The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-28 00:00:00

PUNJAB.

The report of the directors states that since Sep-
tember last 12,000 tons of permanent way material
and a large quantity of rolling stock had been
despatched to Kurrachee, and the ironwork of
every description necessary for the construction
and working of the railway was either contracted
for or in course of delivery for shipment to India.
The earthwork on the section between Lahore and
Umritsir was of excellent quality, and only two
bridges on this section were in a forward state. By
a prompt fulfilment of their engagements by the
native contractors for the supply of ballast and
sleepers this most important section would be
speedily completed, and opened for the accommo-
dation of the public. The whole of the ironwork
had been for some time on the spot, and the plate-
layers despatched from this country to put it toge-
ther had arrived. The Umritsir station designs
had received the sanction of Government, and the
Mean Meer and Atarree stations were all but com-
pleted. The works at the Great Central station at
Lahore had been greatly advanced the past half-
year. The earthworks to be completed between
Lahore and Mooltan were inconsiderable, and beyond
Mooltan to Shere Shah they were so far advanced
as to be within a short distance of the Cheenab
river, at which spot the interchange of traffic
coming from Kurrachee for the north, and vice
versa, would be effected. Last month a call of
X 5 per share was made payable on the capital
of this railway, which was well responded to. No
other call would be made on the proprietors during
the current year. A considerable proportion of
the shares were now fully paid up, and payments
would continue for the present to be redeived in
anticipation.

The capital account showed that £903,531
had been received, and £676,923 expended,
leaving a balance of £226,608.

CAPE TOWN.
The half-yearly meeting of this company was
held yesterday at the London Tavern ; Mr. H.
Watson in the chair.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, congratulated the shareholders and directors
upon do i..su “Ltenaunce or proprietors on that
occasion. It showed that they felt a due regard for
their vested interests, and that they were prepared
to extend their confidence to the directors and to
give them their support. As recommended at last
meeting, the statement of accounts had been modi-
fied. The works were now progressing satisfac-
torily, and with greater expedition than formerly.
Mr. L. BROWNE, the managing director, seconded
the motion for the adoption of the report. He
entered into several details with a view to explain
the matters referred to in the report. The exten-
sion of the line into the centre of Cape Town had
been sanctioned by the Government, which would
add about two miles of double line to the length of
their railway. A temporary station was to be
erected at Cape Town, at the suggestion of Sir G.
Grey. The iron and zinc work had been executed
since the order was given in November last, and the
materials for the station had been shipped, so that
there was nothing to prevent the completion of the
station at Cape Town by June next. The Govern-
ment had agreed to extend the guarantee of 6 per
cent. on an additional sum of £20,000 for the cost
of the proposed extension and station, provided the
contractor was not bound to execute it under his
contract. The authorized capital was £500,000,
and, if it should be found necessary to exceed that
amount, the sanction of the local Legislature would
be required to extend the guarantee to the
additional capital. The directors would never
ask the proprietors to raise capital beyond
the amount authorised without a similar guaran-
tee on the new capital. Station-masters had
been selected from the Great Northern Rail-
way and sent out two months ago. Before the end
of 1860 the iron rails for 34 miles of line had been
sent out, and 38 miles of sleepers. Since then 11
miles of rails had been shipped and 18 miles of
sleepers. There were 10 miles of rails ready to
ship, and they had only 10 miles mote of rails and
about four miles of sleepers to ship. They would
have no delay in respect of the permanent way
materials, and so soon as the earthworks were ready
the line could be laid down. They had 6,400 shares
in the company, which were paid up in full, and
£47,000 had been paid in advance of calls. The
works were in a forward state between Cape Town
and Stellenbosch, and a few miles of line had
already been laid. Since the supplemental contract
had been signed the works had been carried on in
a more satisfactory manner, the payments to the
contractor now averaged between £B,OOO and
£9,000 per month, whereas formerly they did not
exceed £3,000 or £4,000 per month.
Mr. J. BARRY, who had resided 43 years in the
colony, said the prejudice against the railway was
at present very strong, but he thought, when it
was opened for traffic and its great advantages
became known, that a great change would take
place, and they would then be anxious to extend
railway communication into the interior of the
country. The Government was most anxious to
extend those work and to give the enterprise all
the assistance they could.
After a short discussion on items of account, the
report was adopted, and Mr. Alderman llakin was
elected an auditor.
GENERAL OMNIBUS COMPANY.
The annual general meeting of this company was
held yesterday at the London Tavern, Mr. F. J.
Law in the chair. The report havingbeen taken
as read,

