The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-31 00:00:00

CHESTER AND HOLYHEAD
RAILWAY.

The half-yearly general meeting of the shareholders
of the Chester and Holyhead Railway Company took
place yesterday at the Euston Station. The meeting
was held for the purpose of receiving the report of the
directors, for the election of directors in the room of
those who retire by rotation, to agree to the for-
feiture of certain shares, and upon the other business
of the company.
C. R. Moorsom, Esq., the chairman of the company,
took the chair at twelve o'clock.
Among the directors present we noticed Sir C.
Douglas, Captain Mangles, and Jr. Peto.
The CHADIAIII..7, in moving the adoption of the re-
port, confessed that he felt disappointed at the through
traffic since the opening of the Britannia Bridge.
He was glad, however, to say that they had two-
thirds of the traffic from Liverpool to Dublin.—
(Hear.) He could only account for the lesser traffic
to Ireland by the state in which that country was
placed at, the present moment, but he was in hopes
of seeing a brighter day.—(Hear, hear.) They
could not look upon this line as a completed line, and
he believed when it was finished it would be a most
prosperous concern.—(Hear, hear.) Ihe local traffic
had been very fairly developed, and he had no doubt
that ere long it would be considerably improved. The
company had adopted the system of low fares, but it was
said by many that they had not gone far enough. He
was one who did not like to adopt low fares too
hastily, but if it was shown that lower fares would
bring more passenger traffic to the line, no one would
be more reedy than himself to assent to it. He be-
lieved that when the company were in a situation
properly to carry out their line the slate and cool
traffic would be most profitable to them.—(Hear.)
The excursion trains had been most productive to the
company, and he believed that they would be more so
when the line was properly worked out. He believed
that the expenses of the locomotive department might
be considerably reduced, and that their agreement
with the London and North Western Company might
be revised and improved.—(Hear, hear.) A con-
siderable reduction, he was happy to env, had been
made on the working of the steam-boats.—(Hear.)
He trusted that in the election of the six gentlemen
that were to be appointed as directors they would
have regard to men of practical knowledge and ex-
perience, and that they would elect men who would
honestly and satisfactorily carry out their interest.
The Hon. Chairman concluded by moving the
adoption- of the following report :
It will be in the recollection of the shareholders that
at the last half-yearly meeting yoar directors oboticed
their approval of a Bill authorising this company to
lease their line to the London and North-Western Rail-
way Company, or to make other arrangement; with that
company for its working. They hoped that long before
this time they should have been placed in a pesition to
convene a special meeting, to which, after receiving the
formal sanction of the measure req'sired by the House of
Lords, it wonld hove been their duty to submit !the plans
by which the scheme then contemplated might, in the
judgment of the directors, be most beneficially carried
into execution. They regret that they must now an-
nounce to you that these expectations have been entirely
frustrated.
" Parties having interests at variance with those of the
London and North-Western Company, and seeking to
encroach upon its traffic, took occasion, ftora the pro-
motion of the Bill is question by this company, to urge
upon the Committee of the House of Commons the intro-
daction of a clause giving to those parties powers and pri-
vileges quite incompatible with any practicable arrange-
meat between this company and the London and North-
Western for the completion or working of the line; and, in
spite of the earnest retuonetracces at your directors, they
succeeded in effecting that object. The Reuse, hew
- ever, threw cut the clause, and when the saute parties
made an attempt to reiastate it, it was again rejected.
But the same short-sighted hostility pursued the Bill
bef ire the Committee of the House of Lords, although
it was certain that with such a clause the Bill would be
valueless for any public or private object, because the
London and North-Western Company would refuse an
alliance coupled with the conditions imposed; and the
issue proving unfavourable, the measure has been ne-
cessarily abandoned, to the serious detriment of yoar
interests, and without a particle of benefit to the parties
whose opposition to the London and North-Western
Company led them to strike at that body through this
corn pany.
." The retuit is a matter of deep regret to your direc-
tors. Their best hopes of improving your position were
founded on the possibility of combining your interests
with those of the Lyndon and Nortn-Western Company,
and of rendering it safe and profitable fur that power-
ful body to aid in extricating you from your embarrass-
ments. But your directors could not, of course, expect
that that company would undertake so arduous a task,
under the additional pressure of an Act of Parliament,
which proposed to deprive them, in favour of a third
party altogether witheut rightful claim, of a large
share of the legitimate advantage of the projected en-
terprise.
" Nor is this the only disappointment which your di-
rectors have experienced. Ia March last you were ap-
prised that they were in communication with her Ma-
jesty's' Governmenp, having for their object such assist-
ance as would enable the company to complete the un-
dertaking at the earliest period;' and they continued
their endeavours to this; end uutil a very recent date.
They urged upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with
all the force which they felt to be warranted by the
justice of the case, their claim to temporary aid from
the public press, on the ground-Ist, that the contract
for the mails having been granted to the company, be-
fore it broke ground in its works, for the avowed reason
that the traffic was insufficient in itself to utford recom-
pense for so great an undertaking, the loss in that re-,
spect resulting from the visitation which had desolated
Ireland ought not to be thrown exclusively on the com-
pany, without any contribution from the Government,
so greatly benefitted by the opening of such an import-
line of communication; and, edly, that the peremptory
requisition of the Admiralty, backed by a Parliamentary
Committee, in regard to the mode of crossing the Menai
Straits, having imposed on the company an additional
and unlooked-for expense of nearly half a million ster-
ling, it was equitable that the Government, thus re-
lieved from all share of the cost necessary to reconcile
two public objects (to wit, the free navigation of the
straits, and the continuous lite of railway fc9m London
to St. George's Channel), should afford some assistance,
by way of :loan, to enable the company to complete its
works, in order to its reimbursement.
"Your directors are sorry to state that, whilst they
have been personally treated with every consideration
and courtesy, the Government has refused to entertain
these reasonable and moderate claims for a contribution
in the shape of mere temporary aid, although it was
shown in the clearest manner that no risk could be in-
volved in the transaction. The only concession rattle to
the company—at the same time that its success in over-
coming not merely the vast natural difficulties of the un-
dertaking, but the impediment thrown in its way by a
public department, was used by the Prime Minister as a
cogent argument for the abolition of the Lord-Lieute-

