The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-15 00:00:00

NEWCASTLE AND CARLISLE.

The directors of this company have just declared
an intermediate dividend of £2 15s. per cent. on
the ordinary shares for the half•year ending the

30th of June. The holders of the preference shares
of 1861 will be entitled to an extra dividend when
the next preference dividend is payable.

MELBOURNE AND HOBSON'S BAY.

The half-yearly meeting of this railway company
was held at Melbourne on the 7th of June—the
Hon. T. A'Beekett, the president, in the chair.
The report stated that the line and rolling stock
were in the very best working order. An addi-
tional line of rails had been placed on the St.
Kilda line. The directors explain that heavier
rails were required in consequence of the in-
creased traffic, and the Commissioner of Public
Works let them have the heavier rails from the
Government stock on condition that they should
be replaced when those ordered by the company
were received from England. This arrangement
saved considerable delay, and enabled the company
to lay down the new rails in the course of six
weeks. A great advantage was likely to result
from the opening up of a coal traffic, and it was
intended to form coal depots at the Melbourne, St.
Kilda, and Emerald-hill stations. Twenty-five
new coal trucks had been ordered from England to
carry on this new branch of traffic. The subsidy
of 5,000/. was paid to the St. Kilda and Brighton
Railway Company, and it was expected that the
new line would be opened in August, and that a
very considerable addition to the revenue of the
Melbourne Company would arise from that source.
The profits of the past half-year enabled the direc-
tors to declare a dividend at the usual rate of 14
per cent. per annum, leaving 2,1121. to be added to
the reserve fund, which would then amount to
26,9731. The capital account showed that 441,4151.
had been received to the 30th of April last, and
350,322/. expended on the Melbourne and Hobson's
Bay line, and 107,3711. on the St. Kilda branch—
together 457,6931. The revenue account showed
that 45,3441. had been received for the six months
ending the 30th of April, and that 16,1951. had
been expended in working the railway, and 2,536/.
paid for interest on loans, leaving a balance of
26,612/. The total traffic receipts for the nine past
half-years amounted in the aggregate to 272,527/.
Appended to the report is a list of the shareholders
resident in Europe and the colony, stating the
number of shares held by each, and also the number
of votes.

The CHAIRMAN in moving the adoption of the
report, stated diat suggestions had been made
in the newspapers for a reduction of fares
on their line. He believed that the reduction
proposed would, had it been granted, have greatly
diminished the receipts of the railway. The
dividend upon the shares at the present time
was not excessive, nor so great as that paid by
many colonial institutions, the profits of which
were not looked upon as exorbitant. The railway was
essentially a commercial undertaking, constructed
with colonial capital, and it was unreasonable to
pect its affairs to be carried on for the public benefit
without proper regard to the interests of its share-
holders. He believed, moreover, that if the line
had now no existence, and it became necessary to
construct it, that capital would not be found for it,
even if its whole history up to the present time
could be foreknown. For some long time it had
paid no dividend whatever, and it was only lately
that the dividend had been at all satisfactory, and
now they were subjected to a competition by the
Government which he thought was not just, inas-
much as the fares charged on the Williamstown line
in competition with the Hobson's Bay Railway,
would, he was satisfied, when the debtor and credi-
tor accounts of the line came to be brought before
Parliament show a heavy loss. But the fact was
that the Williamstown line was paid for out of the
public purse, and ho inferred, therefore, that it was
considered unnecessary to make it remunerative as
an investment, but this he thought was a principle
which it was unfair to act upon for the purpose of
competing, through the help of the public money,
with undertakings created by private capital, and
which ought only to be competed with by the Go-
vernment on equal terms. He, however, had no
doubt the opening up of the Brighton ailway,
which was expected to take place in August, would
form a new era in the prosperity of the company,
and bring an amount of additional traffic that
would much more than compensate for any diminu-
tion of receipts by the loss of the Williamstown
traffic.

After a short discussion in which Mr. Ebden,
Mr. Kaye, and other shareholders took part, the
report was adopted and the dividend declared.
The meeting was then made special, and Mr.
Henty was elected a director in place of Mr. Grice.
A vote of thanks to the chairman and directors
concluded the proceedings.