The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-02 00:00:00

Railway and other Companies.

BOMBAY, BARODA, AND CENTRAL INDIA.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
on Friday at the London Tavern—Lieut.-Colonel
French in the chair.
Mr. Baynes, the secretary, having read the notice
convening the meeting, thereport was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said that the capital account showed an
audited expenditure of £5,421,735, and that a fur-
ther expenditure of £422,000 remained unaudited ;
and as it might take the Government officials some
time to verify that outlay, it would probably be
sanctioned by the next meeting. He then adverted
to the great energy and untiring zeal of Mr. Mathew,
the chief resident engineer of the company, who had
been busily engaged for some time past in strength-
ing the bridges on the line, which had been done
with the entire concurrence of the Government in a
very secure and efficient manner. They had been
obliged to erect perfectly new stations at some
places on the line, because it was found that the
stations originally erected at those places were
utterly inadequate to accommodate the increasing
traffic. He had no doubt that stations at other
places would have at least to be doubled. The goods
station at Grant-road, near Bombay, was opened
in November last, and was about four miles from
the place of shipment. It was expected that the line
would be completed from Grant-road to the latter
point in about 15 months from the present time ;
and it was intended to erect places for cleaning the
cotton up the country, and for pressing it in a pro-
per manner, so that cotton might be sent from
Ahmedabad, 306 miles from Bombay, to the place
of shipment, and thence conveyed to England fit
for the market. The plans of their intended new
station and wharves at Colaba, Bombay, were un-
der the consideration of the Government, and when
approved the works would be commenced as soon
as possible. The directors proposed to issue 5 per
cent. debentures to the amount of £500,000, the
holders having the option of converting the deben-
tures into ordinary stock should they deem it desir-
able. The traffic on the line had shown a consi-
derable increase. For the past half-year the receipts
for passengers, &c., amounted to £93,000, and for
the corresponding half of 1864 to £47,000, show-
ing an increase of £46,000. It was the third-class
passengers they must look to for an increase in the
passenger traffic, as they had no such places as
Poonah or other elevated places on their line to in-
duce a first-class traffic. They had been authorised
by the Government to charge fares of Id. a mile for
third-class passengers. The break iu the Nerbudda-
bridge existed from July, 1864, to April, 1865, and
had during that period retarded the development of
the traffic, particularly in goods. In the past half-
year, ending the 31st December last, the goods
station at Grant-road was only open for two
months. Their manager deferred opening it until
the goods carrying stock was ready, so that, when
fairly commenced, there should be no block on any
part of the line. They had now both gas and
water laid on at the Grant-road station, to give
the men light at night, and, in case of fire, a supply
of water to extinguish it. The Government had at
last allowed them maximum rates within which they
could charge as circumstances required. Up to the
end of June, 1865, their accounts had been audited
and accepted by the Government. They had also
permitted the company to set aside £2,000 every
half-year towards forming a fire insurance fund.
The working charges amounted to 59 per cent.,
with which the Board was by no means pleased.
It was true those charges included large renewals of
timber sleepers, the cost of which was paid for out
of current revenue. The old sleepers were made of
jungle timber, which had proved a failure, and they
had to be replaced by creosoted Baltic timber or
teak timber, at much greater cost. There was a pro-
posal referred to in the report for extending the
line from Ahmedabad to Wudwan, in the Kattawar
district. In the first instance it was suggested that
the company should make 24 miles of line from
Abmedabad, crossing over the Saburmuttee River
by a bridge, at a cost of £70,000 ; the proposed
new line would thence run on to Veerumgaum to
Wudwan, a distance of 73 miles, passing through a
rich, productive, and populous country. This ex-
tension would be constructed by non-guaranteed
capital ; the chiefs of the district through which the
line was intended to pass had agreed to subscribe
half the capital and to grant the necessary land for
the railway.. The remainder, it was believed, would
be raised in Bombay. A cotton factory was being
erected, to be worked by steam power, at Wudwan,
which would also tend to increase the traffic on the
main line. The survey of the line to Neemuch had
been completed, and they would probably receive a
full report of it by the next mail. The extension
line to Neemuch would be about 200 miles in length.
He hoped that political changes had given them a
Secretary of State for India who was capable of
seeing the advantages of railways, and that they
should have no mare anti-progressive Secretaries of
State for that important country. One matter that
had retarded the extension of railways in India was
the large amount advanced in the shape of 5 per
cent. interest on capital guaranteed to shareholders;
but as that payment had now been reduced to about
£500,000, he hoped the requisite facilities for de-
velopment would be afforded. It was the opinion
of their agent that in 1867 the net traffic on the
line would cover the 5 per cent. guaranteed interest,
even before the completion of feeder roads to the
railway. He believed if they could get the exten-
sions made to Wudwan and to Neemuch the net
receipts on the main line would yield 10 per cent.
on the capital expended. Those extension lines
could be constructed at a moderate cost, and
would be of great value to the districts through
which they were intended to pass. The manager
had recently informed them that 500 tons of Eng-
lish machinery had been sent down their line by an
enterprising native manufacturer for the spinning
and weaving of cotton. This was an important
matter, and would tend to increase the traffic of the
railway. The traffic on the line was increasing sa-
tisfactorily; for the first 17 weeks ending April 21
last the gross receipts amounted to £160,459, or an
average of £9,439 per week, and for the last seven
of those weeks the receipts averaged £10,853 per
week. The sacredness of the river Ganges would
cease in about two years' time, and thenceforward
the great Nerbudda river in their district would be
the sacred river, and this would increase their re-
ceipts at times very considerably.
Mr. HARTRIDGE, deputy chairman, seconded the
motion for the adoption of the report, which, after
a short discussion, was adopted unanimously.
Mr. TT
--artridge and Mr. Wilde, the retiring direc-
tors, and
Mr. R. Fisher, the retiring auditor, were
re-elected,
with
and the proceedings concluded
vote of thanks to the chairman and directors.

DEMERARA.
The traffic receipts on this company's line for the
fortnight ending May 26 showed that $5,577 had
been received, and 14,729 for the corresponding
fortnight in 1865, showing an increase of gB4B.

NORTHERN OF CANADA,
The traffic receipts on this company's line from
Jan. 1 to June 9 amounted to £44,191, against
£43,394 for the corresponding period last year,
showing an increase of 1797.