The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-08-03 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY,

The usual half-yearly meeting of to shareholders in this
company was held on Wednesday week, in the Cotton Sales-
room, Liverpool. A dividend for the half year of four and a
half per cent. was declared: and it was resolved unanimously.
on the recommendation of the directors, that the salary of
Mr. Henry Booth, the able and indefatigable treasurer of the
company, should be raised from £lOOO to £l5OO a-year. The
resolution sanctioning this increase was moved by William
Wallace Currie, Esq., who, in doing so, expressed himself
in the highest terms with regard to the talents of M r. Booth,
and his most valuable services to the company. The thir-
teenth half-yearly report was read. We give the principal
portions of this report :--
"In the last six months the merchandise traffic on the Li-
verpool and Manchester Railway has considerably exceeded
the traffic of the corresponding period of the previous year.
A principal cause of this increase was the long and severe
frost in January and February, when, the canals being
stopped, or very much impeded by the ice, the transit of mer-
chandise between Liverpool and the manufacturing districts
was chiefly carried on by the railway. The capabilities of
this mode of conveyance were prominently put to the test;
and the extensive and very important accommodation afforded
to the public, during that extraordinary season, has borne
more complete and satisfactory testimony to the peculiar ad-
vantages and utility of railways, than either argument or ex-
perience had hitherto been able to establish. The merchan-
dise traffic on the Grand Junction Line has hitherto been
extremely limited; it may be expected gradually to increase
as that company shall be more adequately provided with mov-
ing power, and with the other accommodations requisite for
an extensive business. In the coaching department there
has been a small increase in the receipts, as compared with
the half year ending in June, 1837. .At the last half-yearly
meeting, the directors obtained leave from the .proprietors to
enter into a new arrangement as to rates, tolls, &c., with the
Grand Junction Company, in the event of their obtaining,
by act of parliament, power to construct a branch from the
Main line in Cheihire, by Fiddler's Ferry, to join the Liver-
pool and Manchester Railway at Iluyton. The proposed
power not having been obtained, no change has taken place
in the arrangements previously subsisting between the two
concerns. The construction of the North Union Railway,
from Preston to Wigan, and thence to its junction with the
Liverpool and Manchester, at Parkside, is advancing rapidly
towards its completion ; and this improved line of communi-
cation, between Preston and Manchester and Liverpool, is
expected to be opened to the public before the close of the
present summer. Amongst the railways now in course of
execution in the manufacturing districts, the Manchester
and Leeds is perhaps the most important. From the directors
of this railway the Liverpool and Manchester board have
lately received a proposition to consider the desirableness of
a connecting railway, of something less than two miles in
length, to unite the two main lines in the immediate vicinity
of Manchester; thus forming a continuous line of railway
from Liverpool to Leeds, or by means of the Selby railway
to HMI. The subject of this proposition is one of great im-
portance, and accordingly will receive the best consideration
of the directors."
From the statement of receipts and disbursements for the
half-year ending 30th June last, we find that the receipts in
that period have been :--Coaching department,£6l,776 17s Id ;
merchandise ditto, £58,122 4s; and coal ditto, £3711 8s 2d;
making the total receipts, £123,610 9s 3d. The expenditure
account includes the following principal items :—Locomotive
power account, £22,899 12s Id ; coach disbursement ditto,
£11,240 3s 2d; carrying ditto ditto, £13,627 2s lid; main•
tenance of way ditto, £4454 13s 10d; waggon disbursement
ditto, £4676 14s 11d. The total expenditure of the half-year
is £77,054 Eis 4d leaving the net profit for the half-year,
£46,556 Os 11d. On these statements the directors, in their
report, remark, that—
" The disbursements continue to amount to a large propor-
tion of the tsroas receipts. In the merchandise department,
during the severity of the winter's frost, and the consequent
extraordinary and sudden influx of goods, requiring. nithout
notice or preparation, to be immediately conveyed by the
railway, much of the business was necessarily done ia a hur-
ried and desultory manner; the object being to afford the
public the accommodation so urgently required, and to get
promptly through the accumulated business of the day, ra-
ther than to attempt, at the moment, any very systematic or
economical arrangements. With referet.ce generally to the
amount of the disbursements, it may be proper, also, to re-
mark, that the comparative cost of working a railway must
depend very much on the general system pursued, and espe-
cially on the extent of the public accommodation afforded.
fewer<lepartures in thaday, butwith heavier and slower
trains, a pecuniary saving might be effected; but this could
not be accomplished except at a sacrifice of convenience and
satisfaction to the public."
It further appears, that the disposable balance is £47,291 ls;
and the directors recommend a dividend of £4 lOs per share,
amounting to £45,437 12s 6d ; leaving a balance of £1853
8s 6d to be carried to the credit of the next half-years's ac-
count.

The amount of the dividend seems to require some little
explanation. At first sight it might appear to be smaller,
and, consequently, that the profits of the past half-vedr have
not been so large, as heretofore. But the truth is, that, from
a conversion of a portion of the loans into capital, the divi-
dend, instead of being on about eight thousand shares as be-
fore, is declared on shares and instalments equal to ten thou-
sand £lOO shares. Thus, instead of the profits being smaller,
they are rather larger. The dividend declared in July 1836,
was of £5, yet it amounted only to £39,843 15s 3d while the
present dividend of £4 lOs amounts to £45,437 12s 6d.