The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-05 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON, CHATHAM, AND DOVER.

A meeting of debenture holders in this company
was held yesterday at the London Tavern ; Mr. F.
Harrison was requested to take the chair.
It was stated that the meeting was called without
the assent of the Committee of Debenture holders.

The CHAIRMAN said that the first meeting of
debenture holders in this company was held on the
28th of Sept. last, at which Mr. Hodgson, the chair-
man at that meeting, congratulated the bondholders
that the London, Chatham, and Dover Company's
Bill for raising £1,000,000 of capital in priority of
everything was rejected by the House of Lords in
the last session. There was a general meeting of
the company held at St. James's-hall, at which the
debenture holders attended by request, and he
warned the debenture holders at that meeting not
to forego. their claims to priority over everything
else. On the 26th of November the third and last
meeting of debenture holders was called by the pre-
sent directors of the company at the Victoria sta-
tion, and the room was crowded to excess. At that
meeting the proposal of the directors to raise
£1,500,000 in priority to the claims of the deben-
ture holders was received with indignation, and they
would not listen to anyproposition for raising money
over their heads. A long discussion ensued, in the
course of which a resolution was proposed by Mr.
Price, seconded by Mr. Few, to the effect that the
Committee of Debenture holders confer with the
directors on the subject, to obtain power to investi-
gate the accounts of the company, and to report the
result of their investigations to a future meeting of
debenture holders. This was passed by an immense
majority, there being only three dissentients. The
debenture holders were still in want of the requisite
information as to the affairs of the company. The
Committee of debenture holders had conferred with
the directors, and he presumed had investigated the
affairs of the company, but the committee had not,
up to the present moment, made any report to
the debenture holders on the subject, neither had
they called any meeting for the purpose. The
chairman of the committee, Mr. Hodgson, had, in
fact, refused to call a meeting of the debenture hol-
ders, or to consult with them as to what should be
done. Two members of that committee, Mr. Broom-
hall and Mr. C. Harrison, had resigned in conse-
quence of the course adopted by the chairman and
the other members of the committee. Mr. Hodgson,
instead of consulting the great body of the deben-
ture holders, had published a scheme for releasing
the company from.its difficulties similar in principle
to that proposed by the directors, but instead of
raising £1,500,000, as proposed by the directors, Mr.
Hodgson propose I that the amount should be only
£500,000, and had in a circular solicited assents to
that proposition. The directors had stated in their
report, recently. issued, that the only difference be-
tween their scheme and the committee's scheme was
in degree, not in principle. It was true the latter
proposed to remove the directors and appoint liqui-
dators, but he believed that the directors' scheme
was much better than that proposed by the com-
mittee. A bill had been prepared by Mr. Price,
which, if carried out, would rectify the present state
keep the undertaking as a living and
og fo
ing things and
concern.
Mr. PRICE explained that he would not have op-
posed the committee if they had acted in accordance
with the resolution passed on Nov. 26 last. He was
the mover of that resolution, and as a trustee for
others he bad heard nething else to alter his views,
and all h
of e
th debenture
himself
ehe( consulted re-
mained asi to
the justice
of their case. It was the duty of the committee to
theea me mind holders
as
have called a meeting of debenture holders, and
submitted anyreport or scheme they thought proper.
If the committee had done its duty, the directors
would never have gone on with their bill. The
directors' bill would come before a committee of the
House of Commons on Thursday next. He thought
that no committee could deal properly with the
questions affecting the various rights and interests
in the company. There was a mass of litigation
going on which should be stopped, and a com-
petent tribunal should be appointed to deal with
all the legal questions. He contended that they
must first deal with the question of priorities and
settle them before authorising any further money to
be raised. He asked the meeting to approve " A
Bill to transfer all pending litigation respecting the
affairs of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway,
Company, and the adjudication of all matters aris-
ing out of the Acts constituting and defining the
powers of the company, and out of the Acts of
other companies over whose line the company now
run, to the decision of a court of arbitration and
appeal, especially instituted in that behalf, and for
the preparation and settlement of a scheme to re-
lieve the company from its present embarrassment."
He proposed that the court of arbitration should
consist of one of the Chief Judges, assisted by two
assessors, to settle the legal questions, and after
having heard all the evidence to propound a scheme
for raising the requisite funds, apportioning the
several amounts to be raised by each section.
Resolutions were passed to the effect that the
priorities and cross rights of the various parties
should be referred to a special tribunal for settle-
ment ; that the large body of debenture holders had
never assented to the proposal in the directors' bill
to raise money over their heads ; that a committee
be appointed to promote the new bill and carry the
resolutions of the meeting into effect, and that Mr.
Powell, Mr. C. Price, Mr. J. Broomhall, Mr. C.
Harrison, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Bateman be the
committee, with power to add to their number.
The proceedings concluded with a vote of thanks
to the chairman.