The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-29 00:00:00

_EASTERN COUNTIES RAILWAY

HALF-YEARLY MEETING—(THIS DAY.)
The ordinary half-yearly meeting of the shareholders and
directors of this company was held this day at the London
Tavern. The attendance of shareholders was not very
numerous at the commencement of the proceedings.
Horatio Love, Esq., chairman of the directors, presided.
The report, which has already appeared in The Sun, and
minutes of the last meeting having been read,
The CHAIRMAN rose to move the reception and adoption
of the report. He said, before he went into an explanation
of the accounts he thought it was his duty to refer in a very
prominent manner to a letter that had been received from
Messrs. Quilter and Ball ; and, before doing so, he would
have the letter read by the secretary, in order that the
shareholders might be in possession of every fact known to
the directors on the subject. That having been done, he
should be ready at the proper time to answer any question i
that might be addressed to him on the subject.
The Secretary then read the correspondence that had
taken place between the Messrs. Quilter and the Secretary
relative to the accounts of the locomotive department, and
particularly pointing out an error in the sum set down for
stock in store, which the Messrs. Quilter, the official audi-
tors of the company, stated to be "a deliberate perversion
of matters of fact."
The CHAIRMAN said he had no doubt that anybody who
had listened to the reading of the letter would come to the
conclusion that there had been some tampering or malver •
sation of the funds of the Eastern Counties Railway ;
but all the auditors were in the room, and he defied
any of them to put their finger on one item that was
not honestly entered in the company's books. (Hear,
hear.) The directors had, in fact, felt it right to deal
with the accounts in one way, and the Messrs. Quitter
had come to the conclusion that they ought to have been
dealt with in another. (Hear, hear.) With regard to the
first charge of Messrs. Quitter and Ball, he might remark
that many heavy demands bad been made for renewals o f
instead
of way; and the directors thought that
of charging the whole of the sum of £34,000 to one half-
year, it would be better to spread it over two—(hear, hear),
espeeially as that one-half year had been somewhat less
productive than usual. The head and front of the offend-
ing of the directors was that they had not taken the opi-
nion of Messrs. Quilter and Ball on that subject. He was
of opinion that the directors had done right. (Cries of
" Yes, yes;" and " No.") The second charge of Messrs.
Quilter was with reference to the locomotive department.
The directors, looking at the depreciation of the
locomotive plant and its obs olete character, and
looking also to the prospects next year, a con-
siderable amount had been in coarse of delivery dining
the last two years. The directors had thought proper not
to charge all the plant to the present half-year, and de-
termined to postpone £50,000 to the next half-year. As to
the "running on the line," he might remark that course
had been taken in order to test the efficiency of the new
articles supplied. (Hear, hear.) The whole question
was one of allocation of an account, and not one
of tampering with the property of the company.
The next point was a charge of omission of the debt due to
the Norfolk Company of £30,000, towards which, it was
said, there was no provision except about £7,000. This
was a matter which did not come properly under the notice
of Messrs. Quilter as auditors. The present was not the
proper time to fix upon the revenue, and arrangements had
been made to meet it, but it was not a matter neces-
sary at present to be introduced into the account.
With regard to other matters, he might say that Messrs.
Quilter had been mistaken in reference to the unliquidated
balances. This company did business to the amount of
£60,000 in goods a year, and no company in such a posi-
tion had so small an unliquidated balance as the Eastern
Counties Company. Such were the charges made by Messrs.
Quilter and Co., as to their opinions he took no heed of
them, believing that he was able to prove as sound a judg-
ment as they were. Turning to the general business of
the company the Chairman went rapidly through the ac-
counts, and various items of the report, and concluded by
moving its adoption.
Mr. GOODSON seconded the motion.
We shall conclude our report in a late edition.

YORK RACES.—(This Day.)

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
LATEST BETTING.
EBOR HANDICAP.
11 to 2 agst Voltella (taken)
6to 1 agst Bally Edmond (taken)
No other change.
Prologue scratched at 12.44.

AQUATICS.

THE LORD WARDEN'S PRIZE AT DOVER.
There were nine entries fir this prize, amongst which
was Bain's crew, of Lambeth, who were so successful last
week at Antwerp.

Only three boats put in an appearance, viz., Hastings, of
Hastings ; the Widgeon, of Newhaven ; and Bain's crew,
who rowed in the Ariel, of Dover. The latter, although
the worst placed, were the favourites at starting. The
Hastings crew took the lead, but the Londoners only
played with them, as when they were near home they drew
away from them, and at last won any way they pleased.
The following are the names of the crew :—Alfred Hop-
kins, Edward Carter, James Chapman, Robert Bain,
stroke, and J. Hill, coxswain.