The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-29 00:00:00

GREAT INDIAN PENINSULA.

The report of the directors states that during the
half-year ending the 30th June last the average
number of miles of the company's railway open for
public traffic was 343. The number of passengers
conveyed over the line during the half year was
1,182,078 against 691,862 in the corresponding half
of 1860; the receipt for passengers amounted to
£49,486 against £40,042 in the same half of last
year, showtng an increase of £,455. The number
of tons of merchandise and material carried was
146,820- against 109,611, showing an increase of
37,203 tons. 'The receipt for the conveyance of
merchandise and Lfhe company's materials amounted
to £74,914 again';` £53,352, showing an increase of
£21,562. The 'total traffic receipts for the half-
year ending the 30th of June amounted to £133,448
against £101,250, showing an increase of £32,198
over the receipts of the corresponding half of 1860.
The total expenditure amounted to £99,208, or
74'34 per cent., against £60,091, or 59.34 per cent.,
showing an increase of £39,117, or 15 per cent.
The net profit on the working for the past half-
year amounted to £34,240, against £41,159 in the
corresponding half of 1860, showing a de-
crease of £6,919. The receipts per train mile
were ss. 81d., against 6s. 11d., and the expendi-
ture 4s. 21d., against 3s. 71d. in the correspond-
ing period of 1860. The directors considered the
results of the passenger and merchandise traffic
satisfactory, in as far as they proved that the traffic
of the districts through which the railway passed
was being rapidly attracted to it. They were, how-
ever, of opinion that the money return was not com-
mensurate with the work performed, and that the
experimental rates for both passengers and goods
now charged would require considerable alteration
in order to realise the company's just expectations.
Tho subject of rates was of great importance, but as
long as the question continued to be affected by the
highly exceptional state of the railway at the Bhore
and Thull Ghats, it would not be possible to arrive
at any definite settlement; and so long, therefore,
the existing rates must be considered as experi-
mental. The same causes which operated unfavour-
ably on the receipts of the railway occasioned an
expenditure greatly in excess of the ordinarY work-
ing charges. In illustration of this statement, it
might be mentioned that while it had been found
expedient to regulate charges for goods upon the
basis of a through railway rate, as if the railway on
the Ghats were completed, the company had to bear
the actual cost of transporting them by the ordinary
road over those very difficult mountain passes. The
works of the railway on the Ghats were being exe-
cuted with the utmost vigour by the contractors, and
there was every prospect of the Bhore Ghat incline
being completed for railway traffic in the course of
next year. The railway was the means of bringing
into Bombay during last season large quantities of
cotton, whereby the active trade in that article
was very much assisted. The whole of the opened
lines, both in the Concan and in the Deccan, were
maintained in good working order at a mileage cost
of £46135. 2d. The roiling stock was also thoroughly
upheld and the necessary repairs were promptly
executed. The works of the railway were subjected
to a severe test by the extraordinary high floods of
last monsoon. The floods of that period were
stated to have been the highest on record, and to
have far exceeded any that had occurred since the
commencement of the railway. It was satisfactory
therefore to find that, with the exception of the
Goolbun viaduct, the works sustained very little
injury, and that no serious interruption of the
traffic was occasioned. This viaduct, at about six
miles from Kussarab, at the foot ofthe Thull Ghat,
fell in, during a violent storm, on the night of the
Ist July. An arrangement had been made under
which the contractor would construct an embank -
ment, with tunnel arches, across the ravine, as a
substitute for the viaduct,and so restore the through
communication by railway within the shortest time
possible, pfnding which the goods traffic would
havethetopof h
Td uu Ghatbetween
v theer
t Goolbun ravine and
he public road. It
was expected that a further portion of the line from
teh o
Nassick to Chalesgaon, 87 miles in length, would be
opened for public traffic on the Ist of October inst.,
and that contracts Nos. 15, 16, and 17 (the Jubbul-
pore line), had, with the sanction of the Secretary
of State for India in Ccuncil, been relet. The local
Government had definitively fixed on Warree Bun-
der as the site for the company's Bombay goods ter-
minus, notwithstanding the site was objected to by
the board, in which objection they were supported by
the commercial community at Bombay. It, there-
fore, only remained to carryinto effect the orders of
the Government, though entirely opposed, in the
opinion of the directors, to the. best interests of the
d
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9
station close proximity to the port of Bonably
net
revenue account showed that the total net profit
from 'working the traffic omountoa from the C 914-

mencement to £325,936, the whole of which had
been paid into the Government Treasury with the
exception of £6,740, which remained to be paid.
The length of the company's lines open for traffic
is 3501 miles ; in course of construction from Nu-
sick to Jubbulpore, 770 miles; and in abeyance
from Sholapore to Moodgul, 123 miles; making the
total length of the company's undertaking 1,2431
miles.