The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-20 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH COAST.
The report of theAlirectors, to be submitted to the
meeting of proprietors on the 26th inst., has just
been issued :
The accounts for the half-year ending June 30,
180, are subjoined, and show the following results:
The amount of capital raised to the 30th June,
1859, is £8,397,879, consisting of : Mortgage debt,
£1,720,985 ; debenture stock, £397,100 ; preference
capital, £1,661,240; consolidated stock, £4,618,554
—total, £8,397,879. The amount of capital outlay
has been £246,038, of which £lBO,OOO has been in
respect of this company's contributioh to the
Victoria station and Pimlico Railway, making
£337,500 now charged on that account ;
£24,984 for the new Henfield line, which is
being rapidly proceeded with ; £15,419 towards
the completion of the Norwood Junction sta-
tion ; and the remainder for the stations on the
Uckfield and Mid-Sussex lines, and for sindry works
and additional vehicles rendered necesSary by the
increasing traffic and the larger numbei of miles
worked. The issue of the Four per Cent. Debenture
Stuck proceeds satisfactorily, and powers have been
inserted in the bill now before,Parliament enabling
the company to issue the whole or a portion of this
stook in anticipation of bonds falling due. This
will permit the directors to avail themselves at any
time of a favourable state of the money market, and
to issue debenture stock without the necessity of
waiting until a proportionate amount of bonds falls
due.
The gross revenue for the half-year has been
£365,686, being an increase of £21,116, as compared
with the corresponding period of 1858. Of this
increase £10,796 arises in the coaching traffic,
£5,340 in the goods traffic, and the remainder from
the 421 per cent. on the receipts of the West-end
and Crystal Palace line, retained .by this company
as the allowance for working the local traffic on
that branch. It is satisfactory to state that the in-
crease has been general and proportionate on every
part of the company's system, with the exception
of Epsom, where, by the opening of the South-
Western Company's competing line, a loss of about
£4,000 has been occasioned. The details of expen-
diture for the half-year ending 30th June are fully
given in the subjoined abstracts :
Miles run by trains

Total traffic receipts (excluding cartage)

Maintenance of way
Locomotive power 47,999
Carriage and waggon department
Coaching traffic charges
Goodi traffic charges (excluding cartage) .10,111
General charges 4,380
Law and Parliamentary charges
Rates and taxes ..• 14,715
•.e.', 11,542
Government duty
Toll to the South Eastern Railway Company 507

Total working expenses and renewals (excluding
cartage)
Cartage 7,960

Total...

£170,365

Distinguishing 'the ordinary expenses from the
amount expended in renewals and additions, and
from the cartage, the general result of the compa-
rison with the corresponding half-year of 1858 will
stand thus :

Half Year Ending
June 30, June 30,
1858. 1859.
Ordinary expenses £133,582 .... £150,284
Renewals and additions

Total expenses (excluding
*adage)
s. d. - . s. d.
Per train per mile
Per cent. on traffic receipts 434 .... 46f
Cartage.. 6,991 .... 7,960

Total.

.. £152,847 £170,365

Although there has been an increase in the total
amount of working expenses, the cost per train per
mile has been considerably reduced. The increase
arises from several eauses. First, from the outlay
incurred in working,the West-end line, and from
the fact that this outlay, so far as regards the local
traffic, was not included as expenditure in the cor-
responding half-year, inasmuch as the allowance
received from the West-end Uompany for such
service was applied in reduction of working ex-
penses. This method of appropriation has been
altered, as stated in the last report ; the allow-
ance will be found at the credit of revenue, and
that sum must be taken into account in order
to obtain a fair comparison. Secondly, from the
larger number of miles worked over, namely,
the West-end line from Wandsworth to Pimlico,
and the Lewes and Uckfield line. Thirdly, from
heavy repairs done to a large number of the lodo-
motive engines purchased in 1847 and 1848, which
required and have received extensive renewals. The
working expenses have also, to a small extent, been
increased by the competition which 'Nits-been forced
upon the company ; but, looking to the general re-
sult, especially to the new traffic,thui attracted to
the line, and to the publicity given to the Brighton
route-to Portsmouth and the isle of Wight, it can-
not be said to have operated prejudicially against
this company.
The Parliamentary proceedings of the session are
drawing to a conclusion. The company's bill has
passed the committee of the House of Lords. The
two bills promoted for a line from Leatherhead to
Dorking were rejected by the committee of the
House of Commons, as was also that promoted by
the Portsmouth Company with a view to relieving
themselves from the restrictions imposed upon them
by their act of last year. The bill containing per-
missive powers for the lease to the South-Western
Company of the Portsmouth Railway, or for the
amalgamation of those two companies, has received
the sanction of the legislature. The directors regret
that the differences which have unfortunately arisen
with the South-Western Company are still unad-
justed. The purchase of the Battersea to Norwood
portion of the West-end of London and Crystal
Palace Railway was sanctioned at the special meet-
ing held on the 9th of May last, and it has accord-
ingly been proceeded with, and takes effect from
the Ist July, 1859; and resolutions will be sub-
mitted to the meeting for creating the stock t' be
tdelivered
r.ttoa
ktihn.
the West-end of London and Crystal
Palace shareholders in exchange for theirahares in
In the last report the proprietors were informed
that several schemes had bee n promoted with a view to
connect some of the metropolitan railways with the
Victoria Station; one of these, an extension of the
West London Railway, embracing all that is requi-
site, has been selected as the most desirable, and the
bill authorising its construction has passed the com-
mittee of the House of Commons and will be laid beforo
the special meeting. The line is shown on a plan
accompanying the report. There are also two short
branches, forming junctions with the South-Western
Railway at the Falcon-bridge Junction Station, and
with the West-end line at Wandsworth-common.
The directors have agree, subject to the assent of
the shareholders, to pin the London and North-
Western, the Great Western, and South-Western
Companies, in providing the necessary capital. The
estimated outlay is £300,000, and the proportion to
be contributed by this company is £50,000, or
£75,000 in case the Great Western Company do not
elect to capitalise their guaranteed annual contri-
bution. In connexion with this no* matured
scheme for the admission of the North-Western and
the Great Western Companies into the Victoria
Station, the directors have under t
ejr considera-
tion the desirability of possessing themselves of the
I
whole of that property, so that a genetal terminus
may be erected more suitable for the requirements
of all, and free from the inconvenience and compli-
cation attending the working of separate and inde-
pendent stations; and they are glad to have it in
their power to inform the proprietors that, subject,
to their sanction, they have entered into an arrange-
ment with the directors of the Victoria Station and
Pimlico Railway, the result of which will be that
the whole of that undertaking will ultimately be
vested in this company. Agreements are in pro-
gress with the North-Western and Great Western
Companies for the use by them of the requisite por-,
tion of the West-end line and of the Victoria Sta-
tion and Pimlico Railway.
A bill is now before parliament, promoted by in-
dependent parties, for a line from the Mid-Sussex
Railway at Petworth to Midhurst. The directors
have entered upon arrangements with the promo-
ters analogous to those concluded as regards the
other portion of the Mid-Sussex Railway. The bill
has passed the House of Commons, and will be laid
before the shareholders at the special meeting, as
required by the standing orders of the House of
o
Lords. The bill for a line from Norwood to Streat-
ham was rejected by the committee of the House
of Commons,
fft
but there having been.fprae misap-
prehension,s are being made ix,
4btain a -
re-
committal of the bill, with a view, to its becoming
law during the present session. The directors have
expectation that these efforts will be everyattended
with success. -
The net amount at the credit of the revenue ac-

