The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 20, 185

GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY.

MEETING THIS DAY.

The ordinary half-yearly general meeting of this com-
pany was held to-day, at the London Tavern—E. Denison,
Esq., the chairman, presiding.
The report, which has already been published, was taken
as read.
The CHAIRMAN said that the first item in the report had
reference to capital account, upon which he wished to make
a few more general observations than were generally con-
tained in reports. He contended that the state of the capital
account of the company was the measure of its prosperity,
and he referred to the report of Capt. Galton which appeared
in The Sun, which corroborated his views on this subject.
He thought they would agree with him that the amount
expended on railways in this country was frightful. It ap-
peared that no less than £325,000,000 had been spent on
railways, and he believed that 25 per cent. of that sum
might have been saved if companies followed the example of
the present company by preventing as far as possible the in-
crease of the capital account. The directors had strictly
applied that principle to their operations, and, instead of
issuing large sums of money in constructing works, they
had, when it was practicable, availed themselves of existing
lines for their transit. If other companies had adopted a
similar course he was sure their dividends would be much
larger than they were at present. To show that he was
stating what was correct, he alluded to the fact that, al-
though the directors had the power of making a
line from Doncaster to York, they preferred
the using existing lines, and had availed themselves of the
lines from Leeds to Wakefield and from Leeds to Bradford.
With regard to the south, they had given the Midland the
power to run over their line into London, and whenever
they could do so with benefit they had followed the same
practice. As respected the money expended on capital ac-
count for the half-year, he would refer them to page 10 of
the report. The law and parliamentary expenses were
£5,835 12s. 6d., and were incurred in order to enable the com

pany to carry out their arrangements with the Manchester,
Sheffield, and Lancashire Company. The sum of £11,602
2s. Bd. under the head of compensation was applied to the
payment of old purchases of land which had been made,
and to recent purchases made from the North London
Junction. The money expended on works of construction
was £38,591 12s. 3d., of which over £,7,000 had been ap-
plied to the purposes of obtaining goods accommodation for
the Midland Company, and the next large item under the
head in question was £25,000 for the Sheffield station,
which was the result of a negotiation between the two com-
panies. This time last year they had advanced the Shef-
field Company £25,000, in order to keep good faith in re-
ference to traffic receipts, and they had received an equiva-
lent in being permittted to use the line of that company,
a privilege which they had not previously pos-
sessed. If they had not effected that arrangement,
they would have had to lay out about £lOO,OOO. There was
a sum of £3,201 under the head of locomotive engines and
tenders, which he thought was purposely placed to the
capital account. In explanation, he stated that the lines
between Wakefield and Leeds, and Leeds and Bradford,
were such that it was impossible for the engineer to work
without making an alteration in the locomotives so as to
meet the description of the gradients on these lines. With
respect to revenue, there had been an increase in the traffic
of £2133 7s. 10d. which would have been farther increased
to the extent of £240,000 but for the reduction in the coal
traffic. He next referred the shareholders to page 13 in
the report, and said that unavoidably the directors had been
compelled to incur large parliamentary and law expenses,
in order to defend the property of the company. They
were aware of the extent of Parliamentary expenses which
he could not help saying were carried to a most improper
length,
A SIIAREHOLDER.—Ruinous.

The CHAIRMAN agreed with the hon. shareholder that
these expenses were ruinous. He concluded by moving the
adoption of the report.
Mr. PACKE seconded the resolution.

Mr. HUGHES made some observations as to the amount of
the legal and parliamentary expenses which elicited some
discussion.

The report was ultimately agreed to, and the proceedings
erininated.

GREAT SBIP COMPANY.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.-(TIL

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.