The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-30 00:00:00

SUB 31ABINE TELEG.RAP II COMPANY,

A QUA TICS.

DEAL REGATTA.

The annual regatta at Deal took place on Monday
Eight boats put in an appearance for the principal prize.
Amongst them were two crews from Hastings, one from
Newhaven, Deal, and Sandgate, and Bain's crew, of
Lambeth, who rowed in the Ariel, of Dover. The race
was fixed for three o'clock, and shortly after that hour a
good start Ni as effected ; but the race was never in doubt,
as the Londoners took the lead and kept it to the end,
winning by more than 15 lengths. Distance, four miles,
Time, 23 minutes.

Tho winning crew then proceeded to Dover to row for the
Lord Warden's prize.

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. Distance, three miles and a
half; time, 20 minutes.

After the match with T. W. Crout, jun., of Woolwich,
and John Young, of the same place, on Monday last, the
friends of Young were so annoyed at him being defeated so
easily that they again challenged the winner by matching
C. Webb against him for £25 a-side, which was at once ac-
cepted. They are to row from Putney to Mortlake, on the
Bth of October. £lO a-side is already staked.
Crout is under the care of R. Bain, of Lambeth.

EASTERN COUNTIES RAIL WA E

The ordinary half-yearly meeting of the shareholders and
directors of this company was held yesterday 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 CHAIR:VAN rose to move the reception and adoption
of the report. He said, before ho 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
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 CHArtotA,N 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. Quilter
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. Quilter and Ball, he might remark
that many heavy demands had been made for renewals of
permanent way, and the directors thought that instead
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 obsolete character, and
looking also to the prospects next year, a con-
siderable amount had been in course of delivery during
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.
Mr. AINSLIE complained of the manner in which the
contracts of the company had been entered into, and said
said that he knew many honourable men who would not
stoop to sweeten the under servants, and therefore they

never succeeded in getting any portion of the work of the

company.

Mr. ADAMS said, according to the accounts in the report,
one thing was very evident, and that was, that there was
a decrease of receipts and an increase of expenditure, and
he did not think that such a circumstance should be al-
lowed to continue. He wished to know whether the regis-
ter of the dividend account hal been examined indepen-
dently of the chairman, as last year they had been examined
by the chairman's clerk. He thought there ought to be
some different way of examining the register. Messrs.
Quilter and Ball were very eminent accountants ; and he
thought that some inquiry by the shareholders should be
instituted, and if he could get a seconder, he would move
that a committee be appointed to take into consideration the
last paragraph of Messrs. Quilter and Ball's communication.
Mr. Box agreed that it was very necessary that a com-
mittee should be appointed. If in after time anything un-
pleasant should occur, they (the shareholders) would only
have themselves to blame.

Mr. CIIRISTIR said to him that Messrs.
Quilter and Ball thought they should not divide anything
until all their debts were paid.
The motion for a committee was then put and negatived.
Mr. SOPER called on Messrs. Quilter and Ball to explain
why the letters were written.
The CHAIRMAN ruled that Mr. Soper was not in order.
He then put the motion for the adoption of the report,
which was carried.

A vote of thanks to the chairman terminated the proceed-

SHORT TIME AT BACUP.—The master cotton-
spinners and manufacturers of Bacup held a meeting on
Wednesday, and unanimously resolved to run no morb than
four days per week, commencing yesterday morning. With
but very few exceptions all the firms in the town were re-
presented at the meeting.

The half-yearly meeting of this company was held to-
day at the London Tavern. The report of the directors,
which was unanimously adopted, stated that the number of
messages sent by the company's lines during the half-year
ending the 30th June last, amount to 104,533, while only
79,503 were transmitted during the corresponding period of
1860, being an increase of 25,090 messages. The total re-
ceipts in money are, however, less by £4,236 than those of
the six months ending Dec. 31, 1860, which deficiency
arises chiefly from the reduction of tariff, and notwithstand-
ing the large increase of business, the directors have, by a
judicious economy, been enabled to reduce the working ex-
penses in the past half-year, by about £9OO.