The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-13 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN.
The directors of the London and North-Western
Railway Company, at the half-yearly meeting of
proprietors to be held on the 19th inst., will recom-
mend a dividend at the rate of 44- per cent. per an-
num for the half-year ending the 30th of June last,
carrying forward a balance of £9,236.
The directors of this company-have just issued
their report and statement of accounts. The report
states that the receipts include those of the Chester
and Holyhead Railway and steamvessels for the
half-year and corresponding period of 1858. The
receipts from passengers, parcels, mails, &c.,
amounted to £812,758 for the past half-year against
£758,383 in the corresponding period of 1858,
showing an increase of £54,375, and the receipts
from merchandise, &c., amounted to £850,529
against £756,606, showing an increase of £93,923,
making the total receipts for the past half-year
L 1,663,287 against £1,514,989 for the correspond-
ing halt of 1858, showing an increase of £148,298.
The working expenses were £731,808 against
£688,834, showing an increase of £42,974, leaving
the net increase £105,324. The report goes on to
state that the increase of £148,298 in the receipts
arises mainly from additional traffic in passengers
and goods, and is attributable in a limited degree
only to the cessation of competition at reduced
rates ; in fact, the partial restoration of fares
hitherto has been to a great degree nen. tra se y
the frequent running of excursion tramsl and the
existence of special contracts for goods at low rates
which have not only very seriously interfered with
the proceeds of the ordinary traffic between the
more important points, but have also added mate-
rially to the cost of working. During the past six
months, as compared with the corresponding period
of 1858, the increase has been—Number of passen-
gers carried, 449,348 ; weight of goods, 265,432
tons; weight of minerals, 178,207 tons; mileage of
passenger trains, 144,570 miles ; mileago of
goods trains, 259,300 miles. Throughout the en -.
tire system (including the stations on the Chester
and Holyhead Line) the local traffie has shown a
steady and satisfactory increase of receipt both
in the passenger and merchandise branches.
The widening of the railway from Willesden to
Bletchley has been completed, and the additional
line was opened throughout for the use of the
goods and mineral trains on the Ist of July. The
result of the several applications to Parliament
affecting their interests made by this company and
others has been, on the whole, satisfactory, although
'the rejection by the House of Lords of the bill for
authorizing arrangements between the London and
North-Western, the Great Northern, and the Man-
chester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Companies, and
which had been approved by the committee of the
House of Commons, is much to be regretted, as it
will interpose delay and difficulty in giving to the
proprietors of the several companies and to the pub-
lic the advantages and the accommodation which
the agreement, fully carried out, would afford. A
renewed application will be made to Parliament,
and in the meantime effect will be given to the
agreement as far as practicable. Acts have been
passed, for authorizing the construction of a rail-
way between Garston and Edge-hill, near Liver-
; for authorizing the partition of the London-
Station, Manchester; for authorizing working
arrangements between the London and North-
Western and North Staffordshire Railway Com-
panies ; for authorizing arrangements between the
Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire Junction,
the London and North-Western, and Great Wes-
tern Companies jointly; and for the construction
by the London and North-Western Company of a
short line from the Aston station on the Grand
Junction, near Birmingham, to Sutton Coldfield.
The projected lines between Dewsbury, Ossett, and
Wakefield, and Batley and Adwalton, have not
been sanctioned; but the committee on the bill for
the amalgamation of the Lancashire and Yorkshire
and East Lancashire Companies have granted
access over the lines of those companies to Bury,
Halifax, Bradford, Wakefield, and Normanton,
with the needful station accommodation at those
places. the principal objects for which those bills
were promoted have been attained without entail-
ing upon this company the contemplated and other-
wise necessary expenditure of capital. In the same
act access over their line from Ardwick to Stock-
port and Macclesfield has been granted to the
Lancashire and Yorkshire Company on the same
terms and conditions.
After alluding to the proposed arrangement be-
tween the Birkenhead Company and the London
and North-Western and Great Western Company,
for a transfer to the two latter companies of the
Birkenhead undertaking, the report"states that the
Government having expressed a desire to have the
communication between England and Ireland acce-
lerated as far as practicable, and having passed a bill
authorising the use of locomotives on the piers and
on the railways crossing the streets of Holyhead,
the directors have intimated their readiness to make
the necessary arrangements, so that a considerable
improvement will probably be at once effected.
