The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-25 00:00:00

ROYAL MAIL STEAM PACKET.

The half yearly ieneral meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the London Tavern ; Capt.
Mangles in the chair.
The Secretary having read the notice convening
the meeting, the report, an abstract of which we
have already given, was taken as read. The work-
ing account for the year 1866 showed that £210,264
had been received under the Government contract,
£214,782 for freight, and £319,207 for passage
money—total, £744,253. The expenditure, includ-
ing £181,164 for coals, £83,968 for wages, £115,354
for provisions, and £45,000 for insurance of ships,
amounted to £509,079, leaving a surplus of
£235,174. The profit and loss account, after pay-
ment of dividends and deducting £159,203 for de-
terioration of ships and for repair and renewal
account, shove 1 a balance of £60,000 in favour
of the company. The repair and renewal account
showed a balance of £9,715 in favour of the com-
pany. The general reserve fund showed a balance
of £9,940 in favour of the company, and the in-
surance account showed a balance of £228,426 in
favour of the company. The company had on their
list 19 steamships, of which the aggregite tonnage
was 39,241 and the horse-power 9,:'80.
The CHAIRNIAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said, as the accounts had for so ninny half-
years been presented to the shareholders in nearly
the same form, it would be unnecessary for him to
go into them at any length. The general reserve
fund and the repair and renewal account were
founded many years ago on a sound principle, and
the company had derived the full benefit for which
they had been founded. There had been a falling
off in the receipts and a reduction in some items of
expenditure during the past year. In the first three
paragraphs of the report they would find the causes
which had led to the reduction of the receipts as
compared with 1865 ; but the directors considered
that those causes were only of a temporary nature.
The ships had run 13,000 additional miles, there
was the monetary crisis which had restricted the
passenger traffic, and had prevented merchants
sending the usual quantity of goods. The yellow
fever had an injurious effect on passenger traffic to
the West Indies and to the Pacific. Those were
the causes that led in a great measure to the reduc-
tion of receipts, together with the extended opera-
tion of the French mail service to the West Indies.
The fourth paragraph in the report informed the
proprietors of the steps taken by the directors to
reduce the effect of the yellow fever that had become
epidemic at St. Thomas, by keeping the company's
vessels as much as possible out of its influence. He
could bear witness to the great interest the late
President of the Council, the Duke of Buckingham,
had taken in the matter, and the various useful sug-
gestions he had made with a view to mitigate the
effects of that visitation. (Hear.) In carrying out
those plans, and in meeting the difficulties arising
from quarantine laws at the various ports of call,
extra expenses and unavoidable delays had oc-
curred. The mail service was performed under a sys-
tem of premiums for arriving before time and pen-
alties for being behind time ; the balance of those,
however, resulted in giving £3,850 in favour of the
company ; so that, under the disadvantageous cir-
cumstances referred to, he thought they had per-
formed the mail service tolerably well. He was
glad and thankful to say that the sickness bad now
quite left St. Thomas. Two Spanish frigates had
recently stopped there for a fortnight without losing
a man. It was a mistake to suppose that St.
Thomas was unhealthy. The company's ships made
24 round voyages in the year, having 3,300 men on
board their ships ; and he was glad to say that not
a single passenger died on board, the mortality be-
ing confined to the men. In a period of 64 years
23,000 men in their ships called at St. Thomas, out
of which 15 died of fever, and 14 from accidents.
On the whole he believed the figures showed that
St. Thomas was a healthy port. Its geographical
position was favourable for the despatch of mails,
and that port had also been selected by the
French authorities for that purpose. With regard
to the French mail service he was glad to say that
the most friendly feeling;existed between the officers
arid men of the two companies. The French com-
pany had placed tenders, boats, and other accom-
modation at the service of the company, which
showed, as he had stated, that the most friendly
feeling existed between them. In the disbursements
for the past year there had been a reduction of
£16,000 in the cost of coals, which had chiefly arisen
from .the smaller consumption in the new ships.
Two of their large ships, in spite of the increased
speed, had consumed less than the other ships.
rhe cost of some of the proviAons in the latter
half of 1866, as compared with the same half of 1865,
showed as increase of 50 per cent., while other items
showed au increase of 20 per cent. They had also to
provide additional comforts for the poor fellows
while remaining iu quarantine. The surplus on the
working account of the past year was £24,440 less
than in the year 1865. lie trusted that they would
soon have an improvement, and that some additional
traffic would arise to them from the French Exhibi-
tion, particulirly as the yellow fever had disap-
peared. Tile value of the fleet having been increased 11
by the addition of new shit. the sum set aside for
repair and renewals amounted in 1866 to 419,000,

