The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-04-04 00:00:00

•
and the arrival of them at Southampton ; and they had been
enabled also, at the same time, to deliver the mails at the
various ports at the periods when they were expected to ar-
rive—(hear). He trusted that, so far, this would be satis-
factory ; and be might be permitted to add, that they be-
lieved they had increased the efficiency of the undertaking,
and considerably economised its management. (Cheers.)
He had further to mention, that recently the directors had
been engaged in negotiations with the Government, and which
had been lately brought to a satisfactory conclusion. By this
result the directors believed that the interests of the com-
pany would be materially served. He was bound to state
that in their intercourse with Government the directors bad
found nothing but a spirit of the greatest concord—a spirit
which manifested very distinctly the desire which the Go-
vernment had that the society should not only be permanent,
but that it should be worked profitably and satisfactorily to
those interests which more immediately concerned them, the
proprietors. (Cheers.) He was bound to say so much, and
he was sure that when they beard the concessions that had
been made, they would feel he was justified in making the
observations that had just fallen from him. It only remained
for him to call upon the secretary to read the report of the
directors.

The following is a copy of the report :
" In fulfilment of the pledge given at the former general
meeting, and in compliance with the company's charter, the
directors have called the shareholders together to place be-
fore them a full statement of the past transactions of the
company, its present position, and what are its prospects.
" Feeling assured that the most candid course will be that
which will best entitle them to public confidence, and to the
support of the proprietors, the directors are desirous that no
point shall be left unexplained, and that every individual who
may have an interest in the concern may be furnished with
means to form a judgment as to the probability of its ulti-
mate success.
" It is now generally if not universally admitted that the
original project of the company embraced too extensive a
sphere of operation ; that its calculations, whether as related
to the number of ships required, to the work they could per-
form, to the practicability of their visiting all the specified
places, to the adequate security of the ports of assemblage,
to the cost of building, outfit, and maintenance of the ships,
and to the amount of revenue likely to be realised, were all
of too sanguine a character, and that the receipts in particu-
lar were dependent more on eventual than immediate results.
" In this position the directors, as stated in their first re-
port, brought the matter under consideration of her Majesty's
Government, with a view to obtain either an additional grant
of money or such a reduction of the steaming, and conse-
quently of the expense, as might afford a reasonable prospect
of making the contract remunerative. Convinced from the
accounts furnished by other steam associations that the com-
pany could not proceed without assistance, the Government
permitted such curtailment of its operations as encouraged
the directors to propose, and the proprietors to acquiesce in,
a perseverance with the undertaking.
" Accordingly the new scheme of routes was adopted, all
the foreign agencies and establishments were revised, and
placed upon a more economical footing, the ships' wages and
other disbursements were reduced, and all means taken to
diminish expenditure and to bring the company's affairs into
a more satisfactory position. Many of these changes being
necessarily gradual, the results are not as yet fully developed,
but some idea may be formed of their probable extent from
this consideration, that during the first three quarters of a
year after the commencement of the contract service, the
expenditure amounted to £24,603 per month, while in the
last quarter of the year 1842 the disbursements did not ex-
ceed £17.466 per month, thus showing a saving per month
of £7,137, and no doubt can exist that the measures since
adopted will ensure a further diminution.
" The alteration from the first plan, in reducing the extent
of voyages. reduced the number of ports to be visited by the
company's ships, as well as the frequency of their calling at
other places; but the directors are happy to state, that their
anticipations, as to no loss of revenue being likely to arise
from that cause, have been realised, the amount of passage-
money and freight having increased instead of diminished
under the new arrangement.
" Although it was difficult to devise means for bringing
the ships abroad into their proper positions for commencing
the new plan of service, yet this was successfully accom-
plished ; and at the termination of six months' trial, it affords
the directors satisfaction to state, that no instance has oc-
curred of the company's regular ships being more than three
days before or after the time allowed as a maximum for their
voyages, and this punctuality was acknowledged by the Se-
cretary of the Admiralty, in moving the estimates for the
present year in the House of Commons.
" To those acquainted with the construction and outfit of
steam-vessels, their complicated machinery, and the de-
rangements frequently experienced at the commencement of
their career, it will appear not only unusual, but perhaps
unprecedented either in a Government or mercantile marine,
that so many ships, equal if not superior in size and power
to any now employed, should have performed voyages of
such vast extent for the first year and a quarter without any
casualty to the engines, except the breakage of one eccentric
rod, which was repaired on the spot, without causing any
material delay to the ship.
" Although, under the first scheme of routes, the company
had the misfortune to lose two of its ships, it is a source of
gratification to state, that since the new plan came into ope-
ration in the West Indies none of the ships have touched the
ground, or received the slightest injury arising out of the
navigation they have now encounter.
" Symptoms of dry-rot have appeared in two of the ships ;
they have been docked, thoroughly examined, and repaired,
all vestiges of vegetation eradicated, and both the vessels are
now on their voyages to the West Indies. It may be proper
the proprietors should know that the cost of these repairs
will not in the aggregate exceed £ll,OOO, but the expenses
occasioned by this circumstance have been increased by the
company having to pay a penalty of £3,500 for not having a
ship ready at the appointed day to receive the outward mails
to Falmouth, and by chartering a ship to make one voyage to
St. Thomas's and back while the before-mentioned two ships
were undergoing repair.
" One of the ships built at Bristol has proceeded to the
West Indies since the last general meeting, and the other is
on the eye of her departure from Bristol for Southampton,
her machinery having already been tried in the dock, and
reported efficient.
Although the company's ships, as stated, have performed
their routes under the new system with great regularity, yet
experience has shown that too little time is allowed for reply-
ing to correspondence, at the returning points of the respec-
tive routes—namely. Jamaica, Demerara, and Trinidad.
To remedy this inconvenience, and, at the same time, to
reduce still further the expenditure of the company, certain
modifications of the plan had been proposed to, and highly
approved of by, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty,
which will insure at least seven clear days for collecting the
homeward mails at all those places. By this arrangement,
also, Barbadoes will again have its mails direct from England,
and longer time allowed to communicate with Guiana, as well as
being afforded an opportunity of replying to its European
correspondents by the packet immediately departing home-
ward. Berbice will have ample time to receive and return
its mail overland through Demerara, and a direct communi-
cation will be established both ways between Jamaica and
Havana, instead of the route to windward being circuitous as
at present. A more direct course has likewise been pre-
scribed for the ships returning•to England, and there are
many other advantages to the public and to the company
comprehended in this modified plan, not the least of which,
as respects the future, is a further curtailment of steaming,
amounting to at least 40,000 miles per annum.
" The directors having thus made a general statement in
reference to the service they have to perform under their
contract, proceed to detail the financial position of the cons.

