The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 20, 1867

Railway and other Companies.

NORTH-EASTERN.

Yesterday the half-yearly meeting of this company
was held in York ; Mr. li. L. Thompson, the chair-
man, presided.
The report, an abstract of which has appeared in
The Sun, was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN said, in moving the adoption of
the report, that they had had an increase in the
gross receipts of £48,462 ; but that, on the other
hand, the balances available for dividend were less
by £42,427. Taking the half -year's working of the
London and North-Western, the largest company iu
the country, there had been au increase in the receipts
of £104,000, and they had paid 1 per cent. less divi-
dend. On the Midland line there was an increase of
£72,000, and they had paid fl per cent. less dividend.
On the London and South-Western there was an
increase of £20,000, and they had paid 1 per cent.
less dividend ; on the London and Brighton there
was au increase of £40,900, and they had paid 1i
per cent. less dividend. The Manchester and Shef-
field had an increase of £46,000, and they paid f
per cent. less dividend. The Great Northern had
an increase of £46,000, and they paid per cent.
less dividend. The North-Eastern Company, with
an increase of £48,000, paid a less dividend, amount-
ing to f per cent. on the Berwick, per cent. on
the York section, and I 2s. 6d. on the Leeds section.
Their increase was 21 per cent., and there was only
one company which was an exception to the rule—
viz, the Lancashire and Yorkshire, which, with an
increase of £97,000, had paid an additional 1 per
cent. The Lancashire and Yorkshire had an increase
of 81 per cent., and out of all proportion to that of
the North-Eastern Company, which amounted to 2i-
per cent. He then discussed the question how it had
occurred that with larger receipts they were unable
to pay the same rate of dividend. One reason was
the increase in the working expenses of £54,614,
and the other was the increase of the interest of
£40,066. The Chairman then adverted to the
increase under the several heads of expenditure,

including coke, rates and taxes, increase in wages,
&c. They had had a large amount of money to raise
when money was dear, but which they were obliged

to raise at that time. He thought the proprietors
would agree with the directors that it was very sa-
tisfactory that they were not obliged to apply to
Parliament for any additional powers to make, lines
this year. They considered the right policy now was
to go on steadily with those works on which a large
amount of capital had already been spent, so as to
bring them shortly into a productive state, but to
postpone as long as they could other lines they had
power to make, and which he hoped would be fairly
considered by the residents in these districts. With
regard to the claim on Mr. Hudson, if decided that
the Lord Chancellor's view was correct, Mr. Hudson
would have to pay the company £62,100; but ac-
cording to Chief Justice Tuiner Mr. Hudson would
have to pay £107,000.
Mr. G. LEE3IAN, ALP., seconded the motion for
the adoption of the report, which, after a long dis-
cussion, was carried.
The CHAIRMAN moved the payment of the divi-
dends on the Bth inst.—viz., Berwick, at the rate of
6 per cent. ; York, 51 per cent. ; Leeds, 3i ; Thir-sk
and Mallon, 2; Carlisle, 7i; and Darlington,
per cent.—all per annum, which was carried.
The retiring directors were re-elected, as were
also the auditors (Messrs. Bywater and Wylie), to
whom a vote of thanks was passed for their very
efficient services ; and a vote of thanks to the chair-
man and directors concluded the proceedings.

BRITISH AND IRISH MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH•

The annual meeting was held at Liverpool yes-
terday—Mr. W. Langton in the chair. It was re-
ported that the company's business had made satis-
factory progress. They were able to declare a
dividend of 6 per cent., and to increase the reserve
fund to £17,658. It was also stated that the lay-
ing of the Atlantic Cable had had a beneficial
effect on the company's business.