The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-02 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGRdYCE.

GRAND TRUNK OF CANADA.

Mr. Shanly, the general manager, in his rapoit
on the traffic and working of the line for the year
ending the 30th of June last, states that the road
was opened in its entire length on Nov. 21, 1859,
and the number of miles worked since that data was
comprised in the following divisions :—Detroit to
Port Huron, 59 miles ; Sarnia to Portland, 794
miles ; Richmond to Quebec, 96 miles ; and the
London branch, 21 miles; total, 970 miles. The
increased mileage during the year ending as above
was 90 miles. The average number of miles worked
during the year was 9321 miles. The total receipts
for the year ending the 30th of June last amounted.
to 2,909,054 dols., and the total expenses _to
2,413,774 dols, leaving the net earnings 495,280
dols. The average cost of working the line fir the
year was 49 dols 73c per mile per week. The gross
receipts for the year ending June 30, 1860, showed.
an increase of 627,733 dols, as compared with those
of the year ending June 30, 1859, and the increase
in the expenditure amounted to 334,644 dols, The
increase in the receipts over the preceding 3 ear
was at the rate of 271 per cent, while the increase
in the expenditure did not exceed 1609 per cent.
The management had been charged with grasping
at and fostering the foreign traffic to the neglect
of the local traffic. Every person at all conversant
with railway business knew that the local traffic
was the best paying traffic a road could have. In
refutation of that charge, the report states that the
company's foreign tonnage for the year ending the
30th of June last did not amount to one-sixth part
of their total tonnage. For every ton of merchan-
dise carried for foreigners they carried up-
wards of 61 tons for their own people. The mana-
gers were not so blind to the interests of the com-
pany as to give an undue preference to that class
of business which yielded the smallest profit. To
the through traffic of the Grand Trunk Rail-
way the Detroit and Port Huron section was
an indispensable adjunct, but for reasons he
would mention they were not now taking of
that class of business one-third of what was
offering, and, as a consequence, that portion
of their road was not worked to anything
like its full carrying capacity. In point of gra-
dients and completeness of construction generally,
it stood first among the several sections of the
Grand Trunk Railway, and when supplied with a
proper equipment could be worked at a lower cost
per mile than any other part of the line. Previous
to the 30th of June last the company had neither
engines nor cars of their own on the Detroit seca
tion, but were wholly dependent for working of the
line on hired rolling stock, which of course added
very much to the working expenses. Even row
they did not own in engines and cars suited to the
4 feet 81 inches gauge more than one third of a full
equipment. The aye rage receipts per mile per week
for the year ending the 30th of June last amounted
to 54 dols 49c, while for the 19 weeks ending the
10th of November they averaged 70 dols 10e per
mile per week. Since the securing of the large
crop of the past season a great improvement in
freight traffic had taken place. There was now
more agricultural merchandise offering than they
had the means of carrying, the deficiency of means
being principally in rolling stock, and, under that
denomination, chiefly in the article of covered,
freight cars. With a full equipment of cars and
engines, and with proper appliances for handling
and storing grain in bulk at Toronto, Kingston, ,
Montreal, and Portland, there would now be
scarcely any other limits to the business they could
(la than were imposed by the limited capacity of a
single line, and by the very small amount of ship-
ping to be counted en at Portland. With a view
to show the deficiency of working stock on the
Grand Trunk line, Mr. Shanly states that the pro_
portion was one engine to every 44 miles of road ;
and to every mile of road 2.7 freight cars ; while
the Great Western of Canada had an engine for
every 3.9 miles of road, and to every mile 3.4 freight
cars nearly. The Michigan Central had an engine
for every 31-, miles of road, and to each mile of road.
311 cars. So that, according to the proportion on
the Great Western line, the Grand Trunk would
require 31 additional engines and 508 freight
cars, and in accordance with the proportion
on the Michigan Central line the Grand
Trunk would require 61 engines and 846 cars
added to their present stock of 216 engines and 2,778
freight cars. The number of engines and cars thus
arrived at was absolutely required to enable them
to earn as large an income per mile per annum as
was earned by the Micnigan Central, the nature of
the traffic and other matters on both lines being in
many respects similar. Besides the want of plant,
the company were very much straitened for the
means of working the grain trade to advantage.
There was but one granary and grain elevator on
the line (at Sarnia), and until they had its fellow
at some point towards the other extremity of the
road it could be made but little use of; for the
unloading of 'the cars at the large grain markets,
such as Toronto, Montreal, and Portland, entailed.
far more expense on them than the loading at the
stations where it first reached the railway. The
almost total absence of proper facilities for handling
grain in bulk at Montreal had pressed heavily upon
them and upon the merchant for the last fow
months, and their total absence at Portland would
operate most prejudicially on their working expenses
at that point all the winter. There should be
elevators, with storage attached, capable of contain-
ing 200,000 bushels of grain, at Toronto, Montreal,
Kingston and Portland ; more shed room for
general merchandise was also required at all those
points, but more particularly at the two former;
and at many points along the line there was defi-
ciency of " siding" room to the extent of about five
miles in all. The completion of the " St. Lawrence
Dock and Wharfage Company's" wharfs at Pointe
Levi, and the extension, as formerly contemplated,
of the company's premises there, also would prove
highly advantageous to the traffic during that
moiety of the year when their principal communi-
cation with the ocean was by the way of the St.
Lawrence. It was at Montreal, however, that
means for facilitating the interchange of traffic
between the shipping and the railway was, and
would always continue to be, most essential. It
was as a freight-carrying road that the Grand
Trunk Railway was destined to hold a first
place among the great highways of the North
American continent. For passenger traffic it
could not hope to vie with the shorter avenues to
the great centres of population on the Atlantic
seaboard—Boston, New York, Philadelphia, arid.
Baltimore. To the merchandise traffic, then, they
must mainly look for swelling their earnings to the
point required to make the undertaking pay. With
regard to the undertaking, he had an abiding faith
in its ultimate ability to make a fair return on the
capital absorbed in it. The cost per mile to the
share and bondholders was much below the average
cost of the chief American lines east of the great
lakes, and though he would not undertake to pro-
mise that for some years to come it could be worked
at less than 60 per cent. of its gross earnings, he
believed that its receipts might be swelled to an.
amount that would represent a surplus sufficient to
pay interest on the bonded debt, and by and by a
dividend on the share capital. The working expenses
of the year ending the 30th June last were not to
be taken as a criterion of the proportion that outlay
was to bear to revenue for ever. For the first moiety
of that year they had no Victoria-bridge, and they
of
had unavoidably to do many things arising ou
shortcomings in original construction, which had
drawn unfairly upon revenue.
The traffic receipts on the line for thde wtoce7koe,Bll-
- the Bth of December last amouneett
of
1859 to
to the Bth of
K 19,029 dols.
dols, and for the correspo.ndingeulwyof
dols, and for the
51,812 dols, showing an itntitce4roe
4airs
The total traffic from the
51956,
increase of 403,222 dole,
preceding year to
December amounted to 1!
corresponding period t
1,193,275 dols, showing°4°
or 33'8 per cent.

