The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-13 00:00:00

LLYNVI AND OGIIORE.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the Great Western Hotel,
Paddington ; Mr. Macgregor in the chair.

The CHAIRMAN read the report, which stated that
the Amalgamation Act uniting the Llynvi Valley
and Ogmore Valley Railway Companies into one

half-year ending the 30th June amounted to
£12,640 against £11,192 for the corresponding half
of last year, showing an increase of £1,448. The
working expenses and interest charges amounted to
£6,972 against £6,233, showing an increase of
£639. The balance available for dividend was
£5,668, and this sum, after paying interest of 5 per
cent. on the preference shares, would afford a divi-
dend at the same rate on the ordinary stock. This
stock would henceforth be entitled to a preference
dividend of 5 per cent. per annum in priority to the
ordinary stock of the Ogmore capital until the ag-
gregate revenue should be sufficient for two conse-
cutive° 0,
years to pay 5 per cent. upon all the paid-up
ordinary capital of the amalgamated company for
the time being issued in respect of lines open for
traffic. The available balance of the Ogmore lino
was £1,406, which would afford a dividend at the
rate of 2 per cent, to the shareholders of that com-
pany. The engineer's report stated that the third
rail was now available for traffic from I'orthcawl to
Tywith, as well as along the Ogtnore line. The
important works had so far advanced that the old
tidal harbour, which formerly could only admit
small vessels, had now been converted into a basin
capable of receiving large steamers. When the
inner basin was completed they would have special
means for the shipping of coal. Acts were passed
last session authorising_ extension lines from the
South-Wales Mineral and other railways in the dis-
trict, which would form junctions wish the com-
pany's lines, afford great accommodation to the
public, and be remunerative to the company. 110
concluded by moving the adoption of the report,
which was seconded and carried. Dividends at the
rate of 5 per cent. per annum were declared on the
preference shares of 1855, 1862, and 1864, and on
the ordinary stock at the same rate, payable on the _
25th inst.

The CirArnararr said he had to propose that the
reserve fund be divided, and for that purpose that
a bonus of 2 per cent. be paid on the ordinary stock
and third preference stock on the 25th inst.
This was carried unanimously.
The sum of £5OO was unanimously voted to the
chairman out of the reserve fund, in acknowledgment
of the valuable services he had rendered to the com-
pany on various occasions during several years past.
Mr. G. WOOLCOTT, in moving that the remunera-

tion of the directors for the current and future years
be £9OO per annum, said that for the half-year end-
ing the 30th June,lBs3, the traffic receipts amounted
to £4,125, and for the half-year ending the 30th of
June last to £12,640 ; the capital expended to the
30th June, 1853, amounted to £113,555, and to the
30th June last to £351,688, showing that the traffic
receipts had increased pari passu with the outlay of
capital, and that the undertaking had steadily pro-
gressed.
The motion was seconded and carried unani-
mously.
The meeting was then made special, and the di-
rectors were authorised to create and issue new share
capital to the amount of £253,000 under the powers
of the Llynvi Valley Railway Act, 1866, and the
Ogmore Valley Railway Act, 1866 ; and when the
wp: v
aahlsodi ltreui amountlpeßotßpooiGbn
poiori
irNiwo,owa
fas
exdsmsiurliben,
director,
oonr
oitrb,
neoeidnex
npamlnd
taohirnattegdone-halfai
tgewthata s thereof
eecvtedo maidenfi
treamoi,asolin
would
lgedl
coalfield
phi
reno
vpEer
no
agp
lovasenerdd capital
successful
The was
There
e e
undertaking
nte oda
edlttsrhehotveaelekabl ob-
ject
beds of iron and limestone in the district. He be-
et
a most valuable coal district of 60,000 shares. It
and be second to none.

The proceedings concluded with a vote of thanks
to the chairman.

The Great Fire in the Minories.