The CHAIRMAN, in moving its adoption, said the
unseasonable character of the weather during the
year 1860 had materially influenced their business
by increasing the cost of all articles of consumption,
while it also seriously damaged the revenue. Other
companies had suffered from the same cause. He
might adduce as an instance of the effect upon their
receipts of unfavourable weather that in June, 1859,
they received £52,172, while during the same period
of 1860 they only received £49,277. As an instance
of the effect of bad weather on the Sunday traffic,
in 1860 the gross receipts on June 17th, which was
a very wet day, were £978. while on June 24th (the
following Sunday), which was very fine, they
amounted to £1,702. The directors were not in a po.
sition to meet them in the way they would wish, and
they felt, therefore, much disappointed; but, as the
causes which had led to this position of affairs were
purely temporary, there was no reason for discou-
ragement. The actual loss they had experienced
amounted to only £2,907, a sum which a few days
of fine weather would readily produce. They had
had to contend with the introduction of low fares in

consequence of opposition from other parties, the
competition they met with rendering that reduction
absolutely necessary.
Mr. MACNAMARA, a d irector, seconded the motion.
Mr. PEEL then moved that a committee of 25
shareholders be appointed to investigate the affairs
of the company.
The motion having been seconded, was put and
negatived by 52 to 30.
The report was then adopted.
A proposition from the French shareholders that

£15,000 out of £24,000 made last year should be
set aside for a dividend was referred to the consi-
deration of the directors.

The retiring directors having been re-elected, a
resolution providing that the next meeting (a half
yearly one) should be held in September was carried,
and the proceedings terminated.

ATLANTIC ROYAL MAIL STEAM NAVIGA-

TION COMPANY.
The ordinary meeting of this company was held
yesterday at the London Tavern, Mr. Mulcomson
in the chair.

The report stated that the present directors, who
had come into office in September last, had since
been doing everything in their power to improve
the financial position and prospects of the com-
pany. To carry on the company it was necessary
to raise £600,000 additional capital by the issue of
preference shares, and to regard all the losses
hitherto sustained as so much capital invested.
The CHAIRMAN moved the adoption of the report,
and said, although they had not sucbeeded in
converting difficulties into success, he trusted they
had laid the foundation of a prosperous future for
the company. He trusted that when on the 9th of
next month they recommenced the postal service
they would be able to afford so much satisfaction
both to the Government and the publiolthat they
would secure such an accession of traffic as would
enable them, after the payment of working ex-
penses, to keep the subsidy clear to pay not only
the interest on the transference capital, but also
within a short time to pay a good dividend to the
original shareholders. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. J. S. STIRLING seconded the motion, and it
was carried.

The CHAIRMAN moved the creation of £600,000
additional capital by £lO shares, with a preference
of 6 per cent.
Mr. ROBINSON having seconded the motion,
Mr. STIRLING moved, as an amendment, that the
preference interest be 7 per cent., which was se-
conded, and unanimously agreed to, and the pro-
ceedings terminated.

POLICE lATELLIGENCE.—Mareh 27.

