The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-23 00:00:00

Railway and other Companies.

GREAT EASTERN.

The report of the directors of this company states
the total receipts for the past half year amounted
to £88,092, and the working expenses, &c., to
£496,128, leaving a net sum of £390,964. To this
was added the balance of £l9O from the preceding
half year, making £391,154. From this was de-
ducted £99,665 for rents to other companies,
£122,774 interest on mortgages and debenture
stock, and £29,257 for interest for temporary loans,
commission, &c., leaving £139,458. This amount
would pay in full the dividends on all the preference
stocks created before August, 1862, being the
period of amalgamation ; leaving, however, the
dividends on the preferences created at and since the
amalgamation unproyided for. The enlarged amount
of the last half year's receipts as compared with the
corresponding half year of 1865, being £81,750,
was chiefly attributable to the traffic and other re-
ceipts from the Blackwall Railway, now first en-
tered in the company's accounts. Those receipts
which in the corresponding half year in 1865 were
£67,602, deducted from the gross income £887,092,
showed an increase of £14,150 for the half-year.
The actual increase upon passengers, parcels, and
goods, was £25,704 ; but the reduction of cattle re-
ceipts, consequent upon the cattle plague, was
£14,644, and there could be no doubt that the ex-
istence of the cattle plague had affected in other
particulars the company's income, and further
diminished the receipts of the half-year. The di-
rectors regret to find the working expenses amount
to more than 56 per cent. of the income. This they
considered, upon such a system as that of the Great
Eastern, very much in excess, and it would be their
duty to reduce the amount within reasonable bounds.
The second half of the year had always upon the
Great Eastern system been more productive than
the first half by
,upwards of £lOO,OOO. This fact
sufficiently warranted the expectation that the se-
cond half of the year upon which the company had
entered would enable them to pay the preference
shareholders in full. The attention of the directors
had been most seriously engaged in the considera-
tion of the capital liabilities entailed by the metro-
politan extensions. Those works which would in-
volve if completed a total outlay of nearly £3,000,000
were entered upon without any provision being
made by first placing the capital to meet the ex-
penditure which would be incurred. The directors
find that already capital demands had been met on
those and other works to the extent of £1,044,378
beyond the moneys received on capital account,
which have been supplied by temporary loans and
by the absorption of the revenue receipts. Beyond
the actual payments there were liabilities pressing
to a very large amount incurred under notices for
the compulsory purchase of land, and under the con-
tracts for the construction of the works. The direc-
ct iaapl yt
astopping thep r bfvui rdtehde
apnrdo
to Parlia-
ment for power to raise at once the debentures author-
ised by their several acts, amounting to £1,084,960,
but which were originally contingent upon the pre-
vious subscription of capital, and in this application
they were successful. They also obtained from Par-
liament power to increase the amount of preference
dividend to any extent not exceeding 7 per cent. on
the unissued share capital of £3,210,423. These
formed the fund out of which the liabilities in capital
account must be met, and the means provided for
the construction of such of the metropolitan lines as
it might be thought right to proceed with. The
directors, however, after full consideration of the
subject, deemed it expedient (without interrupting
the construction of the coal depot at Whitechapel,
which promised such valuable results in the increase
of coal traffic) to recommend that such of the Me-
tropolitan Extensions that could be postponed or
abandoned without a very serious loss should be so
dealt with ; and, provided those views met with the
assent of the shareholders, they would seek in the
next session of Parliament to obtain powers for this
purpose. The company had incurred so serious an
outlay in•respect of the Extension from Bishopsgate
Station to Liverpool-street, that it must necessarily
be completed ; and it might be desirable that some
other portions under similar circumstances should
also be proceeded with. The actual payment, even
of the dividends which had been earned during the
past half-year, must be postponed until the revenue
which had been unavoidably absorbed by the debts
of the company on capital account had been repaid.
But the Board would recommend that deferred
warrants should be issued to the shareholders, pay-
able on notice from the company so soon as the re-
payment was made. The Board felt deeply their
responsibility, and would continue to devote them-
selves to economise every expense, avoid all capital
expenditure beyond that to which the company
was unavoidably committed, to facilitate by through
working and friendly arrangements the interchange
of traffic with other companies, and by giving
effective and economical accommodation to every
part of their district to de velope its resources and
obtain the utmost profit which it was capable of
yielding. The capital account on the 30th of June
last showed that £23,801,140 had been expended,
leaving a balance against the company of £1,044,379.