Yesterday when daylight revealed the havoc
caused by the recent fire at the goods station of the
London and North-Western Railway Company in
the Minories the scene was remarkable. Spacious
warehouses, most of them seven stories high, are
completely gutted. The roofs and floors arc en-
tirely destroyed, and of the buildings themselves
only the bare walls remain, and here and there a
charred rafter. As the floors gave way from time
to time during the fire the materials—princi-
pally wool—with which they were laden fell with
them in a burning mass, and now lie soaked with
water and in the greatest confusion below. The
whole damage done is estimated at a fabulous sum,
but for the present it has not been ascertained with
any approach to accuracy, and may never transpire
publicly. Messrs. Gooch and Cousens, wool mer-
chants, in whose premises the fire is said to have
originated, are reported to hold policies on the ma-
terials and property destroyed to the amount of
£BO,OOO, but that sum affords only a faint notion
of the loss to the fire offices, for othei merchants
besides these had large quantities of wool stored
there, and were insured more or less in respect of
them. Throughout the whole of yesterday gangs
of men were engaged in digging such of the wool
as was only partially burnt from among the ruins,
where it lies smoking in enormous masses, and re-
moving it to an adjacent warehouse. It was a pe-
rilous occupation, for they could never be sure that
some of the roofless walls might .not at any time
topple over. The salvage is expected to be consider-
able, especially in wool which is amaterial that burns
slowly, or which rather smoulders than burns, and the
fibre is more injured by heat than by water. Messrs.
Jacomb, wool brokers, were superintending the sal-
vage operations yesterday with a viewto a sale of the
saved materials to-day. For the extent of the pro-
perty and commodities destroyed there has been no
fire at all so destructive in the metropolis since that
at the St. Katherine docks. The flames were im-
mensely fed when the whisky in the bonded store
belonging to the railway company caught fire, and
there being a high wind the whole establishment,
covering two or three acres of ground, seemed for a
time doomed to destruction. It is hemmed in on all
sides by dwelling houses, and
F odr neighbourhoodtuurni during
ltyh,enhiogwwheetrvete
however,
ne,
a inhabitants
state
oof consternation.
of the
there was an abundant supply of water, and at high
pressure, and the engines, especially the steamers,
played with irresistible effect. The services of nearly
100 of the fire brigade were brought into requisition
on the occasion—those of Capt. Shaw, their ener-
getic chief, who happened to be on leave of absence,
alone
establishmentwanting.
boneinthgesome
time ejeopardy,the
r horses usedth e y
were at length all safely removed. The fire has left
weAretinonsoe
its mark on the place in the huge blanks which it
has made, and in bare, roofless walls standing some
70 or 80 feet from the ground, to say nothing of the
valuable commodities which have perished.

it eanttAhonune-
Domini. If ; I s—Tihundred aer
thousand the yaroefeithegh et
years eighty-six
for ther-sr
sand
ETERNALfour hundredß
requiresOTAsTele
00::a
dtoa yi
n(eir
en
acsoen
bs eyq
the
en coe
gohf t
yt hr's
-set
xe at
htoh usamnodr
ao
nsdl ufgogui: hh
ur ontdartei odn)
h
part of its length, it will take eight thousand six hundred
and forty millions of years to cause that rotation to cease
altogether, supposing the slackening of its speed to con-
tinue under the same conditions. Will it ever cease ? Will
the earth ever come to a standstill, as far as her rotation is
concerned ? No ; she will not. Her rate of spinning._is
gradually slackened, because she spins faster than the moon,
who thereby raises the waters into a heap, converting
them into a brake or drag. But when once the earth spins
no faster than the moon, she will always have the same
hemisphere turned towards her satellite ; the liquid protu-
berance will be no longer carried forwards, and the moon
will have no further hold whereby to chock the earth's
rotation. The period of the earth's rotation would then
coincide with that of the moon's revolution round the
earth. In short, the earth, at last would constantly turn
the same face to the moon, exactly as the moon turns the
same to us. It Is only natural to suppose that the
very same cause has produced the singularity which we
observe in the movements of the moon. If she always
turns the same face to the earth, the cause ought ttoiebne
analogous to that now submitted to your considnereashps
But•things may not even go so far as that.
ac
nwrn"s t tcde ,si tallrercidue requires
may be con-
gradually to drop. The waters of theth
ocean
will he no mere
verted into ice; with no more waterof
the
rotatory move-
tghreeactatmtha,nsyt
eangipeosentieo,tunrreloalsisatir
tides ; the cause of the slarkenbi:
ment will disappear,
andonsttant velocity. 'Te exact
contire to turn with. a
is
not
yet known ; flit ascent
will thisenxtchPeeefoccrtietc:
amount of the slackentnng
by
the indications afforded by
tamed approximately °accYurate determination must be a
ancient eclipses.
work of time. Meanwhile, ladies and gentlemen, it was
ht that
you should be apprised of• its existence.—
rig
_Dickens's "All the Year Round."