nant of Ireland—has been the abandonment by the Go-
vernment of its claim for a contribution of 200,0001. to-
wards the new harbour at Holyhead. The directors feel,
however, that such a demand for a contribution to a
public refuge harbour i 3 one which never ought to have
been made. In the same spirit cf inditi,renca to the
di:lit:tittles of a company eng Iged in carrying out an en-
terprise of pre-eminent public importance, the contract
for the performance of the mail service between Holy-
head and KirgAtown was given to parties who have
a direct interest in diverting the traffic to the route
by way of Liverpool. And this was done notwith-
standing that a Select Committee of the House of Com-
mons, of which the lamented Sir Robert 1.).5el was chair-
man, after considering the question whether this com-
pany should be permitted to own steam-boats, had ex-
pressed a deliberate opinion with respect to the advan-
tage of placing the management and control of the
whole line between London and Dublin in the hands of
a single party.
" Under the heavy discouragements briefly described
in the foregoing paragraphs, and labouring constantly
under the pressure of the pecuniary difficulties with
which the company has had to struggle, your directors
have exerted themselves to the beat of their ability to
accomplish, at the earliest possible date, such a comple-
tion of the line as may fit it for general purposes of use-
fulness. In furtherance of this end, the last tube of the
Britannia Bridge has been raised to its intended place;
and your directors hope that that wonderful structure
will be finally completed during the month of October
nest.

"In their last report, your directors stated their in-
tention to open a separate revenue account from the Ist
of January last. That course has been taken, and the
net proceeds have been applied towards the payment of
the half-year's interest on debentures due on the 10th of
July last, which, amounting to 24,549/. 10s. 5d., haves
a balance of 8,5211. 16s. 71 chargeable against the
earnings of the current halt. year.
" The proprietors will observe that the gross traffic
of the six months under review has yielded a return of
38,6521. 3s. 3d. contrasted with 31,9831 ss. id (irre-
spective of the mails in both cases), earned during the
same period of 1849; and your directors are using all
the means at their command so to increase their power
of meetieg the demand for accommodation for minerals
as to afford all tl•.0 desired encouragement to that im-
portant branch of business. As an instance in point,
they are now engaged in arranging for the construction
by private parties of several sidings and short branches,
for the purpose of bringing upon the line the produce of
adjacent quarries and the like, with the stipulation that
the expense of the work shall be repaid to the construc-
tors from the proceeds of the toll. A resolution will be
submitted for your approvai, giving your sanction to ar-
rangements of this description, which cannot bat con-
duce to the advantage of this company.
" The attention of your directors has been earnestly
given to the cost of working the line and its adjuncts,
with a view to every practicable and prudent reduction
of expenditure, in respect especially to the packet-
service; and they have now so organized the system
of managing the steam-boats that they have
good reason to expect that, taking into account
the earnings of those vessels, and of the express trains
to which they are exclusively attached, and which would
be useless without them, :the proceeds will more than
counterbalance the expenditure. It may be added that,
finding the payments on'account of insurance to be ex-

tremely heavy, amounting in the aegregate to 6,497,
from the Ist August, 1q,48, your directors are of opinion
F', 'c-r, a ;hat it will be ex p;rsiient that the company should pecome
Mt/insurer of it.; own steam-_0 Ita, setting aside a certain
awn annually to cover th&,risk of loss, eni they requsst
' your,slnction accordingly.
Zk'he arrears of calla due at the last half-yearly meet-
ing amounted to 40,6664 10s., since which 2,816 h 10s.

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