which was £15,000 more than in 1865, and after
paying off a debt of £1,500 remaining due in 1865,
and spending £68,344 in repairs of ships and ma-
chinery, there remained a balance of £9,715 to the
credit of that account, which was in a wholesome
and safe state. He was glad to say that the graving
dock at St. Thomas was nearly brought to comple-
tion, and although it would not prevent the neces-
sity of ships coming home for heavy repairs, it would
be a great boon to the company to have the dock
completed, and to be able to use it when requisite.
With regard to the general reserve fund, he had
told them at the last meeting it was not necersary
to have so large a balance as £24,940. They had
now transferred from it £15,000 to the credit of
profit and loss, leaving a balance of £9,940 to the
credit of that lurid, while the whole cost of the Con-
way and other ships for which it was intended to
provide now stood in the books of the company at
only £8,775. The reduced cost of the Solent was
£11,658, of the Tamar £16,700, and La Plata in
1869 would stand at nil. Their position as ship-
owners would be that, at the end of the present con-
tract, five of their ships would stand at £l4 3s. 4d.
each, which he thought was a very satisfactory posi-
tion, and would compare favourably with that of
any other company. The continued satisfactory con-
dition of the insurance fund reflected credit upon
the captains and officers of the company's service
for having navigated the ships safely. The bonuses
which bad been paid to the proprietors had been
derived from that source. He mentioned this mat-
ter because the Colonial Secretary had called atten-
tion to the large profits the company were making
by the undertaking ; but the profits of work-
ing were assisted from another source—namely, the
insurance business. In the year 1862 the proprietors
derived from the insurance of their own ships
£45,000, or £3 a share; in 1863, £45,000; in 1864,
£45,000 ; in 1865, £67,500, or £4 10s. a share ;
in 1866, £52,500, or £3 103. a share, being an
average of £51,000 a year for the five years, a result
which mainly depended on the company having good
officers in their service. The Board had had a letter
from the Post• office authorities as to the company's
ships calling at Plymouth, and had only charged
£2,000 for the actual expenses so far incurred for
that service, but the directors must be satisfied as
to the safety of performing it, and that proper
moorings be provided at Plymouth for their ships
while there. That service would be commenced
shortly. He concluded by moving the adoption of
the report, and that a dividend be decl.ared of £3
10s. per share, together with a bonus of £1 10s. per
share from the insurance fund, both free of income-
tax, payable on the 27th inst. He was reminded
that the Panama and New Zealand Steam-packet
Company continued to do their work with great
regularity. 'They performed the longest voyage by
steamers from port to port, being from Panama to
New Zealand upwards of 6,000 miles. The per-
formance of that contract within the specified time
was a great credit to the directors of the company
and to the builders of the ships.
The Right Hon. RUSSELL GURNEY, M.P., se-
conded the motion, which, after a few observations,
was carried unanimously.
In reply to questions, it was stated that the cost
of the new ships was about £45 per ton. The profit
to the company by the new route via Panama to
New Zealand and Australia was £7,000, but owing
to the prevalence during part of the time of yellow
fever and cholera, it was no indication of what it
would be under favourable circumstances.

The retiring directors, Mr. H. C. E. Childers, ALP.,
and Mr. J. Greenwood, Q.C., were unanimously
re-elected, and also Mr. H. C. Roberts, the retir-
ing auditor.

On the motion of Alderman DARIN, the proceed-
ings concluded with a vote of thanks to the chair-
man and directors.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Her Majesty's ship the Prince Consort and Royal
Oak have been ordered from Gibraltar to Malta.