=ls DArs MARRETS.

CORN EXCHANGE.

To
,dayPel market was very scantily supplied with English
wheat in poor condition. Both red and white qualities were
in fair, though not to say active request, at Monday's quo-
tations.

The show of foreign wheat was large ; nevertheless a
good business was done in it, and in some instances prices
were is per quarter higher than last week.
Floating cargoes of grain were firm in price.
We had a fair sale for barley. In prices, however, no
change took place.

Fine malt was scarce, and in request, at full quotations
but other kinds were very inactive.
There was a good consumptive demand for oats, at ex-

treme rates.

Beans and peas commanded full prices.
There was a good sale for flour, at extreme rates.

ARRIVALS THIS WEEK.
Wheat. Barley. Malt. Oats. Flour.
230 I 250 I 400 2lOl 310
500 1,910 1 1 50 sacku
hrls.

English.— •• ••
1ri5h....., ••
Foreign.... •• ..

WHITECHAPEL.

The demand for each kind of meat is steady, at fun
quotations :
Beef, 3s 2d to 4s 6d ; mutton, 3s Gd to 5s Od ; veal, 4s eql
to 58 Od ; pork, 4s Od to 5s 4d per 81bs. by the carcase.

BOROUGH HOP.
There is a steady business doing in most kinds of herr,
and prices 6.re well supported.