The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-08 00:00:00

ITALIAN IRRIGATION (CANAL CAvouß).
_. .. _

A meeting of bondholders in this company was
held yesterday, at the City Terminus Hotel, Can-
non-street, for the purpose of considering a propo-
sition and obtaining the consent of the bondholders
thereto ; Mr. J. P. Gassiot in the chair.
Sir T. BATESON, M.P., said he perceived there
were persons present who were not bondholders,
and as it was to be an open meeting, he begged to
retire from it, and also from the committee of bond-
holde rs.
The CHAIRMAN said the members of the bond-
holders' committee were present, and he trusted
that if there was any person in the room who was
not a bondholder he would have the kindness to
retire.

Sir T. BATF:SON said he would not remain in the
room, as it was not strictly a meeting of the bond-
holders' association.

Mr. DENT implored Sir T. Bateson and two
other gentlemen to remain, as the undertaking was
in bankruptcy, and the endeavour of all parties
was to get it out of bankruptcy, and to save the
property if possible.
Mr. CRESWELL explained that the whole of the
work of the committee during the past six months
would be thrown away if those who were deeply in-
terested did not act together with unanimity to get
a concordat, and thus release the undertaking from
bankruptcy. lie begged of the meeting to enable
the committee to carry out what they had been so
long and earnestly endeavouring to accomplish.
The CHAIRMAN said he regretted that Sir T.
Bateson and the two other gentlemen had left the
room, as it was necessary that bondholders, creditors,
and others should unite for their mutual advantage.
The judgment creditors, bondholders, and deben-
ture-holders were equally interested in the result.
Those who rented the canal wanted to get the
whole of it into their hands. The shareholders
were debtors, but they could not obtain the con-
cordat without them ; they were, in fact, a sort of
negative power, and Mr. Creswell had done what he
could to induce the shareholders to wait for ten
years, but they would not agree to the proposition ;
at length two members of each of the committees
representing various classes met together, discussed
the matter as men of husiness, and arrived at a
conclusion, which would be submitted to the meet-
ing for approval. They must still have confidence
in their committee, and the only resolution he
wanted to propose to the meeting was the fol-

lowing :
"That the bondholders now present do ratify and con-
firm in principle the preliminary agreement of the 20th of
December, 1867, as the basis of a concordat, and that a
final agreement with such modifications as the committees
shall approve be prepared embodying these terms."
Mr. COLBORNE seconded the motion.
Some objections were made by twv or three bond-
holders to the proposition, on the ground that they
did not know the scope of it, or understand what
wro intended to be done.

Mr. CRESWELL said the circular sent to the bond-
holde 7s stating the terms was clear enough. The
13( ndh)lders were scattered over Europe, and some
w( re in India, others were in America. Unless the
bcndinlders, shareholders, and creditors concurred
in the proposed arrangement, no satisfactory conclu-
sion could be arrived at. They must place confidence
in thegentlemen on the committee of bondholders, and
unless other gentlemen were appointed to repre-
sent the other parties interested it would be utterly
impossible to bring all the heads together to com-
plete the business in hand. There were parties now
waiting in Turin, Novaro, and other places in Italy,
to take advantage of any disruption of the com-
mittee that might occur. They had a valuable
property in Italy. He had visited the canal and
walked over a great part of the works. They were
not asked to sign a final agreement ; they were
merely asked to affirm the principle on which the
final agreement would be based. It was proposed,
after Betting add') a Bllflicient amount of guaranteed