laid out a year too soon
for the enlarging requirements of the traffic. The
number of passengers carried during the half-year
by this company was 11,268,877, an increase of
471,391 over the corresponding half of last year.
The distance it had carried them remained pretty
much as before, being rather more than 9.6 miles
per passenger, and the money received had averaged
9.11 d. per passenger as against 9.14 d. The passen-
ger traffic of this company was still omnibus traffic,
and it was fair to infer that the introduction of any
new lines in their district would never affect foun-
dations of a traffic so limited in the distance tra-
velled. According to the Board of Trade returns
for 1865, the last to which he could refer, there was
this contrast in the numbers and receipts of passen-
gers between this and other companies :—Sheffield
Company, 23,877 passengers per mile of line, and
10id. per passenger; London and North Western,
18,610 passengers per mile, and is. 111 d. per pas-
senger ; Midland, 15,970 passengers, at ls. sd. ;
Great Northern, 15,370, at 2s. ll d ; North-Eastern,
10,770, at ls. 414; while the Lancashire and York-
shire carried 51,386 passengers per mile,aud received
only 91d. per passenger. The loss,: on the Pres-
ton and Wyre was now happily being reduced to
the vanishing point. While the price of labour, ma-
terials, and fuel continued to rule high there was no
prospect of much reduction in working expenses of
railways. Nevertheless, the gross increase of traffic
to this company for the half-year had been £97,551,
while the expenditure for this increased earnieg had
been £42,817, or rather less than 44 per cent. Since
1860 the passenger traffic had increased 40 percent.,
the goods traffic 28 per cent., and the coal traffic 83
per cent. In that year he ventured to express the
opinion that this company could not retain its hold
on the district without an outlay of capital of some-
thing like £500,000 per annum on an average. He
adhered to that opinion, and, as a matter of fact, if
to the capital expended in the last six years, or for
which powers were possessed,were added the£933, 000
for which powers were to be sought in the present
session, then in 1870, when the last of this money
would probably have been expended, the total in-
crease of capital in ten years would be £5,597,000,
or a little over £550,000 a year.

Mr. S. J. ROBERTS (Chester) said he could not
find any fault with the condition of the company's
affairs, and wi shed to bestow credit upon the offi-
cials as well as directors of the company for their
careful attention to the details of management.

The report was unanimously adopted, and reso-
lutions were passed, including the declaration of a
dividend on the originai stock at the rate of 64 per
cent. per annum. The directors were authorised to
expend not exceeding £200,000 on capital account
for general purposes of the company during the
half-y ear. _ _ _

The meeting was then made special, and the direc-
tors were authorised to consolidate the shares created
under the company's Extension of Time, &c., Act,
1866, into ordinary stock, and also to exercise the
borrowing powers contained in the act.
The proceedings concluded with a vote of thanks
to the chairman and directors.

NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the London Tavern ; Colonel
Pearson in the chair.

The report, an abstract of which has appeared in
The Sun, was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN', in moving the adoption of the
report, said it contained the substance of all the di-
rectors had to communicate respecting the affairs of
the past half-year. The accounts were as clear as
could be, and he was only sorry that the result of
the working did not give them a better dividend—
but when he saw the result of other companies' ope-
rations for the past year he thought, under the cir-
cumstances, they ought to be satisfied It might
be interesting to mention the progress they had made
in dividends from 1818 to 1865, taking the average
dividend in periods of three years each. The first
ended in 1850, and the average dividend was £1

14s. 100. per cent. ; the second ended in 1853, and
averaged £2 2s. 61. per cent. ; the third ended in
1856, and averaged £2 123. per cent. ; the fourth
ended in 1859, and averaged £3 10s. per cent. ; the
fifth ended in 1862, and averaged £3 10s. percent. ;
and the sixth ended in 1865, and averaged £4 per
cent. per annum for the three years. During the
last three years they had a very great increase in
the tonnage of minerals and a very small increase of
revenue. They had an increase in the number of
passengers, but a diminution in the receipts per pas-
senger. The increase in the number of passengers
arose from running a number of short trains to
accommodate the local traffic, and, although the
receipts per passenger were less, the total receipts
were £6,000 more. From the figures given in the
report they would see the utter fallacy of calculat-
ing working expenses by the amount of revenue re-
ceived,
.„.There was £5,260 charge 1 to revenue for