The armoured screw frigate. Royal Albert, 18
guns, 4,069 tons, 800-horse power, Capt. Frederick
A. Herbert, flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir George
Rodney Mundy, K.C.8., left Spithead yesterday
morning under steam for Ilalifax, to relieve the
unarmoured screw line of battle ship Duncan, Capt.
Robert Dixon, flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir James
Hope, K.C.B.

The account given yesterday in the columns of a
contemporary of a supposed trial of her Majesty's
ship Minotaur, in Stokes Bay, near Portsmouth, o❑
Tuesday, is incorrect. The trial of the ship over
the measured mile was simply postponed owing to
the strength of the wind, as stated in The Sun of
yesterday, and was not owing to any imperfection
in the working of her machinery. No engines that
have ever been supplied to the Admiralty at any
time worked more perfectly on their trial than did
those of the Minotaur on Tuesday, or at any time
when they have been under steam, and, above all,
one of the condensers did not give out.
Yesterday the first of the large 5-inch rolled
armour plates, nearly 30ft. in length, manufactured
in one slab at the Atlas Iron and Steel Works by
Messrs. John Brown and Co., Sheffield, for the
" conning" tower for the iron armour-plated frigate
Hercules, 12, 1,200 horse-power, building at
Chatham dockyard, was removed to the factory
in the yard, where it will undergo the planing,
slotting, and boring processes, in readiness for
being bolted to the tower. Unlike the recon-
noitring tower erected in the Bellerophon, which
was placed above the after armour-plated bulkhead,
and close to the engine-room main hatchway, the
obviously faulty situation of which was pointed out
in The Sun when the tower was in course of erection
in that vessel, the "conning" tower in the Hercules
is placed in the forward portion of the ship, resting
on the forward armoured bulkhead, of which it is, in
fact, a prolongation. The situation selected for the
look-out tower is without doubt the best which could
be chosen, the view forward being uninterrupted by
mast, rigging, and other gear, while from the com-
manding position the tower occupies the officer in
charge will obtain a clear and uninterrupted view
over and beyond every part of the ship, his orders
to the engineers and the quartermaster at the wheel
being communicated by telegraph. The greatest
gain, however, in the removal of the tower to its
present position is in its being away from the ship's
machinery. On board the Bellerophon the disad-
vantage of this proximity is provided against by
fitting the engine hatchways with strong iron grat-
ings to prevent shot and shell striking against the
tower and falling among the machinery. Already
rather more than one-half of the armour-plates which
will protect the Hercules have been bolted to her
sides, the plates already fixed fore and aft along her
broadside battery consisting of one tier of plates 9
inches in thickness at her water-line, and three tiers
each of 6 inches in thickness. To-day the first of
the tier of 8-inch plates, intended to protect the guns
along the central battery, will be fitted in place, and
these will be followed by courses of 6-ir.ch plates to
the fighting deck, the entire broadside being thus
composed of plates of nine, eight, and six inches in
thickness laid on the usual 12-inch teak backing,
with a double " skin" of inch and a half plating
rivetted against the ordinary iron framing. Along
the forward bow battery the plats will be worked
to a thickness of five inches, while at the stern
beneath the ship's counter and in the other less ex-
posed portions of the frigate a thickness of armour-
plating of four inches, with the teak backing corre-
spondingly reduced, will be found sufficient.
lip to the present time about one-half of the En-
field pattern rifles, stored in the ar►roury at
Chatham, have been deTatched to the Tower, for
the purpose of undergoing conversion to breech-
loaders on the Snider principle. About 30,000 stand
of arms of military service still remain in store
awaiting conversion, the authorities at the War
Department having decided that no distribution of
the new breech-loaders shall be made until there
are a sufficient number converted for the whole of
the troops to be furnished with them.

The Government having decided on despatching
the whole of the cavalry and infantry reinforce-
ments to India in the new screw steam transports
building for the hon. Council of India, the embar-
kations this summer will not take place until con-
siderably later in the season, the detachments not
leaving this country until AuguA or Sep hex: