The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-18 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIVENCA

LONDON AND IILAOICV`y*ALL.

The report of the directors to be presented at the
half-yearly general meeting of proprietors on Tees •
day next states That the total revenue amounts
to £54,030 Is. Bd., and the total expenditure to
£18,731 1 le. 6d. ; leaving a net profit of £35,298
10s. 2d. Oat of this sum £7,589 13s Bd. is required
for interest, and the balance, £27,708 16s. 6d. is
available for dividend, which enables the directors
to recommend the payment of a dividend for the
half-year, at the rate of £4 per cent. per annum
upon the consolidated stock of the company. The
prevalence of wet 'weather has been prejudicial to
the growth of the passenger traffic, and a longer
time than was anticipated having been required
to complete the works in progress for extended
accommodation for goods traffic referred to in the
last report, no additional revenue has been derived
from that source during the half-year. The Great
Northern Railway Company are in possession of
their new stations at Blackwall,* adjoining the
East and West India Docks, and the station at
the Minorics, hitherto used by the Great Northern
Railway Company and the lessees of the Victoria
Docks jointly, has been surrendered to the former
company, the business of the lessees having been
transferred to their new station, on the north side
of the line, adjoining the bonded warehouses.. The
premises at Blackwall, formerly used as workshops,
have been given over to the Midland Railway
Company, and the Clay Cross Company are in the
occupation of their enlarged coal depot at Shad-
well. Additional rents and interest will from this
time be derived from these arrangements ; and the
directors have every confidence that their expecta-
tions of increased traffic in goods will be realised
to a considerable extent in the course of the pre-
sent year. Two new locomotive engines, of a more
powerful description than those required for the
company's passenger trains, have been provided for
the goods' traffic of the Great Northern and Midland
Railways, and the cost has been charged to capi-
tal. In pursuance of the resolutions passed at last
meeting the shares in the new capital of £300,000
were offered to the proprietors, and 24,154 shares,
representing £157,001 of the capital, have been up.
In consequence of the depression in the value
of the capital stock below the relative price at which
the new shares were issued, the directors have not
attempted to dispose of the remainder of those
shares, and inasmuch as the capital subscribed is
sufficient to execute the greater part of the works
proposed, according to the estimates given in the
last report, the directors are of opinion that it will
be desirable to wait for a more favourable oppor-
tunity to place the unissued shares, and in the
meantime to arrange with the bankers to defer the
repayment of their loan. If, however, it should be
found necessary to issue the other shares at a less
price than £6 10s. each, the directors consider that
the proprietors who have taken shares at £6 108.
should be placed in the same position as those who
may take the shares at a reduced price. Interest
at the rate of 6 per cent. per annum has accrued
upon the deposit of £1 10s, per share, paid on the
new shares in Sept. last, and it will be divided
amongst the holders of those shares.

EASTERN COUNTIES.
The report of the directors to the half-yearly
meeting, on Thursday next, has been issued. " The
revenue account for the half-year exhibits a decrease
of £7,203 14s 2d ; the receipts being £690,104 13s
Bd, as against £697,308 7s 10d for the correspond-
ing period of 1859. The exceptional state of the
weather during the autumn and winter months,
and the deficiency of the harvest, have exercised a
prejudicial effect on the traffic, which your directors
however, see no reason to doubt will pass away
with the came. The expenditure on the capital
account this half-year in respect of new works and
increased accommodation to stations amounts to
£4,244 10s. 6d. A sum of £lO,lll 12s. has also
been charged on account of the permanent im-
provement of bridges, which have been renewed
substantially with brick, iron, and earthwork, in-
stead of timber with which perishable material
they were originally constructed. A further sum
of £39,753 6s. ld. has been charged for new plant
added to the rolling stock of the company consisting
principally of passenger carriages, goods
wagons, and break vans. The result of the
undertaking as regards the Eastern Coun-
ties Company is, that there is a net sum appli-
cable as revenue (after deducting the working ex-
penses, which amount to £349,975 10s. 11d.) as
will be seen by reference to revenue account B, of
£219,338 lls. 7d. • less interest on guarantees
and loans, £146,202 ss, ; balance, £73,136 6s. 7d. ;
add sum carried over after paying Juno dividend,
1860, £5,758 lls. 2d. £78,894 17s. 9d. ; deduct
on account of deferred permanent way account, as
per statement, page 13, £4,000; leaving £74,894
17s. 9d. available for dividend, out of which the
directors have declared a dividend of £1 3s. 9d. for
the half-year, being after the rate of £2 7s. 6d. per
cent. per annum on the ordinary share capital of
the company, which will absorb £69,274 16s. 9d.,
leaving a balance of £5,620 ls. to be carried for-
ward to the succeeding half-year. The working
expenses for the half-year are £49 13s. per cent.,
as against £35 17s. 6d. per cent. for the correspond-
ing period of 185 t. The permanent way and works
continue to be maintained in an efficient manner.
The expenditure on this account has, during
the last half-year been £100,281 3s. 11d., being
an increase of £41,874 Bs. over the cor-
responding period of 1859. The sum which has
been debited to revenue account is £69,552 35.:11d,
as against £58,406 15s. 11d., being an increase of
£11,145 for this half year. The balance of £30,729
(less £4,000 debited to revenue, leaving £26,729)
has been placed at the debit of the deferred perma-
nent way renewal account, your directors consider-
ing that so large an increase of expenditure—due
to the renewal and relaying of 50 miles of railway
with new sleepers—should not all be charged to
the revenue account of one half-year, but be spread
over a longer period. Much care and attention is
given to maintain the efficiency of the locomotive
department, which is steadily improving. The
directors refer to their remarks under the Parlia-
mentary head in their last report. Their appre-
hensions as to further aggressive attacks upon the
traffic of this company have,they say,unfortunately
been fully realised. They refer particularly to the
scheme for a direct line to Bury St. Edmunds
by way of Barking, on the London and Til-
bury line ; to the scheme for a line from Bury
to Thetford, from thence to Swaffham, to join
the East Anglian Railway, and from King's
Lynn to Sutton Bridge, to join the Norwich
and Spalding Railway, and thereby to effect a
junction with the Great Northern Railway at Spald-
ing; to the scheme for connecting the Bedford and
Cambridge line, for which the act was obtained in
the last session, by a junction with the Colne Valley
Railway at Haverhill, and for making a branch
from Haverhill to Clare, to join the Sudbury and
Clare Railway, and also to extend their railway
into Colchester. The directors, in their last report,
intimated that it had become necessary to take
measures for preventing the spread of this aggres-
sive system, by promoting the formation of such
lines as might appear to be really required for the
reasonable convenience of the district, and they
have followed up this suggestion by introducing in
the present session of Parliament a bill for extend-
ing the existing railway at Sudbury to Bury St.
Edmunds and Cambridge; and they have also
consented to assist in the formation of a line
from Bishop's Stortford to Braintree, by sub-
scribing to the extent of one-third of the required
capital of one hundred and twenty thousand
Pounds ; and they have also agreed to assist
the completion of the Ware, Hadham, and Bunt-
ingford Railway, by subscribing an amount Rot
exceeding twenty-two thousand P min 4 s.
o The
directors are of opinion that the ae--
:onamdatien
which will be afforded. by lines
supported by this company ;so projected and
ru
the districts through syrnj abundantly supply
trust to be able to SP'. -itch they pass, and they
tile lines ought r ot ito blalY Parliament that the hos-
determined thats the bill for the pro-
anctioned. The Board
o Trade have
posed anr,:igateation should be
first prepared and
su brat ted to the other companies, and that then any
pv:inte of difference will bo determined by that
board. The draft bill is now before counsel, and
the directors fully hope to be in a position to intro-
duce it in Parliament for the next session. The
directors regret that the differences with the Nor-
folk and Eastern Union Companies remain un-
settled--a lengthened correspondence in reference
to the new hostile lines projected in the district
has taken place between the chairmen of the re-
spective companies, the greater part of which has
appeared in the public prints. In reference to
the pending suits in chancery, the directors regret
that little progress has been made in consequence
of the Norfolk and Eastern Union Companies not
having put in their answer to the bill filed by this
company. The answer of the directors of this com-
pany to the original bill was filed so long ago as the
15th Dec., 1859. The cross bill was filed on the
22d Feb., 1860, and the putting in of the answer
has from time to time been delayed on various pre-
tences, and no final decision can in consequence be
arrived at. The directors cannot conclude without
pointing out the extraordinary circumstances which
have affected the results of the undertaking during
the present half year. This is to be attributed to
causes which have been already referred to,
and have operated adversely in a district of country
which is,almost wholly agricultural. At the same
time it is advisable to state that at no period has
ithis:property been in a sounder condition,"