The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-27 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

GRAND TRUNK OF CANADA.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held on Thursday, at the London Tavern ; Mr.
E. W. Watkin, M.P., in the chair.
Mr. J. M. Grant, the secretary, having read the
advertisement, the report was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said it would be their duty to re-elect four
gentlemen who retired by rotation, or to substitute
four other gentlemen in their place. With regard
to the report, all the leading topics had been stated
in it as clearly as possible, and the accounts had
been most carefully audited both here and in Canada.
The capital account showed a large addition to it
for unpaid interest, but the real addition to capital
was only £33,258 for addition to stations and other
works at four or five places on their line, also for
10 new broad-gauge engines, and 50 new box cars.
Of that amount £5,509 had been charged to revenue
under the head of renewals. The gross receipts on
revenue account for the half-year ending Dec. 31
last amounted to £714,780, from which were de-
ducted the ordinary expenses, £395,674, or 55.35
per cent. of the receipts, leaving a balance of
£319,106. From this sum the whole expenditure-
on the renewals of the railway and w0rk5,'189,689,
was deducted, leaving £229,417. There was, in
accordance with an arrangement at the last meeting,
a sum of £52,945 deducted to extinguish the renewal
suspense account, also a nominal sum of £15,363
for postal and military service revenue, leaving a
balance of £161,189, which was disposed of by de-
ducting £58,848 for discount on American currency,
£23,690 interest on various loans, and the remainder
in payment of the rents of the Portland and Detroit
lines, the payments to the Montreal and Champ-
lain, and the Buffalo Railway Companies, and in-
terest on the equipment mortgage. With regard
to the renewals since 1861, the company had ex-
pended £526,865 in the renewal and improvement
of their permanent way, all of which had been paid
for out of revenue. No doubt that had enabled
them to considerably improve the corpus of the pro-
perty, and they must continue to keep up the effi-
ciency of their line. He was sure the bondholders
would agree with him that if they spent the money
on improving the road they could not pay the
bonded interest in cash. If they could not pay the
interest on the Ist, 2d, and 3d preferences in the
past half-year, they had, by making that sacrifice,
been enabled to renew or relay 65i miles of line, and
to put in the road 283,060 sleepers. On the Grand
Trunk line they had relaid 45i miles, on the Port-
land section 11-1- miles, on the Detroit two miles,
and on the Buffalo 64 miles. They had put in abou
7,000 tons of iron rails, and the re-rolling of which
had cost $29 a ton on the Buffalo section, $55 a ton
on one part of the American portion, and $463 a ton
on the Detroit portion. This was in consequence of
the heavy internal taxation, the high price of labour,
which affected the cost of everything in the United
States. The increase of the gross receipts of the
half-year, as compared with the corresponding half
of 1864, had been £86,565, or at the rate of 14 per
cent. Of this increase the passenger traffic had been
£50,819, or 19 per cent., and the increase in the
goods traffic £41,582, or 11 per cent., making
together £92,401; but there had been a decrease in
sundry receipts of £5,756, which reduced the total
increase to the £86,565 he had mentioned. The
sundry receipts related to Custom-house and other
charges for their customers. The increase of the
ordinary working expenses had been £19,402, or at
the rate of 5 per cent., as against increase of 14 per
cent. in the receipts. The ordinary working expenses
in the past half-year were 55.35 per cent., against 59
per cent. in 1861. On the American sections of their
lines—viz., the Portland and Detroit sections—in
addition to a large indirect taxation, the direct pay-
ments amounted to £9,131 for the half-year, being
£6,481 on the Portland section, and £2,891 on the
Detroit section. The cost of re-rolling the rails on
the Canadian portion of the line was $3O, and in
the United States portion $6O a ton, so that the latter
was exactly double the cost. The indirect taxes
were very heavy. In addition to excise duties
there were duties on materials, which in the course
of manufacture had to be paid for several times over.
Iron, for instance, in the shape of pig had to pay a
duty, when made into bars another duty, when
made into axles or wheels another duty, and when
the axles and wheels were fixed to the body of the
carriage a further duty of 6 per cent. as a completed
machine. So the same material had to pay taxes
four or five times. In addition to the severe loss
on American currency they had to pay their share
of those heavy duties. The loss in currency in the
past half-year had been £58,000, but for the cur-
rent half-year it was expected the loss on currency
would be much less. In some respects they had
managed to reduce the stock of stores on hand by
about £74,199, and they hoped by degrees to reduce
the stock of stores in future to about £200,000.
He explained how it was that apparent losses in
working the leased lines were compensated for by
bringing the traffic to and from them over a great
length of the company's main line. By the financial
arrangements made during the half-year they had
been able to clear off loans and bills to the amount
of £352,951. It had been suggested that if the
company could raise capital for capital purposes
the fist and second class bondholders might have
received their interest in cash for the past half-year.
The proprietors had authorised the directors to ex-
tinguish the renewal fund, and to improve the line
as far as possible out of the net revenue. He sin-
cerely hoped that the necessity for the great expen-
diture on renewals was past, and that the difficulty
in that respect had been got over, so that they might
be able in future half-years to appropriate the net
revenue to the payment of the bond interest as far
as it would go. The company had various amounts
of bonds and stock in hand, amounting together to
£379,000, or perhaps to a larger sum, but it would
not be wise to issue it at its present de-
preciated value. They must wait till some better
time came. He had no doubt the heavy strain
upon the company for renewals was now gone,
the effect of the loss on the American currency
was diminishing, and as the portion of net balance
not wanted for dividend or interest in America
would be made available for the bondholders, their
wishes in that respect would be attended to after
the end of the current half-year. (Cheers.) During
the past half-year they had cleared off the claims of
the second and third-class creditors. They had
settled their accounts with the Government of
Canada, and there was a balance of £50,000. It
was hoped that the Canadian Government would,
in
respect to another matter, come to an equitableas
arrangement with the company, as their claim. was
not greater than that of his friend Mr-
Bearntsng.A.ct,
accordance with the Companies'
and he hoped they would do as Arrangements Act,
had
done. The earnings in the current half-year to.the
31st of March amounted to /305,000, gainst
£294,000 for the corresponding half-year of 1865,