The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-09 00:00:00

GRAND TRUNK OF CANADA.

The report for the half-year ended June 30 has
just been issued. It states that the gross receipts
upon the whole undertaking, including the Buffalo
and Champlain lines, have been for the June half
of 1868, £646,797. Deduct the ordinary working
expenses (being at the rate of 65.93 per cent.,
against 70.53 of the corresponding half of last year),
£426,477. The renewals of the permanent way and
works in the half-year debited to revenue, £36,020.
Amounts paid on account for loss by fires at Sarnia
and Toronto, £4,110; leaving an available net
balance earned in the half-year of £180,190 ; de-
duct loss on American currency, £18,882 ; total,
£161,308, or an increase over the corresponding
half-year of £68,780.

Comparing the results of the half-year with the
corresponding period of 1867 there is an increase in
the gross receipts of £37,676, and a decrease in the
ordinary working expenses of £3,215, in renewals
of £18,953, and in the amount of the damages paid
on account of the Toronto and Sarnia fires of
£6,164. The rate of ordinary working expenses
for the past half-year being, as above stated, 65.93
against 70.53 per cent. in 1867. The charges for
renewals, adding £31,383 placed to " suspense ac-
count" last December, which has now been wiped
off, amount to £67,403. The loss on American
currency shows a decrease of £2,672, being £18,882
against £21,554 ; so that the net revenue balance,
after deducting this loss on the conversion of the
American "greenbacks," amounts to £161,308 ster-
ling, against £92,528 in the corresponding period
of 1867. The average receipt from passengers in
the half-year was 6s. 81d. per head, against 6s. Bd.
in 1867 ; and the average receipt per ton of freight
was 16s. 6d., against 15s. Bd. in the corresponding
period of last year. The debit to the capital ac-
count for the half-year amounts only to £4,083,
but as the capital account is in debit to revenue, this
sum, unless new capital is raised, will have to be
written on against the balance of £8,834. The
charges hitherto made against capital for extra
weight of rails and ballasting are now included un-
der the head of renewals, and brought against re-
venue. The importance of completing the works
of ballasting and improvement as soon as possible
can hardly be overrated. With regard to the loss on
American currency, viz., £18,882, the price of gold
fluctuated during the half year between 133} and
1431. The total loss on American currency since
1862 has amounted to £370,203, or equal to say
three years' full dividend on the first preference
bonds ; and besides this direct and positive loss
there have been, as a consequence of the American
war, indirect losses by increased wages and cost of
materials, perhaps, as large as the loss on the green-
backs themselves, after deducting any increased re-
ceipts from higher rates for freight. The expendi-
ture on renewals, apart from ordinary maintenance,
charged against revenue, has been £781,037, with
the effect of greatly improving the road. Of the
25 engines lately ordered from Messrs. Neilson and
Co., of Glasgow, 21 had, at the dates of the last
letter, received from Montreal, arrived in Canada.
The remaining four are on the way. Seventeen of
the engines are now ready for work on the line,
and the whole of them, it is expected, will be ready
for the anticipated heavy autumn traffic. the re-
ports received of these engines are very satisiac-
tory. Every effort that the directors have made to
bring about an amicable settlement of the differ-
ences of account with the Buffalo Company has
hitherto failed. The Buffalo board will neither
agree upon nor allow an impartial officer of the
Board of Trade to settle a deedof arbitration,
Recent further negociation through Messrs, Creak

and Ritter has ended in nothing, as while the
president of the company signed a• memorandum
'of settlement of all matters, as Mr. Creak sug-
gested, the representative of the Buffalo Com-
pany has refused to do the same. The
directors have much satisfaction in announcing
that negotiations have again been re-opened
for the renewal of the Reciprocity Treaty.
• Every effort has been made, and with consider-
able success, during the cessation of this treaty to
open up new channels for the traffic formerly con-
signed to the States. The newly-developed traffic
with the maritime provinces is gradually extending.
For example, during the past half-year the increase
in the Halifax traffic is $28,256, and in the St.
John traffic $26,601. The stoppage of trade with
the United States has augmented largely the loss
upon the Buffalo section, which, if independent,
would hardly have paid its working expenses. The
bonds issued by the city of Portland twenty years
ago in aid of the construction of the Atlantic and
St. Lawrence Railroad, amounting in the aggregate
to $1,500,000, begin to fall due in December next.
The amount then maturing is $200,000, of which
sum it is expected there will be about one-half
provided by the sinking fund attached to the
loan ; the other half will have to be provided by
the Grand Trunk Company. The balance of
the above debt, viz., $1,300,000, falls due at
various periods between December next and
January, 1871. As the sinking funds will, in
the aggregate, only be capable of providing about
one-half of the whole amount, it follows that the re-
mainder will have to be found by the Grand Trunk.
To meet this payment of say $750,000, it will be
necessary to issue new bonds, either in American
currency or in sterling. The latter mode would,
of course, be preferable, in consequence of the high
rate of Fremium now paid for gold in the United
States. The bonds, wherever they are issued, will
be protected by a sinking fund ; they form part of
the working expenses of the Grand Trunk Com-
pany ; and the only mortgage that takes precedence
of them is one for $1,500,000. The bonds bear 6
per cent. interest per annum, payable half-yearly.
The directors, as owners (themselves and their im-
mediate connections) of more than one-fifth of the
total capital of the undertaking, urge most seri-
ously upon their co-partners that recent divisions
have done much to weaken and disorganise the exe-
cutive management, and to paralyse efforts to
restore the property. The directors have done all
that was possible to meet unexampled difficulties,
and they believe that their policy and proceedings
will be found, after the full inquiry which they court,
in every way worthy of approval. They have pre-
served property by successfully resisting its for-
feiture in Canada. They have carried the com-
pany through the periods of American war and the
Fenian raids, and they now see the intercolonial
railway secured, a renewal of the reciprocity treaty
under negotiation, and the traffic and net profit in
these more quiet times resuming the date of deve-
lopment which distinguished both up to 1866,when
the Fenian troubles commenced and the Recipro-
city Treaty was repealed. Certain bond and stock
holders, dissatisfied with the management of the
undertaking, having convened a meeting for the
18th June last, a resolution was passed calling
upon the directors as a body to resign, and appoint-
ing a committee to secure that result. This resolu-
tion having been forwarded to them, a long corre-
spondence took place ; and as the result, the direc-
tors think they shall best promote the interests of
the undertaking by referring the whole matter to
the ensuing general meeting, being themselves still
quite ready to receive at once, as colleagues, any
three eligible gentlemen who may be approved by
the bond and stock holders at large.
Mr. Heseltine, the chairman of the Buffalo and
Lake I-luron Railway Company, in a circular to
the bond and stockholders in the Grand Trunk of
Canada Railway Company, congratulates them on
the success which has attended their efforts to ob-
tain a list of the proprietors after four months' hard
labour, stating that it was only one step towards a
change in the management of the company. He
asks the bond and stock holders to demand and vote
for a change of management on the simple ground
that the present directors have been in office a long
time, and that under their policy, with an annual
revenue exceeding £1,300,000, they cannot pay in-
terest on the first preference bonls.