The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-29 00:00:00

SCINDE.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company,
including the Indus Flotilla, Punjab, and Delhi
undertakings, was held yesterday at the London
Tavern ; Mr. W. P. Andrew in the chair.
The reports of these undertakings, extracts of
which have appeared in The Sun, were taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving their adoption, ex-
plained that the absence of the revenue account of
the Punjab Railway from the report was in conse-
quence of its not being received until Monday,
which was some days after the reports had been
printed and circulated. If they had received those
accounts earlier, in time for the report, he thought
they would have formed a more favourable opinion
of their line in the Punjab than they could from the
report. Their agent had reported on the operations
of the company in the Punjab for the half-year
ending Dec. 31 last on the 2531 miles open for
traffic. The receipts for the month of July amounted
to 65,928 r., of August to 45,191 r., of September to
55,414 r., of October to 72,242 r., of November to
77,758 r., and of December to 93,704 r., making
together 410,283 r., or about £40,000. During the
half-year 24G,052 passengers were conveyed on the
line, being about 1,300 daily. The receipts averaged
15,249 r. weekly, or about Gs. 6d. per mile per week.
The working expenses were 58 per cent. of the receipts,
as against 72 per cent. for the preceding half-year
ending June 30. This he thought was a great im-
provement on the working. The net receipts for the
past half:-year amounted to 168,627 r. ,against49,492r.
in the previous half-year. The P unjab line was opened
throughout, 253 miles in length, in April last year,
previous to which only 45 miles were open for
traffic, so that the previous half-year included about
two months' traffic on the 253 miles, and four
months' on the 45 miles, during which time the
working expenses were 72 per cent. ; but in the
following six months ending the 31st of December
last the working expenses were reduced to 58 per
cent. of the receipts, which he thought must be con-
sidered very satisfactory. A very law quantity of
cotton was being carried over the line in GO or 70
trucks per day. There had been a large meeting of
merchants and others at Umritsur, at which great
interest was expressed in favour of the project for
continuing the Punjab line from Mooltan to the
Scinde Railway, along the Indus Valley. The pro-
posed railway had been surveyed, and ordered to
be marked out, so that detailed surveys might be
prepared, and when the proper time arrived the
Government might order the works to proceed. A
memorial had been prepared by the merchants in
Kurrachee, expressing hopes that Government
would not delay the commencement of the works
of the Indus Valley line, for uniting the Scinde
Railway to the Punjab line, thus forming a conti-
nuous line from the port of Kurrachee to Umritsur.
They pointed out that to delay the making of the
Indus line would be a manifest injury to the wes-
tern parts of India. It would not only be of im-
portance to the railway company to have that
" missing link" supplied, but to the merchants of
Scinde and the Punjab, and also to the Govern-
ment for the defence of that poition of the empire.
Another project had been surveyed for a line from
Lahore to Peshawur, which would bring produce
from the salt mines and other places in that por-
tion of the Punjab, and be essential to the Govern-
ment for political purposes. The line would be
290 miles in length, would open up the salt
mines, and render available several seams of
good coal. It would give them access to cheap
fuel and an accession of traffic in the Punjab and
to Delhi. The works on the Delhi line were pro-
gressing in the hands of the eminent contractors,
Messrs. Brassey and Co., so that before the end of
the present year they would have 30 miles of
the Delhi end of the line opened for traffic, and
also 15 miles from the Punjab Railway at Umritsur
to the river Beas, in the direction of Delhi, making
about 45 miles of that railway in operation, passing

through a rich and densely-populated district, the
inhabitants being given to travel. lle then adverted
to the Mooltan terminus of the Punjab Railway,
which, he said, had been singularly ill-chosen, it
being a very unfit place for the steamers to come to,
and had not answered the expectations of the engi-

neer who had selected it. There had been a new
survey made to a lower point on the Indus, below
the confluence of the Indus and Chenab, avoiding
the most tortuous portion of the navigation. With
regard to the flotilla, the Government had acted
beyond all praise towards the company in their en-
deavour to make it succeed. He believed the new

steamers making by Messrs. Laird, Messrs. Samuda,
and Messrs. Napier would solve the question as to
the successful navigation of the Indus. 0 wing to
the illness of the Government officers the accounts of
the Scinde Railway had not been verified, but it was
intended in future to hold the meetings of the com-
pany later in the year, substituting the months of
May and November for March and September, so
so as to enable the directors to give full information
in future in respect to the accounts. He believed
the Scinde traffic had suffered more from the late
commercial crisis than that of any other part of
India. The improvements made in the harbour of
Kurrachee had been entirely successful, and the
ships had never met with any accident there.
Sir 11. MADDOCK seconded the motion for the
adoption of the report.
Mr. GoEZ said he felt convinced that the value of
their property depended to a great extent on the
construction of the proposed Indus Valley line, to
complete the railway communication from Kurra-
chee, the nearest port to Europe, to the Punjab and
Delhi, and, by means of the East India Railway,
thence to Calcutta. It was only by urging on the
Government the importance, in a military and com-
mercial point of view, of completing that route they
could hope to receive adequate remuneration on
their outlay. He thought a little pressure might
do some good, and that it was impossible to esti-
mate the advantages of shortening the time

and distance, by means of the Indus Valley Rail-
way, between Scinde and the Punjab. They would
then have an enormous traffic, which they could not
get until that communication was completed.
After some observations by Mr. WALLACE and
other shareholders on items of account, the report
was unanimously adopted.
The retiring directors, Mr. T. Williams and Mr.
11. Borradaile, were re-elected, and also Mr.
Mackinnon, the retiring auditor.
On the motion of Mr. GOEZ, seconded by Mr.
AUSTEN, the directors were requested to memorialise
the Secretary of State for India to take such steps
as he might deem expedient for the construction of
the Indus Valley Railway, and thus to complete the
communication between the Scinde and Punjab
railways.

The CirantmAN said he did not expect that the
shareholders would have responded so liberally to
the appeal of the Bishop of Calcutta for funds, and
thought the result must be very gratifying to him.
The proceedings concluded with a vote of thanks
to the chairman and directors.