The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-04 00:00:00

1-11 of course Without their consent,

Company, for the long period of
999 years, at a per centage of 31, The effect of the bar-
gain, when ascertained, was to reduce the shares to 6

t WCitern

discount

they would in all probability be able either to set

the lease, or to obtain more equitable terms than those
which had been secured. Accordingly he (Mr. Lewis) wrote
to the shareholders in all parts of the country, and re-
- .
all ex-
Meet-

ive of their

acquiescence in his view

had since be

held in London and Leeds, at which

resolutions were passed authorising the necessar3
ing to be taken to annul the lease, and appointing com-
mittees for that purpose, and to which 1,400 shareholders
had sent in their proxies. He contended that a lease for
lust be considered in the light of a sale ; and said
clause in the Act of Parliament that in the event
-e three-fifths of the shareholders

proceed-

must be obtained. It was the opinion of eminent legal
advisers in London, that the lease was voidable, and that
the transaction involved a breach of trust ; and it was
now for the shareholders to act with promptitude and
becoming spirit. . .

A. PROPRIETOR observed, that in the general prospectus

per cent. v

..Lid be gr

might hay(

the grumbling

(11€
of the
1,,d from

caused the per tentage to be rais
ceeded to observe, that he had lately examined a state-
ment of the accounts, and discovered that the share-
holders of this line had been sacrificed to the in-
terests of the Great Western Company. He said that
a call of £lO per share had been made, ilien two
calls of £1 each would have answered every necessary pur-
pose, and that the money was raised for the purpose of
lending it to the Great Western. The sum of £91,000
of their money had been lent in November last to tho
Great Western ; and the Great Western had lent it to
others, without a promise of obtaining any interest, though
well aware that they had never been constituted into a

money-lending company.
The CHAIRMAN confessed that the making of unneci
sary calls and the lending of the money so raised with(

nterest was, in his opinion, wo:
)f_the lease. (Hear, hear.)

lair. LEwis o served that the first thing to be done now
was to obtain a bill of discovery, for £l5O, by which the
Great Western Company would be compelled to give an-
swers on oath ; and upon those answers the shareholders
would be in a position to judge whether or not they would
be justified in moving that the lease be set aside.
Upon the motion of Mr. GORE, the resolutions adopted
at the London and Leeds meetings were approved of, and

Woodward were added, were authorised to obtain equitable
terms from the Great Western—to set aside the lease

granted, or otherwise to act, as might be deemed expedient,
with the view of improving the present condition of the
shareholders.

A subscription, of half-a-crown a share, was ordered to
be raised, to furnish the committee with the sinews of war

;0 carry on t

Le proceec

bank of Liverpool, and di:aw'n out upon cheques, counter-
signed by Mr. Fraser.

The meeting, after a sitting of about two hours' dura-
tion, separated, after having passed the usual vote of thanks

WESTERN

AUSTRALIA

The Swan River News, published in London on Satur-
day last, gives an official notice from the Governor of
Western Australia, of the discovery of coal in that colony.
The bed is described as " large and open," and his
Excellency adds, that the fact of extensive tracts of coun-
try lying in the vicinity (Champion Bay), well suited for
pastoral and agricultural purposes. has also been ascer-
tained by a party of discovery, and that a bay immediately

]joins, possessing several advantages adapted for the
loading and unloading of small vessels. A company
denominated the " Western Australian Mining Com-
pany" has been formed, the capital to be £20,000, in
10,000 shares of £2 each. In the Murray district, a seam
of superior coal, and a vein of metal, supposed to ba zinc,

have been discovered, and the specimens of copper found
are described as being extremely good. The News
quotes an extract from Mr, Browning's evidence on the

Navigation LI

r. 8., v

Lo was a native of

alia, deposes, that in the Swan River they have a
superior wood for shipbuilding, the Jarrah wood.

No marine insect, he says, will touch it, and the trees
grow quite to the water's edge. Orders had been sent to
India for four camels, for the purpose of breeding that
useful, animal, and their arrival was expected daily. The
w}

laling season was concluded, and the total produce is
estimated at 116 tons, valued at £6,130 in addition to
£7OO or £BOO for bone. Several parties are entering into

the sandal wood trade between Fremantle and Singapore.
and the first ship was on the eve of sailing from Adelaide,
The value of sandal wood at Canton is stated at X.. 30 per

FOOD IMPORTS.—The arrivals at Cove, during the last
two days (says the Examiner), have been large, amount-
ing to 22 vessels, which, as their register tonnage amounts
to about 5,000, brings to our shores in actual burden, the
immense quantity of about 60,000 barrels of bread stuffs.
The arrivals for the week were 59 vessels.
DREADFUL ACCIDENT.—A fearful accident happened

on Friday week, at the Madeleine Church, Bruges. One
of the priests, while performing mass, was suddenly struck
to the ground, by the falling on his forehead of the marble
head of an infant Jesus, which had become detached from
its body. Fracture of the skull, and a severe wound, were

the consequence to the unhappy clergyman, who, after
lingering in great agony, died on Thursday.

A HIT AT THE OPPONENTS OF EDUCATION BY THE
STATE.—We extract the following instance of extraor-
dinary stupidity from a Nottingham paper :—" On Friday
_

work in a

[am, when a son of