count is £115,955, out of which the directors re-
commend the payment of a dividend of 2-t- per cent.
for the half4year, amounting to £115,464, leaving a
balance to the credit of the current half-year of
£491.

One of the auditors, Mr. John Chapman, has ten-
dered his resignation, by reason of other more press-
ing engagements, and it remains with the proprie-
tors to accept it, and to fill up the vacancy at the
present meeting, should they see fit to do so. The
directors next in rotation to retire at the first half-
yearly meeting in 1860 are Mr. William Coning-
ham, M.P., and Mr. Peter Northall Laurie.

ADVERTISING COLUMNS.

Yesterday afternoon a numerous deputation from
the various metropolitan vestries and district boards,
accompanied by Lord Fermoy and Mr. Edwin.
James, the members for the borough of Mary le"
bone waited upon the Right Hon. Sir G. C. Lewis,
at the Home-office, for the purpose of protesting
against the bill introduced by Mr. Cowper, arising
from the erection of the "Illuminated Indica-
tor" at Hyde-park-corner, having for its object "to
restrict the erection of permanent structures in the
carriage-ways of the metropolis," and to urge the
Government to give its opposition to such measure.
Lord FERMOY, in introducing the clePutation,
observed that it represented the public boards Of
most of the leading metropolitan parishes, and they
felt that the bill introduced by Mr. Cowper 019
not only an attempt to infringe upon and restrict
the local powers they enjoyed, but that it was i°
direct violation of the principles of the Metropolis
Local Management Act. It was felt that, because
one local board had thought proper to sanction the
erection of an advertising column, to bring in a bill
restricting all the other public boards from the
power of placing up erections, however useful, wee
an act of public injustice, and ought to be resisted.
In the borough he (the noble lord) had the honour
to' represent the local boards had positively refused
to allow these illuminated advertising columns to
be erected, and therefore there was no necessity to
apply this act to them. The metropolitan parishes
were exceedingly jealous of this interference with,
their local powers ; as it was, if this measure passed,
it was the thin end of the wedge leading to centrals'
cation. (Hear, hear.)
„ Sir G. C. LEWlS—having been further addressed,
by Mr. C. Carr, from Marylebone, Mr. Beal, of st•
James's, Mr. Robins,e of Paddington, and depati°
from the Holborn,,Stra i:d, and other district boards:
to the same effect—observed that he could well
understand the very natural and very proper jell.'
ousy with which the metropolitan parishes viewed
any attempt to interfere with their local powers.
He had no desire to give his sanction to the mee:
sure which had a tendency towards that which
they appeared to apprehend, namely, centralise:
tion. At the same time, however, he could not
view this subject' as one of the purely parochial
character which the deputation seemed to imply'
It was one which he thought involved a question
of the public rights, and the public travelling
through the public highways of this metropolis
had a right to be protected. He had some doubts
as to the necessity of this bill, as he could not find
that by act of parliament any parish had the lege'
power of causing the erection of these advertising
columns. It would thus be his first point to aseer,;
taro if they had the legal right to do so. At t'
events, it would have been better for the vestry °f
St. George's to have removed the column at Hyde:
'park-corner, and thus have prevented the subject
coming before parliament. He would give the sub-
ject his best consideration.