The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-04 00:00:00

LONDON GENERAL OMNIBUS (LIMITED).

The half-yearly general meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the office, Finsbury-square
Mr. F. J. Law in the chair.
The report, an abstract of which appeared in
The San, was taken as read.
The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said he considered the past an exceptional
and disastrous year, great depression of trade, and
the prico of provendor for the horses was very high,
but the vitality of the company was uninjured.
They had on one side of their account £34,000
liabilities for stores, and on the other side assets of
£38,000 in provender and good debts. They had
also £40,000 of property safely invested. Those
were fagts that could not be negatived. If they

PRICE 4d.
STAII 'ED sd.

went back to the year 1858 they would find that
the company was then in great difficulties, and in
debt to tho amount of £120,000, having no divi-
dend. From 185 S to 1862 the directors worked
hard to get the company out of debt and into a
favourable position, and from 1862 to 1866 the
shareholders were paid dividends ranging from 5
per cent. to 7i- per cent. per annum, and instead of
b,ing in debt had accumulated a reserve fund of
£50,000. He stated that the expanse of provender
was in 1859 £51,980 less than in 1867, in 1860
£23,474 less, in 1861 £15,600 less, iu 1862 £22,192
less, in 1863 £53,230 less, in 1861 £55,800 less,
and in 1865 £40,800 less than in 1867. The high
prices of provender and the state of the weather
had affected their nett profits considerably, so
that they were reduced to a profit of £2,670, to
which they had added interest on investments,
and taken £2,297 from the reserve fund, which
enabled them to offer the shareholders a dividend
of ls. per share, being at the rate of 2f per cent.
per annum for the past half-year. There were two
circumstances over which the directors had no con-
trol—the weather and the price of provender. The
high price of provender occurred about once in
every seven years, and therefore he thought it
would not occur again for some time and that their
dividends would look up again. The directors had
reduced the expenses by £7,000 in the past year in
order to mitigate the falling off in receipts and the
increase in the price of provender. The directors
thought it better to keep the finances of the com-
pany in a sound position, and offer the shareholders
a small dividend. Another matter was the revival
of the project for street railways, and as it was pro-
posed to monopolise a portion of the streets and
highways for the laying down of the tramways, he
thought Parliament would not sanction those pro-
jects, and that the parish authorities and others
would oppose them. It would be their duty to op-
pose the laying of tramways in the streets, as
dangerous to horses and men passing over them,
and obstructive of traffic.

Mr. S. HERAPATH seconded the motion for the
adoption of the report. He said that the increase
in the price of provender over preceding years would
alone give them a much larger dividend than they
ever had. It must have been a most anxious time
for the directors and general manager; and he
thought they had done the least they could for the
company under the circumstauc2s. The depression
of trade had seriously affected the working classes,
and consequently reduced the receipts from passen-
gers, and, altogether, he thought the directors
were entitled to the confidence of the shareholders.

A very long discussion ensued, in the course of
which several shareholders gave their own version
as to the cause of the falling off of the dividend.

Mr. NODES took a prominent part in pointing
out what he considered defects of management, par-
ticularly respecting the horses and provender,
wages, and other matters, and generally opposing
the propositions of the Board.
The report was adopted, and a dividend of ls.
per share was declared for the past half-year, pay-
able on the 10th inst. The retiring directors and
auditors were re-elected.

The meeting was then made special to consider
certain alterations in the articles of association,
which were agreed to, and the proceedings con-
cluded with a vote of thanks to the chairman
and directors.