The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-05 00:00:00

GREAT WESTERN OF CANADA.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the London Tavern ; Mr.
Alderman Dakin in the chair.
Mr. B. Baker, the secretary, having read the
minutes of the last meeting, which were confirmed,
the report was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report and statement of accounts to Jan. 31 last,
together with a dividend at the rate of 5 per cent.
per annum for the past half-year, said the directors
had great pleasure in meeting the shareholders with
such a satisfactory change in the affairs of the com-
pany. The difficulties and obstructions which had
so long retarded them he now thought were nearly
cleared away. lle thought the present successful
state of things would result in more satisfactory
meetings in future. They bad received on capital
account £9,381 during the past half-year in pay-
ment of calls on the new shares, making the total
receipts £5,155,731. The aggregate expenditure
amounted to £5,151,893, leaving a balance of
£3,838. The outlay on capital account during the
half-year amounted to £32,526, being the propor-
tion chargeable to that account for rebuilding
timber bridges in stone and iron ; cost of fish joint-
ing six miles of rails, including outlay of £14,000
on the new Car ferry-boat for the Detroit River,
the new station works at Toronto, and extension
of the line along the Toronto Esplanade ; and among
other items £505 for the new rolling mill, in putting
up a puddling furnace to utilise the waste iron of
the establishment, and convert it to useful purposes.
The items of expenditure would be very productive
in future. It might appear that their capital was
exhausted, all but the £3,838 balance in hand, but
that was not the case. They had been receiving
large remittances from Canada, the .accounts hav-
ing been coming in rapidly. The receipts to the
31st of last month amounted to £148,690. The
traffic receipts for the present year were going on
well ; for the week ending March 16 they amounted
to £17,744, against £11,442 for the corresponding
week last year, showing an increase of £6,302. The
total increase in the traffic receipts for the seven
weeks up to that date was £39,805, as compared
with the corresponding weeks of last year. The
question of more new capital was not pressing.
They had power to issue £108,300 more of new
shares, to borrow £661,300 more money, and to
call up the remaining £2 10s. per share. They
had paid off in October,lB64, £72,600 of the 6
per cent. bonds, for which they had the power to
issue others in their place. They would probably
leave to the directors the power of selecting the best
mode of raising any additional capital that might be
required for the purposes of the company. (Hear,
hear.) The revenue of the past half year, as com-
pared with the corresponding period of the prectehdis-
an.d
0_
preced-
ing year, showed an increase of £74,310,
was obtained at an additional cost for working f
American
had lost £73,316 in the conversion of the
only £9,502, leaving £64,808 to the good. They
d v 66,080 in the
funds during the past half 3
he therethought,
o u crht money brought
and
the con-
version preceding
of hasl2f4y27srB.
of That
American'seuamr:
over from the
last a balance of $114,558
re-
mained and
on 31st January previous half yeaNr,
in American funds unconverted. o.
t,
that was very satisfactory. Thep ice of gold bad
fallen to an aver
sate of 1441. y had just been
informed by telegram that the price of gold was
now down to 126, and if that continued it would
have a most material effect on the net balance avail-
able for the proprietors. The aggregate loss by ex-
changes of American currency from the commence-
ment was £443,987. They had borne all that out
of revenue, and if the exchange during the past half
year had been at par they would have been able to
declare a dividend at the rate of 94 per cent. per
annum. The question of exchange, therefore, had
a great bearing on the prosperity of the company.