The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-22 00:00:00

RAILWAY MELLIGENCE.

LONDON, MUCHITON, AND SOUTH COAST.
The directors have issued their report for the half
year ending the 30th of June, which is to be sub-
mitted to the meeting of the proprietors to be held
at the International Hotel, Southwark, on the 30th
instant. They state that the liabilities when the
directors took office a year ago amounted, accord-
ing to the estimate of Messrs. Price, Holyland, and
Waterhouse, to £2,323,177, in addition to
£876,870 for lines which the company was under
Parliamentary obligation to construct. Authority
has now been obtained to abandon these lines, and
the remaining liabilities are reduced, according to
the latest estimate, to £293,611, of admitted lia-
bility, and about £175,000 contingent on the re-
sult of the reference to the Duke of Richmond in
the Surrey and Sussex and Chichester and Mid-
hurst cases. To meet these liabilities the company
has unexercised debenture power under the Act of
the present Session for upwards of £500,000 ;
so that, as far as they can see at present, the direc-
tors do not anticipate any necessity for issuing any
part of the £1,000,000 of ordinary stock authorised
by this act. The total amount expended on capital
account during the past half year has been £178,800,
consisting entirely of expenditure upon new lines in
progress, or abandoned, or in winding up the ac-
counts of lines recently opened, every shilling ex-
pended on old lines or plant having been charged
to revenue. The comparison of revenue receipts
and expenses for the current and past half year and
for the corresponding half year of 1867 shows the
total traffic receipts to have been, on the 30th June,
1867, £534,559 ; on the 31st of December, 1867,
£700,793 ; and on the 30th June, 1868, £575,358 ;
and the total working expenses and renewals on the
30th of June, 1867, £412,537 ; on the 31st of De-
cember, 1867, 2406,933 ; and on the 30th of June.
1868,i341,263. This result the directors consider'
very satisfactory. The receipts have increased by
£40,799 over the corresponding half year, while the
expenses have diminished by no less than £101,301,
so that the increase of net profit amounts to £142,100.
It is true that the expenses of the half year of 1867
were increased by arrears of revenue charges which
had been allowed to accumulate, but a close ex-
amination of the accounts of three half-years will
show that there has been a large and progressive
reduction under every considerable head of ex-
fairly be attributed to the
pe
exertionsndi ex-
penditure, may
of the officers, the greater efficiency of the
line and stock, and the rigid economy which has
been everywhere enforced. According to the rate
receipts and expenses are now going on,
atth the h
expense
n s of
the whole of the year 1868 will have
been reduced in comparison with those of the year
which
before the present directors took office from about
75 to 55 per cent of the receipts, and from about
Is. 4d. to 3s. 4d. per train mile. The sum included
in the revenue charges of the present half-year for
repairs and improvements of old lines and stations,
which would formerly have been charged to capital,
amounts to £21,369, which represents the cost of
working with a closed capital account. The ac-
counts for the half-year show a balance of revenue
over expenditure of £243,578 15s. 10d., to which
must be added the balance from last half-year,
£l,OOB 17s. 4d. ; making a total of 1244,587
13s. 2d. Of this the payment of debenture and
other interest requires £94,908 ss. 9d., leaving
available towards payment of the preference in-
terest £119,679 7s. sd. This will suffice to pay the
full half-year's interest on all the preference
stocks up to the issue of £1,661,335 5 per cent.
stock, No. 6, 1860, on which half the half-year's
interest can be paid, amounting in all to £119,679
7s. sd. As the gross revenue of the second half-
year always exceeds that of the first by about
£150,000, while the expenses are not above £30,000
or £40,000 in excess, it is morally certain that
there will be enough net income at the end of next
half-year to pay the full year's interest on the en-
tire preference stocks of the company for the year
1868, with a small surplus. The directors feel,
therefore, that as the result of their labours for the
year they have been in dice they may fairly con-

gratulate the shareholders on seeing their property
rescued from insolvency, and restored to a pofition I
of perfect soundness, with a closed capital account
and all preference charges provided for, so that any
increase of receipts from the development of traffic
cannot fail to accrue to the ordinary shareholders.
The company had two bills before Parliament, one to
authorise the working union with the South-Eastern
and Chatham companies ; the other for a slight in-
crease of tolls, abandonment of useless lines, defini-
tion of debenture power, and increase of capital.
The principle of the working union was unani-
mously sanctioned, after full inquiry, by committees
of both houses; but a clause was introduced by
the committee of the House of Lords limiting the
tolls over the whole system to the maximum tariff
sanctioned for the Brighton Company. The South-
Eastern Company were of opinion that this would
involve a serious sacrifice of their present receipts,
and accordingly the bill was withdrawn with the
concurrence of the three companies interested. The
directors regret the loss of a measure which would
have been attended with so much advantage both
to the shareholders and the public, but they will
endeavour to mitigate it as far as possible by
taking advantage of the amicable relations
which now so happily prevail with neigh-
bouring companies to make equitable arrange-
ments respecting the traffic at all competing points.
The other bill, which has been passed, gives the com-
pany important advantages, and enables the direc-
tors to say with confidence that all the urgent dif-
ficulties of the company are now surmounted, and
that its restoration to a position of prosperity is
merely a question of time. The directors propose
to take advantage of this bill to create debenture
stock, for the balance of their authorised powers,
and also to convert the whole of the terminable de-
bentures into an uniform consolidated 4f per cent.
debenture stock, and resolutions to this effect will
be proposed to the meeting.