MANSION-HOUSE,—Edward Holland, 22, de-
scribed as a letter-carrier, and dressed in the extreme
of fashion, was brought before the Lord Mayor in
custody of Haydon and Russell, detective officers,
and charged with uttering at the bank of Messrs.
Glyn and Co., in Lombard-street, a cheque for £690
7s. 3d., bearing a forged endorsement.
The accusation was preferred by Mr. Peacock,
the solicitor to the Post-office. The prisoner was
undefended.
The circumstances are remarkable.---On the 25th
of Jan. last Mr. George Souter, the cashier in Edin-
burgh of the Religious Tract Society, forwarded by
post, enclosed in a letter, a draught for £690 7s. 3d.
to Mr. Richard Jones, the "depositary" of the so-
ciety, as that gentleman called himself, at their
head quarters in Paternoster-row. The check Was
drawn by the National Bank of Scotland on Messrs.
Glyn and Co., and made payable on demand to the
order of Mr. Jones. It was endorsed on the back
with the name of Mr. Jones, which he proved to be
a forgery. The letter, with its enclosure, ought t o
have arrived in London next morning by ordinary
course of post, but it never reached its destination.
On Monday, the 28th of January, between 1 and 2
o'clock in the day, the draught was presented for
payment at the bank of Messrs. Glyn by a man who
received in exchange for it 12 £5O-notes of the
Bank of England, £9O in gold, and 7s. 3d. in silver.
The notes were all dated the 20th of November,
1860, and bore numbers, which were regularly re-
gistered in the books of the bank. Mr. Campbell
Hardy, the cashier, who paid the money, had not
now any recollection of the man who presented the
draught, but a clerk in the bank named Thomson,
who saw the money handed across the counter, took
particular notice of the recipient, thinking it was a
large sum for a person of his appearance to receive
on his own account. The prisoner, to the best of
his belief, was the man. In less than half-an-hour
afterwards the prisoner presented three of the £5O
notes at the Bank of England, asking to have them
exchanged for gold. Mr. W. S. Dean, one of the
pay-clerks in attendance, noticed that the notes
were endorsed on the back " Richard Jones, 40, Pre-
bend-street, Islington," and his suspicion being ex-
cited by the prisoner desiring to have the whole of
the £l5O in gold, he turned his back for a moment
to look at a directory which lay in a little room par-
titioned off from the counter, with a view of verify- •
ing the address, and on his return the prisoner had
disappeared, leaving the three £5O-notes be- ,
hind him, and without having obtained the money.
Mr. Dean immediately went to see if the prisoner
had left the place, and learnt that a man of his
appearance had gone out by a back way which was
unknown to strangers. In a day or two afterwards
the Religious Tract Society, becoming aware of the
robbery, offered a reward of £5O for the apprehen-
sion of the prisoner. The police authorities, how-
ever, lost all trace of him until Monday last. On
that day the prisoner entered the shop of Mr.
Campbell, a jeweller in 'Tottenham-court-road, and
asked to look at a diamond ring which was in the
window. Before leaving he selected a watch and
chain, the price of which together was £33. Taking
out a pocket book, he said he had not sufficient
change, and ordering the articles to be sent home,
giving an address in Euston-square, he went away.
Frank Perry, the shopman, suspecting the prisoner,
went to Scotland-yard and mentioned the transac-
tion to the police authorities before delivering the
goods. From there he took the watch and chain to
the house in question in Euston-square, where he
saw the prisoner, who offered him a £5O note in
payment. This Perry declined to take, prisoner
being a stranger to him, but offered to go and pro-
cure change for it. The prisoner, who on that
suggestion appeared rather confused, handed the
note to Perry for that purpose, who left, taking his
goods with him, and went directly to the Bank of
England, where the note, being one of the 12, the
payment of +which had by that time been stopped,
was detained. On Tuesday afternoon Russell and
Haydon, the detective officers, went to a house in
Clarence-row, Kentish-town, where they found the
prisoner. In reply to a question he said his name
was Holland, but at first disowned and then admitted
that on the previous day he had bought a watch and
chain at a shop in Tottenham-court-road, and
offered a £5O note in payment. Telling him they
were detectives, they charged him with uttering
the stolen draught for £690 odd, and forging the
endorsement on it. They then tried to coax
him to give up the rest of the notes, upon which,
hesitating for a few moments, he drew from a
pocket of his trousers a purse, from which he
took seven £5O notes of the Bank of England,
which were afterwards identified as part of those
he received at the bank of Messrs. Glyn. Russell
said there was still another £5O note missing, and
demanded to know where it was. The prisoner
replied he had left it with the landlady in Euston-
square, as a deposit on taking her apartments on
the previous day. Russell told him the landlady
had denied that he gave her any money. The
prisoner insisted that he had, adding that he left
it with her because he had no small change. He
also stated that he was a letter-carrier, and did not
wish to be made the subject of a Post-office prose
eution that he had found the notes, but did noi
say where.

The prisoner with some bravado cross-examined
the witness Thomson, from Messrs. Glyn's, as to
how it was possible he could swear to him, seeing,
as the witness admitted he did, some 500 people at
the bank in a day. Thomson repeated his belief
that he was the man who presented the draught
there for payment, and the witness Dean, from the
Bank of England, spoke positively to the identity
of the prisoner.

On the application of Mr. Peacock, who com-
mended the witness Perry for the great discretion
he had shown in the transaction, the Lord Mayor
remanded the prisoner until Monday.

GUILDHALL.—Thomas Spencer, described as
a fishmonger and higgler, of Back-street, Hitchen,
Hertfordshire, was charged at the instance of the
Commissioners of Sewers, with unlawfully sending
to Newgate-market the carcase of a cow which was
in such a diseased and unsound condition as to be
totally unfit for human food.
Mr. Charles Pearson, the City Solicitor, said this
was a proceeding against the defendant for sending
to a public market in this city a quantity of
diseased meat to be sold for human food, and he
was:happy to say that the salesman to whom it was
consigned called the inspector's attention to it as
soon as it arrived, and the consequence was that it
was immediately seized and condemned by order
of the magistrate at this court. The practice,
however, of sending meat iu such an unwhole-
some state to the London markets had become
so dangerous that the Commissioners of Sewers
were now determined to prosecute in every case, and
so put an end to a practice which Dr. Letheby had
reported was not only prejudicial to health, but
dangerous also to the lives of the poorer classes
who, providing that they bought their meat at a
cheap rate, were not particular about the quality or
condition of it.
Mr. Walter Greatres, a salesman in that part of
Newgate market called Tvlor's market, said, on the
16th of February last a hamper, containing four
quarters of beef, was delivered at his shop by the
Great Northern Railway Company, and on opening
the_ hamper he found the meat so bad that he called
the inspector's attention to it. A. label, now pro-
duced, was attached to the hamper.
Inspector Fisher said when he seized the four
quarters of beef, the flesh was very wet, and so badly
diseased that the men would not handle it to weigh
it. The weight was about 3001 b. Some time after