The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-02-20 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

IMPORTANT JUNCTION RAILWAY.---It is said that a
junction line to connect the Liverpool and Manchester
Railway with the Sheffield and Manchester and Birming-
ham lines, near Piccadilly, Manchester, is likely very
soon to be carried out, a survey being nearly completed by
Mr. Locke and Mr. Buck, under the direction of the two
latter companies. It will only be about 2,400 yards long,
with very easy gradients, capable of being worked by loco-
motive power ; thereby preventing the danger and delay
inseparable from lines worked by stationary engines.
BLACKWALL RAILWAY.—At a meeting of the Black-
wall Railway proprietors, which was held on Thursday,
at the London Tavern, Mr. J. N. Daniell in the chair,
the report stated that the number ofpassengers conveyed
in the last six months of 1842 was 1,087,195, and the
amount received £22,811 Os. 4d., and in the correspond-
ing period of 1843 there were 1,460,877 passengers, and
£23,818 3s. 7d.; showing an increase of 273,672 in the
number of passengers, and £lOO7 3s. 3d. in the receipts.
A dividend of 2s. 6d. per share was declared.
GREAT NORTH OF ENGLAND RAILWAY COMPANY.
—The half-yearly meeting of this company was held on
Tuesday last, at Darlington. The report of the directors
stated, " that compared with the corresponding period of
the previous year, there is a diminution in the working
expenses of £2,240 Os. Ild.; while there has been an in-
crease of £2,763 2s. sd. on the traffic. With the excep-
tion of the coal trade, almost all the branches of the
company's traffic have contributed to this increase." The
directors recommend that a dividend of £1 12s. 6d. per
share, clear of income tax, be declared and made payable
on the 4th of March next, which was agreed to.
NORWICH AND YARMOUTH RAILWAY Co.—The half-
yearly general meeting of this company was held at Nor-
wich on Friday, the 9th instant. The report stated, that
arrangements had been made to open the line to the public
on the Ist of May, instead of the Ist of June ; that the
capital for the branch to Brandon was all subscribed,
without their incurring any additional liability ; and that
the directors had contracted for efficient working of the
line at a saving of £4,000 per annum on the Parliamen-
tary estimate. The totql receipts to Dec. 31 last were
£161,937 45., and the expenses were £142,836 lOs 4d.,
leaving a balance at bankers of £19,100 13s Bd.—The
report was unanimously agreed to.
BIRMINGHAM AND DERBY JUNCTION RAILWAY.—
The half.yearly general meeting was held on Thursday,
the 15th instant, Samuel Beale, Esq., in the chair.—The
report, which was read by Mr. Sanders (the secretary)
stated that the receipts of the railway during the half-
year ending 31st December, 1843, were £38,547 5s Ild.,
being an increase of £2445 18s 4d. over the correspond-
ing period of 1842. The working expenses of the half-
year were £14,225 16s 11d., being a reduction of
£4270 19s 5d., as compared with the corresponding
period of 1842. The net balance of the half-year was
£13,899 2s Id., and this sum (with the balance of last
half-year's revenue account) was available for a dividend,
and gave 28s. on the £lOO share, 9s 4d. on the third share,
and is 4d. on the eighth-share—leaving a small balance
to be carried over to the current half-year.
LONDON AND DOVER (SOUTH-EASTERN) RAILWAY.
—On Saturday week, a special meeting of the proprietors
of this company was held at the London Bridge terminus,
to determine on the propriety of applying to parliament
in the present session for an act to enable the company
to improve the harbour of Folkstone, with a branch rail-
way, and approaches thereto; also, to consider the pro-
priety of making a branch line from Ashford to Canter-
bury, Ramsgate, and Margate ; and further, for autho-
rising the directors to take a lease of the proposed Has-
tings, Rye, and Tenterden Railway. Resolutions were
agreed to for carrying out the proposed undertakings, and
it appeared from the chairman's explanations that resolu-
tions had been unanimously passed in furtherance of them
at public meetings of the inhabitants of Canterbury, Mar-
gate, Ramsgate, Hastings, and Broadstairs. A commu-
nication from the consul of the Netherlands, resident at
Ramsgate, stated that the project was hailed with much
satisfaction by the inhabitants of that important point.
