The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-08-06 00:00:00

AT a stated HALF-YEARLY GENERAL MEET-
ING of the EDINBURGH, LEITH, and NEW-
HAVEN RAILWAY COMPANY, held within the
Office of the Edinburgh, Leith, and Granton Railway
Company, on the 30th day of July, 1544.
ERSKINE DOUGLAS SANDFORD, Advocate, and
Sheriff of Kirkcudbright, Esquire, in the Chair.
The Secretary read the circular calling the meeting, and
the newspapers containing the same, and the minute of
last meeting was also read and approved.
The following report by the Directors was then sub-
mitted :

The Directors of the Edinburgh, Leith, and Newhaven
Railway, address their constituents for the last time in
that capacity, but they do so with a feeling of pleasure
which they have never before experienced during their
tenure of office. The name of the Company is now changed
by Act of Parliament, from " The Edinburgh, Leith, and
Newhaven Railway Company," to " The Edinburgh,
Leith, and Granlon Railway Company," and in taking
leave of the name, the Directors are happy to think that
they have also taken leave of the difficulties which so long
beset the concern and impeded its progress.
In their last report they informed you of the completion
of the drift-mine of the Scotland Street Tunnel, and they
have now to report that the first contract for a portion of
the tunnel itself has been entered into, and the works
thereon are in rapid progress. The ground at the Market-
street terminus of the line has also been conveyed formally
to the Company by the Town, and the price paid.
In pursuance of the powers conferred by the meeting of
shareholders of 29th July, 1841, the Directors lately bor-
rowed from the Scottish Union Insurance Company the
further sum of £13,000 on debenture, which, with the
sum of £20,000 formerly borrowed on debenture, under
authority of same meeting, made up the sum which the
Company were entitled to borrow under their acts of par-
ltament, other than that of 1841. This sum of £13,600 is
applied in payment of the balance due for property to
landowners on the original line, and of the works now in
operation for the completion of the tunnel.
The traffic on the line as opened is steadily on the in-
crease. For the last six months, as compared with the
previous six months, for example, there is an increase of
16,788 passengers, and for the present month of this year,
as compared with July of last year, there is an increase of
2445 passengers. The average number of passengers con-
veyed along the line weekly at present amounts to upwards
of 4000.

For an explanation of the proceedings which took place
in parliament in obtaining the bill of the Edinburgh,
Leith, and Granton Railway, the Directors beg to refer
to the accompanying report of the provisional committee
appointed by the promoters of that measure ; and, in con-
clusion, they have only farther respectfully to take leave
of their former constituents, and to congratulate them on
their altered prospects.
It was then moved and carried unanimously, that the
report now read be approved and printed, and the meet-
ing declared the borrowing of the sums on debenture to be
necessary and expedient, and approved of the whole pro-
ceedings of the directors thereanent. The chairman then
stated that the following gentlemen fell to leave the direc-
tion of the company by rotation, viz :
Henry Inglis, Esq., Deputy-Chairman,
Joseph M'Gregor, Esq.,
Alex. Robertson, Esq.
That the number of Directors by the new art is limited
to seven, and in order to supply the foregoing vacancies,
and to make up the board to the number allowed by the
act, it was moved, and unanimously agreed to, that the
following gentlemen be elected directors, viz.:—
Joseph M`Gregor, Esq.,
Alexander Robertson, Esq., of Eldin,
Sir William Dunbar, Baronet,
Alexander Jamieson, Eso„, of Heriothill, and
David Thom, Esq., merchant, Leith,
and that Sir William Dunbar be appointed deputy-chair-
man in the room of Mr. Inglis.
The chairman further stated, that several of the Share-
holders of the New Stock had intimated a desire to pay
up the whole amount subscribed by them at once; that
the advantage of this plan had been found to be very great
andu
pontistaetvethrael
directorslinesofrwaielwreayauntohworiiznesdy successful
efuAl operation,
e"toi aatnTi
o allow five p cent. est on the sae.
Will. IV., cap. 131, sec. 47, to accept of such payments
in advance, and t
The meeting approved of thiser
suggestioninte,r and author s med
the directors to accept of such payments in advance as
they might think proper. and to allow five per cent. in-
tarest on such advances as might be made, over and above
the calls made upon the stock at the time.
The thanks of the meeting were then moved to the Di-
rectors of the Edinburgh, Leith, and Newhaven Railway
thoa had performeds
uccesssuccessful
their Com paa
rndyu,
ofuc rs tdhuet i
ems
,a na nn edr
bi un vcg'hhite ht
htehnery
conclusion.

Mr. Grainger, the engineer, stated, that having exa-
mined the tenders of the contractors for the Granton
branch, hew a 11) arrr to b. etkola to -ntoto that, notwith-
standing that the price of the land had turned out higher
than had been originally estimated, this branch line would
in all probability be completed under the original esti-
mate.

E. D. SANDFORD, Chairman.
REPORT

by the Provisional Committee of the Edinburgh, Leith,
and Granton Railway, to the Shareholders in that under-
taking.
The Provisional Committe, appointed last year to carry
through the Bill for the formation of branch lines to
Leith and Granton from the Edinburgh and Newhaven
Railway, have great pleasure in reporting that that Bill
has now passed through both Houses of Parliament, and
has received the royal assent.
In the month of February last, the petition was pre-
sented to pailiament for leave to bring in the bill. At
this time, the necessary funds for the Granton line had
been fully subscribed, and a certain surplus remained over
to be applied towards the capital necessary for the forma-
tion of the Leith branch. But as this surplus was not
sufficient to meet the proportion of capital required by the
standing orders of parliament to be subscribed before the
petition could be entertained, the Directors of the New-
haven Railway took up the balance of the sum required
to the House
of Commons committee upon standing orders, and The petition
n e cree sf
es ar
rr ye d
in depositsth e
usual
way
and
ds
paidaccordingly
there-
after to a committee on the bill along with the bills for the
Edinburgh and Glasgow Extension and Slamanan Junc-
tion Railways.
This Committee, however, owing to a variety of circum-
stances, which it is unnecessary to detail, did not sit until
the 10th of May last ; while in the interim, in the month
of March last, a Committee of the House of Commons
met for the consideration of the North British Railway
Bill. In this bill it was discovered by your reporters
agents—no communication having been made to them
upon the subject by the promoters of the North British
Railway—that a most valuable portion of the ground ac-
quired several years ago by the Newhaven Company for
their terminus at Market-street had been scheduled for
the purpose of being taken under their act.
It is almost superfluous for your reporters to state the