The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-09 00:00:00

GRAND TRUNK OF CANADA.

The report of the directors of this company states
that the gross receipts for the half-year ending the
31st of December last, upon the whole undertaking,
including the Buffalo and Champlain lines, had been
£719,370, and the ordinary working expenses
£413,608, or 57.49 per cent., leaving a balance of
1305,762. From this was deducted £72,392, the
proportion of renewals of the permanent way and
works debited to revenue, leaving an available net
balance of £233,370. Out of this was deducted
£174,891, including £20,722 for postal and military
service bonds, £61,826 discount on American cur-
rency, £32,786 rent of Atlantic and St. Lawrence
Railway, £11,250 rent of the Detroit line, £10,779
interest on equipment mortgage, and £31,580 for
proportion of Montreal and Champlain and Buffalo
and Lake Huron Railway Company's traffic, leaving,
with £2OO from the preceding half-year, a balance
of £58,680, which would provide for a cash divi-
dend on the first preference bonds, leaving a
balance of £326 for next account. This dividend
would be payable on and after the 22d inst., and cer-
tificates for the arrears of interest to be capitalised on
the second preference bonds and on the third and
fourth preference stocks would, under the terms of the
Act of 1862,be subsequently issued. The increasein the
aggregate receipts for the half-year, as compared
with the same period of 1865, was £1,500, the total
revenue being the largest yet received in any one
half-year. The decrease of net revenue was caused
by an increase in loss on currency, an increase in
legal charges, the debit of a sum under award to
the Brantford Gas Company, and a larger outlay in
the locomotive department for new engines and cars
to maintain the existing stock in an efficient state.
The two last items, together about £l6,ooo,accounted
for the increased working expenses. In appropriat-
ing the net revenue £5,359 had been paid to the
postal and military bondholders, in excess of the
sum due to them in the corresponding half of 1865.
This had arisen from increased receipts for the con-
veyance of troops and stores arising out of the Fenian
raid. The receipts from passenger traffic, mails, &c.,
showed an increase over the corresponding period of
1865 of £5,165, or 1.67 per cent. ; but the merchan-
dise receipts showed a falling off of £420. The dimi-
nution of revenue in the freight traffic was entirely
in live stock, and was in consequence of the 'United
States tariff laws which came into operation on the
repeal of the Reciprocity Treaty. The live stock
'receipts in the corresponding half of 1865 were
£36,011, while those for 1866 were only £16,333.
The average receipt of passengers per head was
7s. 2d., against 7s. 10d. in 1865, and the average
per ton was 15s. 11d. as compared with 15s. sd. in
1865. The working expenses were 57.49 per cent.
for the past half-year, 55.35 for the same half of
1865, 59.68 per cent. for the same half of 1864, 57.11
per cent. for same half of 1863, 59.68 per cent. for
same half of 1862, and 68'64 per cent. for same half
of 1861. The total loss on the American currency
since June, 1862, amounted to £290,384, the loss
for the past half-year being £61,828. The enormous
loss occasioned by this wholly extraneous cause had
altered the entire aspect of the recent finances of the
company. The price of gold fluctuated during the
six months ended Dec. last between 154 in July and
131 in Dec. The continued inflation of the prices
of labour and materials in the United States, con-
sequent upon the state of the currency, still led to
an excessive cost in many departments. The amount
expended out of the revenue in renewals of perma-
nent way, from 1862 to 1866 inclusive, had been
£621,543, and of the extremely large expenditure in
the past half-year of £97,392 the board had charged
£25,000 to capital account. The debit for stock of
stores in hand had been reduced from £245,419, the
amount in Dec., 1865, to £202,357. The reciprocity
treaty with the United States ended in March, 186 G.
The full results of its repeal had, however, been
more apparent in the past half-year, and while the
local traffic had kept up in a very satisfactory man-
ner, the interchange of traffic between Canada and
the United States had suffered. All accounts with
the Government of Canada and her Majesty's Go-
vernment were now settled and disposed of. hooking
to the heavy loss which had during the last fiveyears
arisen from the condition of the American currency,
to the pressure of the excessive outlay for renewals
of the permanent way, to the impossibility of the
railway earning even the amount of revenue now
obtainable without an increasing quantity of rolling
stock, and to the realisation of the expectations, so
long formed, of the construction of the lntercolonial
Railway, the board considered the time had arrived
for maturing a plan under which the progress of the
traffic and the resources of the undertaking—now
destined to become an integral portion of a great

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continental highway—should be fully kept pace with.
In five years, 1861-6, the traffic had increased 47i
per cent., or from £17,700 to £26,092 per wok.
Such a rate of increase was almost without example.
Friendly interviews had recently taken place between
deputations from theboards of the Grand Trunk and
Great Western of Canada, and propositions for a
more cordial and complete interchange of traffic had
been discussed. It was hoped that those discussions
might lead to some practical issue.

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a cl S N
.11:41 MOSES
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APOPULAR HISTORY of LONDON from
the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Present time.
Part the Second—From 1066 to 1867.

E. Moses and Son, corner of Minories and Aldgate ;
Now Oxford-street, and Tottenham-court-road, London;
And Bradford, Yorkshire.

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