The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-05 00:00:00

52. Fleet-street. At home from 10 till 5.

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TEETH AND PAINLESS DENTISTRY.
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Observe—Established 1830. No connection with any of the
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PRICE. 4d.
STAMPED sd.

Railway Intelligence.

GREAT WESTERN.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held on Friday at the Paddington Station ; Mr.
D. Gooch, M.P., 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 he took the chair at the request of
friends deeply interested in that great company,
and when he did so it was in the hope of being of
service to the company ; at the same time he felt
the great responsibility which that honour placed
upon him, and that the whole of his energies and
mind would have to be devoted to their service.
He was not going to hold out hopes of great pro-
sperity in the future. Perhaps they had had
already too many promises ; but he hoped that in the
future they would have, instead of promises, sound
performances. lie would only promise them whatever
railway experience he had, and whatever exertions
he could make in their service should be faithfully
and honestly performed, and if he succeeded by the
aid of the directors in raising the dividend to that
point which he had always felt it ought to attain,
he should be amply rewarded for his exertions and
trouble. The policy which ought to guide them in
the future was totally to abstain from bringing upon
themselves those heavy obligations to which, un-
fortunately, they had been too much accustomed.
They had in too many instances bought off oppo-
sition by taking over contractors' lines, many of
which should never have been made, and which
were not for the benefit of the country, but simply
for the advantage of individuals. They ought
to leave such lines to find their own resources, and
if the promoters should ever be able to complete
them, which in many cases they would never do
without assistance from large companies, it would
be better policy for the company to fight them after
they were completed than to take upon themselves
the liabilities belonging to such lines. He thought
the evil would be found much less in the one case
than in the other. They should, as far as possible,
make arrangemens for utilising the lines of their
neighbours, and giving them the opportunity of
utilising their own lines, so that they might make
the best arrangements for carrying forward the
traffic for the mutual advantage of the different
companies concerned and the accommodation of the
public. There were many portions of their line
where, probably, by giving rnnning powers to one
company ,over them, and getting in exchange run-
ning powers over the lines of the other companies,
they might greatly benefit the public and be enabled
to work the traffic at less cost. From communica-

tions he had had with other large companies, there
was a general feeling that those were principles
which should guide them. If that course were
generally adopted, he believed they might look for-
ward to a much better position for railway pro-
perty. He regretted that the present accounts
showed so little dividend. The revenue account dur-
ing the past half-year showed an increase of £42,255,
of which £21,330 was de,Eived from passengers, and
£20,986 from goods. The former was worked
at a slight increase of cost, but the latter, owing
to a reduction of rates and an increased mileage of
239,574 miles, was worked at considerable cost.
During the last winter they had been very short of
working plant, and were therefore unable to take
all the goods and mineral traffic that had been offered
to them ; but if they had had a full supply of work-
ing stock the additional traffic, nothwithstanding
reduced rates, would have shown a much better re-
sult. They had had an increase in the item of re-
newal of the permanent way of £7,000, which arose
almost entirely from the reconstruction of the Aber-
gaveny and Hereford line, by replacing the Barlow
rails with a permanent and better road, and of the

department they had an excess of £5,649, arising
from increased mileage of trains. There was also
an increase of £6,578 in the carriage and waggon
repairs. There was an increase of £11,849 in the
carrying account, but he felt certain that some items
in it might be reduced. The Hammersmith line,
which was formerly worked separately, was now
worked as a joint line, and therefore came rather
heavily on the working charges. The rates and taxes
were growing items, over which they had but little
control. The rent-charges had increased in respect
of various branches, but, as the traffic increased on
them, the charge would diminish. Several of the
branches showed a satisfactory increase of traffic,
and he trusted, by carefully looking after them, they
would eventually yield a profit, instead of involving
a loss. The general interest account had increased,
not only in consequence of the increased capital ex-
pended during the half-year, but also to some extent
from the increased rate of interest they had to pay
for temporary loans. It was scarcely possible to
control the Parliamentary expenses, because the
directors must protect the property of the company
against the attacks which were made upon it every.
Session. The accident account was an unsatis-
factory one, as in the preceding half-year they had
charged £15,000 to that account, and in the past
half-year the directors had thought it right to
charge £25,000 against the revenue on account of
accidents, the balance being so large. The loss on
the working of the Vale of Neath Railway was
put down at £20,000 for the past year, but it was
hardly fair to say it was a loss, because traffic had
been diverted from the Vale of Neath, which was
worked as part:of;the:Great Western system, instead
of being worked separately ; but it was not all loss,
and he had no doubt the actual loss would eventu-
ally be got rid of by judicious management. They
would soon have to consider the question of gauge as
to how it was to be dealt with. It was a question
the Board would have to solve before the next meet-
ing. They had recently received a memorial signed
by nearly every firm of any standing in South
Wales, expressing a desire that the narrow gauge
might be carried out in that district ; and they were
also pressed on the same subject in many other
districts. It would involve a large expenditure and
would absorb some of the new capital they proposed
to raise by their bill. There had been about 220
bills deposited in Parliament this session which more
or less affected the company, but they were now re-
duced to 195 bills, which they would have to watch
and look after, some of which were of great impor-
tance. There were lines promoted, not for the
benefit of the district, but from A to B across the
country, merely by an engineer, a contractor, and a
lawyer, hoping that by getting the bill through they
might force some adjoining company to take them
and pay the bill of costs, but he hoped that a policy
of that kind would be discouraged and discoun-
tenanced. If the promoters of such lines g
noit their
bills he hoped the policy would be to let the
the lines and fight for the traffic when they were
made. (Cheers.)
Mr. C. A. WOOD, deputy chairman, seconded the
motion for the report.
Colonel LINDSAY, .P called attention to the
cripley_meadow question. He understood that the'
contract between the board and the corporation of
Oxford was at the present moment not valid. But
even if the land were in possession of the company,
the only liability would be to pay £ll2 a year. He
requested the directors to suspend negotiation on the
subject, and in the meantime take into consideration
the expediency of abandoning the project altogether.
He hoped the _ directors would consider the
liberal proposal which had been made by the corpo-
ration of Abingdon, which he was authorised to re-
new. He contended that Cripley-meadow was deci-
dedly unfit for the erection of any large works upon
it, and concluded by moving the suspension of
negotiations between the Board and corporation of
Oxford.

Mr. B. B. WILLIAMS seconded the motion, and
stated that he had known Cripley-meadow for the
last 40 years, and when he visited Oxford some
time ago it was under water, as it usually was for