The directors request a vote of the proprietors for
£63,097 for additional sidings and station accom-
modation.
The net proceeds Mr the half-year amounted to
£497,226, to which was added £23,196 from the
preceding account, making a disposable balance of
£520,422. The dividend recommended at the rate
of 41 per cent. per annum would absorb £511,186,
and leave £9,236. At the corresponding period of
1858 the disposable balance was £450,704, includ-
ing £43,347, brought from the preceding account.
The dividend then declared was at the rate of 34
per cent. per annum, and absorbed £444,778, leav-
ing a balance of £5,925 for the next account.

GREAT WESTERN.

Yesterday at 1 o'clock the half-yearly general
meeting of the proprietors of this company was held
at the Paddington Station for general purposes of
business and for the purpose of submitting for the
consideration and approval of the shareholders an
agreement proposed to be entered into by the Bir-
kenhead Railway. Company for the transfer of the
Birkenhead Railway to the London and North-
Western and Great Western Railway Companies
jointly. There was a large attendance of proprie-
tors. The Earl of Shelburne, chairman of the com-
pany, presiding.
The report stated that, from the gradual revival
of trade, an increase of £50,999 had taken place in
the past half-year in the receipts on the Great
Western lines, and £20,082 on the Shrewsbury
lines, making a total of L 71,081. The report goes
on to state,—" Notwithstanding such increased re-
ceipts, the general working expenses, with one ex-
ception, have diminished. The maintenance of way
and works is substantially, the only item for which
any greater charge has arisen, and this is attribut-
able partly to the reconstruction of timber struc-
tures, adverted to in last report of the directors. It
must be added that several new lines of railway,
opened in 1857 and 1858, have since become a charge
on the revenue for maintenance ; and that a new
system of removing and reinstating two or three
miles of continuous lengths of permanent way, has
been resorted to as a method of insuring a m ore
permanent improvement of the line, but which has
been attended with additional cost,. It will be seen
by the accounts that £l,OOO has been set aside from
revenue under the head of Reserve for Fire Insu-
rance premiums.' The directors think it judicious
to provide a fund to meet losses, which the company,
as self-insurers in many instances, might otherwise
have to defray, out of the current revenue, whenever
they occur. They therefore recommend £2,500 to
be debited in each year, until a sum of £20,000
shall become available to meet any loss from fire,
which reserve fund should be treated in like man-
ner with the Accident Fund, already accumulated
to that prescribed amount. An additional charge
of £5OO has been appropriated to meet any bad or
doubtful debts, and both sums are comprised within
the working expenses of the last half-year. The
*traitors have personally superintended the taking
°Stock of all stores belonging to the company at
are Swindon,kept.
for
at every other station where stores
the board
their entire
use. They have reported to
rt.entire satisfaction with the result of
that investigation, has verified the actual pos-
session of the
be in stock on stores represented
represented by the accounts to
30t
last. The disposable bal-
ance, after providingun for all interest on loans and
as
fixed rents,
amounts
dividends pay-
able by the company, manenatato £96,256 ; from
which the directors recommaodtividend to be
declared at the rate of 2 per ce
annum
on the consolidated *stock and Windsor
shares, pay-
able to the proprietors in the usuall way
ben e and.
after the Ist September, leaving
i 3,BB3seen
-that out of £77,000 due for liabilities, £26,394 have
`been paid, while, on the other hand, -e
—21,630 have
-been received in part of the value of surplus lands,
&c., expected to realise in the aggregate £102,000.
The Brentford Railway And Docks were opened for
c *rtain descriptions of traffic on the 18th of July ;
b nt, inasmuch as some portion of the work remains
to be completed by that company, the conditions of
th e permanent lease, with respect to the quantity
of goods to be sent there do not yet come into °p-
rat ion. The act of Parliament ratifying the agree-
tam it with the Brentford Dock Company has
received the Royal assent. It is with peculiar
sotis£ action your directors mention the friendly
co .op' ration and mutual support given during the
pr' 'sent session by the London and North-'Western
am. !• Great-Western Companies to two bills, pos-
sess .732 g -a
common interest for their respective pro-
prif fors. The prolongation of the West London
Rai 'way- from Kensington to join with the South-
We Eteril and Crystal Palace Railways, on the
soul of ti Thames, intended to be connected with ,
Ae