The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-30 00:00:00

GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA.

" Sir,—We, the undersigned, inhabitants of Ja-
maica, hasten to express our deep indignation at
the misrepresentations which have been made by
some public writers in England in condemnation of
your Excellency's conduct during the recent rebel-
lion. We cordially agree in the sentiments ex-
pressed in the addresses of the Legislative Council
and the Assembly, to the effect that to your Excel-
lency's measures in the suppression of the rebellion
in St. Thomas's-in-the-East is due the present (ap-
parent) safety of other parishes of the island, and
the gratitude of the colonists. We do not doubt
that those measures which, under God's providence,
crushed out that rebellion in one parish arrested its
extension to other parishes, wherein the seeds of
disaffection had been widely spread among the
lower orders of the population. We cannot avoid
the expression of our deep regret that there could be
found in England men capable of commiserating
the deaths of murderers and traitors, while they can
in their public speeches and writings find no single
word to utter in sympathy for any of those who
have been wounded, or for life disabled, or brutally
massacred in the public service, or for the widows
and orphans of those who have so nobly fallen in
defence of Queen and country. Your Excellency
may rest assured that, if there can be found in Eng-
land men who, for the sake of political purposes,
will not hesitate to make capital out of rebellion
and murder, the vast majority not only of English-
men in her most gracious Majesty's widespread do-
minions, but also of the rest of the civilised world,
will heartily join with us, the colonists of Jamaica,
in deep sympathy with her most gracious Repre-
sentative in this colony, and her Majesty's Mili-
tary, Naval, Volunteer, and Civil Authorities dur-
ing this momentous crisis ; and in utter detestation
and abhorrence of the recent atrocities and mas-
sacres committed by the lower orders, at the insti-
gation of demagogues and fanatics, while in the full
enjoyment of all the blessings and freedom of the
British rule.—We have the honour to be, your
obedient servants."

Railway and other Companies.

LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH COAST.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
yesterday at the International Hotel, London-bridge
—Mr. L. Schuster in the chair.

The Assistant-Secretary having read the notice
convening the meeting, the report, an abstract of
which has appeared in The Sun, was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said he would first call their attention to the
capital account, which showed an increase of £550,000
in the amount of capital chargeable to revenue for
interest. This would go on gradually increasing as
they opened their new lines for traffic. He was glad
to say that as the works in hand progressed the in-
crease of interest charge would be gradual. The first
item of charge would be for their South London line,
which formed a semi-circular route from the Lon-
don-bridge station through a most populous district
to their Victoria station, and there could be no doubt
that the receipts from that line would not only con-
tribute to the revenue of their establishment, but be
a feeder to their whole system. He was also glad to
tell them that the board had obtained loans at mo-
derate rates of interest; they had received during
the half-year £B,OOO on their perpetual 4 per cent.
debenture stock, £13,000 on debentures at 4 per
cent., £BO,OOO at 41 per cent., and £60,000 at 41
per cent., which was the highest rate, and if the pro-
prietors considered the state of the money market he
believed they would admit that those rates were low
and would compare favourably with those of any
other company in the country. He thought there
need be no apprehension that as the additional capi-
tal became chargeable against revenue it would be
provided for by the additional revenue. The revenue
account for the year 1865 showed an increase in the
gross receipts of £67,269 in excess of those for the
year 1864; and it was satisfactory that their traffic
receipts still continued to increase at the same rate
as compared with the high traffic receipts of 1865.
The state of the weather had been very unfavour-
able this month, and he did not recollect so stormy
and wet a season as they had recently experienced.
The receipts for the past four weeks on their system
showed an increase of £7,439 against the corres-
ponding four weeks in January, 1865 ; and when it
was considered that the increase in the latter men-
tioned four weeks over those in January, 1864, was
£7,412, the result must be considered very satisfac-
tory. They had been favoured last year by the
prevalence of very fine weather, and, as he had an-
ticipated, the traffic at every one of their 117 sta-
tions showed a proportionate increase ; and if that
state of things continued, every additional outlay on
capital account would be provided for out of in-
creased revenue as the new lines came into operation.
They had only promoted lines that were necessary
for the public accommodation, and likely to be ad-
vantageous to the shareholders. Many of their
branches had been constructed at small cost. The
Horsham and Guildford line, 17} miles in length,
was constructed at moderate cost, and would be
useful in accommodating traffic from the west of
England in connexion with the Sout-Western Rail-
' way. He would not go into the question of delays
complained of in the public papers, which seemed
to be eagerly caught up ; but as he resided at
Brighton six months of the year, and often travelled
over the line to and from London, he could state
that the working of the traffic on it would bear com-
parison with that of any railway in the country or
in the whole world. The fact was that their trains
had been delayed by trains before them on the road
belonging to the South-Eastern Company. They
had kept an account of these delays, and could show
that the cause of them was not their fault, but that
of another company. He believed that in the course
of the next two years the portion of the line where
delays took place would be relieved of its traffic by
the new line of the South-Eastern from Lewisham
to Tunbridge, which would cut off the angle and
13 miles of that company's present route to Tun-
bridge and Dover. The whole of the South-
Eastern traffic, except that to Reigate, would thus
be taken off the Brighton line. The Brighton
Company's Hastings traffic would also be taken off
the Brighton lines by means of the Surrey and Sus-
sex line from near Croydon to near Tunbridge
when completed. Besides this there would be
finished in three months a second line to Brighton ;
but for this delay the contractors were to blame.
They would shortly have the old direct line pro-
jected by Stephenson, from Sutton to Epsom, Lea-
therhead, Dorking, Horsham, and Shoreham to
Brighton. The company had now 18 trains daily
between Brighton and London, and from London to
Brighton. He did not know of any town that had
the same accommodation. They must also give the
best accommodation to the other watering-places on
their South Coast line. They would have 26 daily
trains from London to Brighton, and vice versa,
and he hoped thct they would be remunerative to
the company. The blue line on the map would give
them a third line to Eastbourne and Hastings. They
had 90 miles of coast line from Portsmouth to Hast-
ings, and in case of war they could take down any
number of troops over their lines. Last Easter
Monday they carried 130,000 persons over the ex-
isting line to Brighton without any difficulty, and
the volunteers were perfectly satisfied with the ac-
commodation afforded. There could, therefore, be
no necessity whatever for another line to Brighton
as proposed, via Beckenham and Lewes, by the
South-Eastern and Chatham Companies. The esti-
mated cost of line was £3,000,000, but they knew it
would cost at least £4,500,000 before it was done.
The whole of the traffic between London and
Brighton was only £228,800 a year ; there were five
or six express trains each way daily, running the
distance in 62 minutes. They had 18 trains daily to