The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-29 00:00:00

Naval and Military Intelligence.

Her Majesty's iron-clad ship Northumberland, 26
guns, 6,621 tons, 1,350-horse (nominal), which
arrived in the Medway on Tuesday from the Vic-
toria Docks, has been inspected by Vice-Admiral
Sir Baldwin W. Walker, K.C.8., Commander-in-
Chief at the Nore, at her moorings in the harbour,
where she will remain until the officials at Devon-
port yard are ready to receive her. There is com-
paratively little to be done in the way of completing
her for the pennant, and an expenditure of £5,000
will render her complete to proceed to sea. During
the run round from the Thames her engines, which
were in charge of Mr. Anderson, representing
Messrs. Penn and Sons, the makers, worked with
remarkable regularity and smoothness. The new
machinery for mounting and dismounting heavy
guns is to be tested on board the Northumberland.
The screw gun vessel Myrmidon, 4 guns, 695
tons, 200-horse power, building at Chatham, is to
be ready for launching in the month of March. She
is one of the Eclipse and Racehorse class of vessels,
for which there is now little demand in the navy,
although ships of this kind might be made exceed-
ingly effective if given an additional length of about
50ft., with a slightly increased breadth of beam and
improved midship section, to allow their carrying
engines of a comparatively high power and admit of
their steaming 14 knots an hour. The engines for
the Myrmidon, by Messrs. Humphreys, Tennant,
and Co., have been completed for some time.
The iron schooner Admiral Collingwood, belong-
ing to a private firm at Rochester, has been repaired
by the Admiralty, in Chatham dockyard, at a cost
of between £4OO and £5OO, to make good the inju-
ries she recently sustained from running foul of one
of the Government moorings in the harbour.
The following appointments were made yesterday
at the Admiralty :---Commander H. J. Challis, to be
Inspecting Commander of Coastguard ; and Edward
Thompson, nominated navel cadet.

Railway and other Companies.

GRAND TRUNK OF CANADA.

A. special general meeting of this company was
held yesterday at the London Tavern, for the pur-
pose of accepting an Act of the Canadian Parlia-
liament to legalise and confirm an agreement made
between the Grand Trunk of Canada and the Buf-
falo and Lake Huron Railway Companies—Mr. E.
W. Watkin, M.P., in the chair.

Mr. J. M. Grant, the secretary, having read the

notice convening the meeting, the report, an ab-
stract of which has appeared in The Sun, was taken

as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving a formal resolution
accepting the act above referred to, stated that the

bondholders and shareholders had it now in their

power to accept or reject the act. The whole matter
had been laid before the proprietors from time to
time, and the agreement made with the Buffalo and
Lake Huron Company in July, 1864, bad been
sanctioned at a general meeting of the company.
The Act to legalize it was passed last session by the
Canadian Parliament, and they had now to consi-
der the propriety of accepting it. He explained
how useful the possession of the Buffalo line had
been to them in the competition with the American
lines for through traffic, which had been carried
on for several months. In September last a meet-
ing of five companies, having all rail routes in the
United States, was held at New York, to which a

representative from the Grand Trunk Company
was invited, with a view to their joining with the
American lines in a combination for carrying the
East and West traffic at higher rates. The Grand
Trunk was to be admitted into the combination on
giving up their agencies for through tickets and
freight, but they declined the offer, feeling that the
Grand Trunk line should be made a popular route,
and thus induce all the traffic they could over it.
That policy had been successful, and they had
avoided the trap set for them. In five weeks after
the American combination had been formed the
Baltimore and Ohio Company withdrew from it.
The Grand Trunk were threatened with having
their traffic stopped at all points, but they held their
ground against all opposition. By a despatch they
had received that morning from Mr. Brydges it ap-
peared that the American companies had offered to
interchange traffic as before, and to put back the
fares at Buffalo and Detroit to what they were prior
to the competition, and to give the Grand Trunk
Company the usual facilities ; and thus bring that
formidable affair to a close. To show the advantage
of the policy adopted in this matter, and the neces-
sity of the company retaining absolute power over
the Grand Trunk Railway, he mentioned that it was
the only company in the competition that had shown
an increase of traffic, all the other companies having
shown a decrease. The traffic on the Grand Trunk
Railway during the period of competition of Canada,
working with those companies, showed a decrease of
£56,580, theMichiganCentral a decrease of £38,200,
the Michigan Southern a decrease of £20,000, the
Illinois Central a decrease of £137,000, the Chicago
and Alton £45,000, and the Erie a decrease of £51,000
as compared with the corresponding period. This
showed also that the directors and officers of the
Grand Trunk had protected the interests of the com-
pany. The local traffic was also promoted as much as
possible by the company. They had stated in the repor t
that £12,254 had been apparently lost by working
under the agreement with the Buffalo and Lake
Huron Company ; but there were figures on the
other side ; the interchange of traffic between the
two lines amounted to $2,000,000. The Grand
Trunk exchanged with the Buffalo $1,200,000, and
the Buffalo $BOO,OOO with the Grand Trunk, which
was equivalent to about £130,000, and at the lowest
estimate gave them £32,500 of net traffic. The
..whole matter had been carefully gone into by Mr.
Brydges, the general manager, and Mr. Hickson,
the accountant, and the result of their inquiry was
that it was beneficial to both companies to continue
the agreement, remarking that the full advantage
of the agreement could not be obtained until the
bridge at Buffalo was constructed. He then read
extracts from the report of Messrs. Brydges and
Hickson on the advantages of posseseing the
Buffalo line, which secured traffic over the Grand
Trunk line from Stratford to Toronto and Mon-
treal, which they would not otherwise obtain. It
expressed an opinion that, whatever might be the
present legislation of America, sooner or later a
wiser and more enlightened view would be adopted,
which would result favourably to the Grand Trunk
undertaking.
Mr. PorrEß seconded the motion.

Mr. HARTRIDGE thought the Board would do
well to consider what means could be adopted to
bring the Grand Trunk into friendly relations with
the Great Western of Canada. He believed there
should be harmonious working between the three
companies.

Mr. ADAMS thought it was now too late to offer
opposition to the arrangement. He estimated the
loss by theßuffalo in the past half year at £13,000.
lie believed the combination of the American com-
'Allies was to get good dividends for shareholders, and
that was the first duty of directors, but the Grand
Trunk had defeated that laudable effort by lowering
the fares.

Mr. CONYBEARE thought the Great Western of
Canada were much better off than the Grand Trunk
—they could pay their debts in cash and give good
dividends to their ordinary shareholders.
NEWMARCH contended that the directors: had
endeavoured to carry out the views of the late Com-
mittee of Investigation, and had been so far success-
ful. It was not their fault that the Great Western
of Canada kept aloof from them, and did not work
in harmony with the Buffalo and Grand Trunk
Companies. The Board was ready and willing to
come to friendly terms with the Great Western
when they pleased. It was absurd to suppose that
the Buffalo had any preference over the various
stocks of the Grand Trunk. The fact was the net
traffic on that line belonged to the Buffalo Com-
pany, and was merely the proportion they were en-
titled to from the working of their own line, and the
arrangement was found to be mutually beneficial.
After some observations by Dr. Johnson, Mr.
Wilde, Mr. Isherwood, and other shareholders, the
resolution accepting the act was carried unani-
mously, and a vote of confidence in the chairman
and directors concluded the proceedings.