The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-15 00:00:00

LONDON AND SOUTH-WESTERN.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
yesterday at Waterloo Station—Captain Mangles
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 the directors regretted as deeply as the
shareholders the decreased dividend (at the rate of
4i per cent. per annum) recommended in the re-
port. At the same time they could point to the
causes of that decreased dividend, which as honest
men the directors had felt it their duty to recom-
mend, and these were causes, temporary he was glad
to say, which had operated to lower the dividends of
many companies. The first cause was the miserable
state of the weather in last autumn, 28 out of the
30 days of September being wet, which lowered the
passenger traffic on this, a tourist line, at that sea-
son. The cholera, too, at Southampton prevented
holiday makers travelling to that place, and these
matters, added to the commercial crisis of the year,
had operated to stop people from enjoying them-
selves, and so had lowered the company's receipts.
Then the cattle plague had affected the company
very prejudicially, as the company, before the Order
in Council which made it imperative that all cattle
for the Channel Islands should be slaughtered, was
doing a very profitable trade in cattle, which trade
had been stopped for a time by that order. Another
cause for the lowering of the dividend was the fact
that the company had several new lines in work
which bad not yet had time to develope. The inte-
terest of the unproductive capital in these undeve-
loped lines, amounting to £26,000, had been charged
to revenue, and not to capital. With respect to the
capital account, which was regarded generally with
great misgivings by shareholders, payments had been
made for good stations at sine Elms, £20,000;
Chertsey Extension, £5,000 ; Portsmouth station,
£7,500, and other expenses, leaving only £42,000 as
additional capital. Then steel rails had been laid, and
the difference between the cost of steel and iron had
been charged to capital. With regard to debenture
interest, the average rate was 4•26 against 4.28 of
last year, and this proved that the company was
regarded as solvent by the public. The directors
had nothing to conceal, and had given a very full
report, and this, doubtless, accounted for the public
confidence. The books were at all times open to
the shareholders. (Cheers.) He then referred to
extensions. He said that companies were not always
to blame for the extension mania, but Parliament
was at times to blame for encouraging competing
lines, and so driving established companies to make
other lines to present their trade from being carried
from them. He, however, looked forward to times
of peace, and as peace brought plenty, there was
hope for increased prosperity in times to come.
(Cheers.) He was happy to inform the proprietors
that the company's books had been inspected by Mr.
Russell Gurney, who had certified that the company
had not overdrawn its borrowing powers one shil-
ling. (Loud cheers.) The company was perfectly
solvent, and well able to pay its way, and this was
proved by the fact that the gross receipts for the last
half year amounted to upwards of £400,000, and
that the interest on the debenture debt amounted
only to £94,000. It would be satisfactory to the
shareholders to be informed there would not be the
slightest difficulty in the company renewing its de-
bentures as they fell due. lie then described with
the aid of a large map the bills the company in-
tended to oppose or promote ' • among the former was
one between Ilfracombe and Barnstaple, and men-
tioned those which the company would work. He
looked forward, he said, to great advantages for the
company from au alliance called the " quadruple
alliance," between this'company and the Bristol and
Exeter, the Great Western, and South Devon, and
he asked the proprietors to sanction what the direc-
' tors had done, and to give them full discretiOnary
power for completing the negotiations entered into.
Mr. IlurrcuENs seconded the adoi tion of the re-
port.

Nr. &Lis, of Exeter, expressed his hearty con-

currence in the alliance spoken of, and hoped it
would be completed.
Mr. It. LOPEZ acknowledged that his view had
been greatly changed since hearing the chairman's
speech, inasmuch as when he came into the meeting
he thought that there must be something wrong
when their shares, which once stood at 114, were
down to 84. lle hoped much from the quadruple
alliance, but he asked if the directors would not do
well to revise the tariff of charges for passengers
and goods in order to raise the fares, so as to increase
the dividend. (Cries of " No.") He concluded by
moving a resolution to this effect.

Mr. PAGAN hoped no such motion would be sup-
ported by the meeting.

Sir C. IlAwLiNsoN contended that there was more
likelihood in the dividend being increased by a les-
sening of the fares than by increasing them. He
thought that the South-Western was the dearest
line out of London, with the exception of the Great
Eastern, for 70 or 80 mile distances. Those lines
which charged the lowest fares paid the best divi-
dends. Ile urged that return tickets should be issued
to third-class passengers. He said the rdasons as-
signed by the chairman for the diminished dividend
were not borne out by the figures in the report.
Mr. LANCASHIRE also advocated lower fares, and
other remarks were made to the same effect by pro-
prietors.

Mr. SCOTT, the traffic manager, said that where
facilities were given for travelling third-class the
traffic increased, but the receipts fell off, and that
in some parts the farmers and clergymen even tra-
velled by third-class, so that it was unadvisable
generally to give return third-class tickets. He al-
lowed that the fares for the 70 and 80 mile journeys
were high.

The report and dividend were then adopted una-
nimously. The retiring directors, Viscount Bury,
Count Eyre, and Lieut.-Col. Luard were re-elected,
as was Mr. Ashmore, the retiring auditor. Resolu-
tions empowering the directors to conduct certain
Parliamentary business, and to raise the money au-
thorised to be borrowed by various powers, were
passed. The proceedings terminated with a vote of
thanks to the chairman and directors.