The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-06 00:00:00

HIGHLAND.

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held on Tuesday, at Inverness—Mr. A. Mathe-
son, M.P., in the chair.
The report, an abstract of which has appeared in
The Sun, was held as read. _ _

The CHAIRMAN, in moving its adoption, said the
works of the undertaking were now all completed.
They had settled with all their contractors, with
the exception of one firm, and the differences between
them were in course of settlement by arbitration.
He believed they had already paid that firm very
nearly the full amount they were entitled to. The
present outstanding liabilities of the company, in-
cluding sums due for land, amounted in all to about
£70,000. At the meeting in April last he expressed
a confident hope that negotiations then in progress
would enable the directors to place the floating debt
on a permanent footing at a fixed rate of 5 per cent.
interest, but the subsequent pressure on the money
market was so intense that they failed in obtaining
about £90,000 of the amount required ; and on this
latter sum they had during the last six months been
paying Bank rates. He might say that the whole of
their floating debt, amounting to £505,000, might
now be considered as borrowed for a term of years
on loan, bearing interest at the rate of 5 per cent.
The directors had been enabled to carry through
those arrangements by interposing their personal
security, in addition to depositing correapand-
ing amounts of stock in the hands of the lenders. The
excess of interest over 5 per cent. pa.id on thei9o,ooo,
amounting to about £l,BOO, as well as the general
balance of interest account, had been charged to
revenue. The restrictions on the transit of cattle
had continued until late in July, so that the past
half-year had the benefit of only one month of the
ordinary cattle traffic on the line. That had les-
sened the amount of their earnings by nearly £3OO
per week for five months of the half-year. In spite
of this drawback the earnings for the past six
months exceeded those of the corresponding period
of 1865 by about £5,000, while the working ex-
penses had been 40 per cent. of the receipts as com-
pared with 441 per cent. last year. (Hear.) Every
endeavour was made to develope the traffic and keep
down expenditure. The sheep and cattle traffic
showed a large increase during the present month
as compared with the same month last year ; and
still they knew that live stock to a large amount
continued to be conveyed by sea to the south from
districts to the north and west of them. The opening
up of these districts by independent railway com-
panies in connection with their line could not fail
to secure to them a very large accession of traffic.
They had recently been in negotiation with the
Post-office authorities for an acceleration of the
mails between Perth and Inverness. They had
offered to run the mail trains in four hours, which
would place Inverness and other towns within six
hours of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and 16 hours of
London, in consideration of receiving £5,000 ayear
in addition to what they now got. The negotia-
tions were still pending, and he trusted they would
result in something satisfactory.
The Duke of SUTHERLAND seconded the motion
for the adoption of the report, which, after a few
observations by Mr. Orphoot, Mr. Davidson, and
Mr. Gentle, was carried unanimously.
The dividends on the 6 per cent., 5 per cent., and
ill per cent. preference stocks were declared, and
also on the ordinary stock, at the rate of 1 per cent.
per annum, less income tax, for the past half-year.
The meeting was then made special to consider a
proposition for subscribing towards the Sutherland
Railway and holding shares in that company.

The CHAIRMAN explained that the Sutherland
Railway would form a continuation of the Highland
Railway northwards from Bonar-bridge to Brora,
a distance of 33 miles. The act authorising the
construction of the line was passed in June, 1865.
The Board had promised the promoters, prior to
going to Parliament, that they would recommend
the shareholders of the Highland Railway to sub-
scribe £30,000 towards the undertaking. Contracts
had been entered into for the construction of the
line to Golspie, a distance of 27 miles, soon after
the act had received the Royal assent. The works
were proceeded with, and the company was asked
to fulfil its obligation; but, in consequence of finan-
cial difficulties, they could not then subscribe the
requisite sum. To get over the difficulty, so far as
funds were concerned, the Duke of Sutherland had
handsomely agreed, in the event of the vote being
passed, to take up £30,000 of the Highland Com-
pany's unissued 4i per cent. preference stock and
pay cash to that amount. In this way the com-
pany would be placed in funds to pay the calls on
the Sutherland Railway shares. (Cheers.) The cost
of the railway from Bonar-bridge to Brora would
be about £200,000, and, with the exception of the
Highland Company's subscription and a small sum
subscribed by the tenants and others, the whole ex-
pense of it would fall on the Duke of Sutherland.
He then showed that the construction of the new
line would bring additional traffic on the Highland
line of upwards of £4,000 a year, which would pay
them well for the subscription. The Sutherland line
was a link in the chain of the through line to Caith-
ness, and could not fail to hasten the construction
of the latter line. He concluded by moving that
£30,000 be subscribed to the Sutherland Railway.
Major CU3IMING-BRUCE, M.P., seconded the mo-
tion, which, after a long discussion, was carried by
a large majority, and the proceedings terminated.