Pang.
" The number of shares issued was 14,840, and the calls
have been paid in full on 13,878, and on the remaining 962
shares some of the calls have been paid to the extent of
£33,900 ; 600 of these 692 were issued to Acramans and Co.,
and are the subject of litigation, and cannot, therefore, be
dealt with by the company at present. The remaining 362
have been declared forfeited, and the directors cannot but
consider the small number of shares which it has been ne-
cessary to forfeit as an indication of the great respectability
of the proprietary.
" The directors present a balance-sheet of the affairs of
the company to the 31st December, duly audited, and also
an analysis of the profit and loss account, which exhibits a
loss of £79,790. 16s. 9d., including all preliminary expenses,
and the loss on the Isis and Medina, amounting together to
£53,668.
" The amount of loans, which at the period of the last
meeting was £260,000, has been reduced, as appears by the
balance-sheet, to £185,000.
" The balance-sheet exhibits an amount at the debit of
Acraman and Co. of £137,986. 15s. Id., which consists of the
payments made to them under their contract for the Severn
and Avon, and the further sums disbursed by the company
. for the completion of those vessels; for the excess beyond
the contract price and extras, authorised by the directors, a
claim will be made on the estate of the contractors.
" As regards the future working of the company the di-
rectors have satisfied themselves that the actual expense will
not exceed £200,000, and that the receipts, including the
contract moiler. may be safely estimated at £335,000, leaving
the sum of £135,000 applicable to wear and tear, insurance
and dividend ; and this statement is made under the convic-
tion that whilst the expenditure may he still further reduced
it is almost certain that the receipts will be greatly increased.
"On the impartial review of the actual position of the
company, the directors see every reason to encourage them
to,perseverance, and with the important reduction in steamers
with the saving produced in the wages and provisioning of
the ships, a more economical system which has lately been
introduced of providing for passengers, a less costly manner
of conducting agencies, a diminished number of coal depots,
a considerable abatement already effected in the price of coals,
added to less consumption of fuel, resulting from longer
experience of its various qualities and more vigilant super-
vision over the shipments, together with a thorough deter-
mination on the part of the directors to continue the same
course of rigid economy, it is hoped that, aided by the con-
currence and support of the proprietors, not only will the
West India colonies be enabled to retain their steam com-
munication with the mother country, but that the Royal
Mail Steam-packet Company will finally surmount the serious
difficulties it has hitherto had to encounter."
A very lengthy statement of accounts was also read by the
secretary.
Dr. Bowring would, before the meeting lost itself in
questions of detail, move an adjournment, in order to give
the proprietors an opportunity of making themselves ac-
quainted with the accounts just read. (Cheers.) It was
impossible to follow those accounts through all their details.
(Hear.)
A Proprietor.—They ought to be printed and placed in our
hands a week or ten days before the annual meeting takes
place.
Dr. BOWRING thought there was a great deal of sincerity
in the report itself, as in fact it was an avowal that there had
been a great deal of delusion in the original anticipations—
(hear, hear); and that most ruinous calculations had been
put forward. At the last meeting he had concurred in a pro-
position, that in the then state of the concern, when shares
on which £5O had been paid were worth only £8 in the mar-
ket, it was desirable there should be an investigation into the
affairs of the company by a committee of independent share-
holders. He could not forget that in the midst of their dis-
asters there was a promise of an early dividend, and now the
accounts came before the proprietors recognizing a loss of
£BO,OOO. (Hear, hear.) He did not mean to throw any
reproaches on the board, but he thought the proprietors were
entitled to have a little time allowed them for the examina-
tion of the accounts, and he hoped the directors would readily
agree to an adjournment for a week or ten days for this pur-
pose. The speaker then noticed what he said were general
complaints, of the manner in which individuals who came in
contact with the officers of the company were treated, and
observed thut there was an original infirmity in the company
from its very birth. There had been a sad want of a direct-
ing mind to guide the company safely to its great object. It
It was like a ship which had been launched at sea, and which,
when the storm came on, had neither helmsman nor rudder
—it had been left to the mercy of the winds, and had come
out almost a wreck from the tempest. (Hear.) He pro
posed that the report and the statements of accounts be
printed and circulated for the examination of the sharehold.