The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-05 00:00:00

ANGLO-AMERICAN TELEGRAPH.

Yesterday the first general meeting of this com-
pany was held at the London Tavern ; Mr. Charles
E. Stewart 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 that the directors met the shareholders
with unalloyed satisfaction. When the company
started it had three objects to attain. It had to lay
the 1866 cable, to recover the 1865 cable, and to
earn a dividend of 25 per cent. upon the sub-
scribed capital of the company. The three results
had been obtained. (Cheers.) The £600,000
capital of the company had been paid up and
expended in fulfilment of the company's obliga-
tions, and as the premiums paid for shares had been
sufficient to pay the expenses incurred up to the
time the cabh3 was laid, there were no charges upon
the company prior to the date when the cable came
into working. As the earnings of the company had
exceeded the 25 per cent., the directors proposed to
pay £1 per share, or 10 per cent., and leave the
balance for the annual meeting in July. Ile bore
testimony to the excellent manner in which the
works of the company were carried out by the Tele-
graph Construction and iklaintenance Company, and
said it was perfectly needless for him to say any-
thing upon the merits of the able men who had
carried out the task of laying the cable, but he hoped
the meeting would give their cordial thanks. With
respect to the capabilities of the cable, he said that
if any contrivance could be invented by which
messages could be transmitted and read off quicker
than by human power, then the capabilities of the
cable could be tested. Haying referred to the in-

conveniences arising from the occasional breaking
down of the land lines from Newfoundland, he said
the directors had been in communication with the
company's copartners on the other side, and a tele-
gram he had received that morning informed him
that Mr. Cyrus Field had sailed for this country with
full powers from the directors there to make arrange-
ments, so that telegraphic communication might be
kept up in a prompt and satisfactory manner. At
present there were many interests to consult, but
when the cable from Placentia Bay to Boston, or,
still better to New York, was completed the line
would practically be in the hands of one interest.
(Hear, hear.) It was also hoped that arrangements
would be made so that a message given into the hands
of the company's servants in London would be trans-
mitted direct to Heart's Content. He then adverted
to the honours bestowed upon Sir Richard Glass and
his colleagues by the Queen, and upon Mr. Cyrus
Field by the Congress of the United States, and said
those honours were doubly valuable because they
were fully deserved. He deeply regretted to say that
Sir R. Glass was in a very bad state of health owing
to his hard and anxious work in laying the cable.
The report was then unanimously adopted.
Mr. MORGAN proposed the election of Mr. T. B.
Smithies and Mr. J. Dean as auditors, with an al-
lowance of £5O.

The CHAIRMAN, in answer to questions, said the
cable was worked by this company, and all the
working expenses, except the directors, were paid
by the company. Of the profits, 25 per cent. on the
subscribed capital was taken by this company. The
remaining profit, up to £72,000, was paid to the
other company, and all over that the two companies
divided. With respect to the reduction of the tariff,
the question had had the attention of the directors,
and they had reduced the tariff by one-half ; for
whereas it was 20s. a word at starting, it was now
10s. The company might go still lower until it
found its way to the most profitable rate. With re-
gard to a question as to what should prevent other
companies laying other lines and competing, he said
the company must not depend upon a monopoly,
but upon doing the work so well and cheaply as to
make other lines unnecessary. The extra work upon
the lower rate, he said, had within a month or six
weeks recouped any loss which might have arisen
upon the lesser sum charged.
The meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the
chairman and directors, and a vote of sympathy
with Sir B. Glass in his illness.