It was stated, before the meeting dispersed, that a special
court would be convened at an early day to consider the
expediency of issuing 28,000 new shares, for the capitali-
sation, as they fall due, of the greater portion of the com-
pany's securities.

GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.—The half-yearly meet-
ing of the above company was held at the Paddington
terminus. The receipts of the last six months of 1843 ex-
ceeded those of 1842 by £18,420175. Gd.—the total amount
being £377,797 10s. Bdd., of which sum £309,445 ss. had
been separately received on the Great Western Railway.
The receipts in respect of the Bristol and Exeter Railway
amounted to £56,543 18s. 9d., and on the line between
Swindon and Cirencester to £ll,BOB 6s. 11d. A reduc-
tion amounting to £7,000, in the general expenditure for
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directors to apply to parliament for a bill authorising the
formation of the line in question, and thanks having been
voted to the chairman the meeting separated. In the
course of the chairman's address he stated that the sub-
scription towards the erection of a church at Swindon
already amounted to £4,600, without any assistance from
the Church Building Society, and £1,380 had been col-
lected towards the school fund. A library for the workmen
had been established, and it was in contemplation to in-
close a plot of ground in order to afford them the means
of amusement by cricket and other manly sports.
ST. HELENS AND RUNCORN GAP RAILWAY.—A spe-
cial general meeting of the proprietors of this railway was
held on Tuesday last, at the Clarendon-rooms, in this
town, to consider and determine on certain arrangements
and agreements submitted by the directors, for the pur-
chase or junction of the Sankey Brook Canal and Navi-
gation by or with the said company, and for raising the
necessary funds for that purpose, and on the expediency
of applying to parliament for an act to empower the said
company to carry out the proposed arrangements. Mr.
Greenall, M.P., occupied the chair. The directors re-
ported that a negociation had been made whereby the
railway company should purchase the canal at the price
of £144,000, being £3OO per share on 480 shares; in ad-
dition to which there was a bond debt of £30,000. In
order to carry out the arrangement and raise the neces-
sary funds, it was proposed to create 1440 new shares of
£IOO each, which should, in the first instance, be entitled
to a dividend of 5 per cent. per annum out of the revenues
of the entire concern, and the surplus income then to be
divided amongst the holders of the present railway shares
and of the new shares. The payment of the purchase
money to the canal company would be from the calls on
the new shares, in five annual instalments of £2O per
share each ; the first instalment being payable on the issue
of the scrip, and the amount of the purchase money bear-
ing interest at 4 per cent. It was intended to apply to
parliament for an act to authorise the amalgamation of
the two companies, but not to seek for any powers to in-
crease the rates of tonnage already authorised to be levied
by the existing acts; and, in order to enable the proprie-
tors to judge of the desirableness of completing the pro-
posed arrangements, it was stated that the nett income
of the two concerns for the past year, had been equal to
paying the proposed preference dividend of 5 per cent.
The directors concluded by stating their belief that, when
united, the joint concern would yield a considerable in-
crease upon this, by savings from the concentration of
management, reduction of interest upon the bond debts,
and in various other ways, resulting from the cessation of
the injurious competition which had hitherto existed. The
report, after some discussion, was adopted.
NORTHERN AND EASTERN RAILWAY.—The half-
yearly meeting of this company was held on Thursday
week. The traffic for the half-year ending the 31st of
December last had been £43,767 Bs. 7d., being an increase
on the corresponding half-year of £8,021 7s. 6d., or 22
per cent. ; an increase of revenue which had been gained
without any great addition of expense. From the net
profits, the directors recommended a dividend of 41 per
cent. per annum, less property tax. The works on the
extension line to Newport were in active progress, and
would be completed within the time originally stated.
The report next referred to the agreement concluded with
the Eastern Counties Company, with reference to the line
to Newport, and also to the determination come
which
was the extension of the Northern and Eastern Railway to
Cambridge and Ely, thence eaeward to Brandon, and
westward to Peterborough. The directors were engaged
in realising the surplus property of the company, hi
was considerable, and would, in their opinion, produce a
larger sum by the course they were pursuing, than by
proceeding to an immediate sale. The capital account
could not, therefore, be closed at present ; but the direc-
tors felt confident that the cost of the railway to Bishops
Stortford, with the Hertford and Ware branch, would
not exceed the sum of £970,000, the maximum amount