The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-10-08 00:00:00

ENCAUSTIC TILES

ATESSRS. MINTON and COMPANY (Stoke-upon-
Trent) have appointed Mr. E. GRIFFITHS, No.
36, CHAPEL-STREET, Liverpool, SOLE AGENT, in
Lancashire, for the Sale of their-t'NCAUSTIC TILES.
Parties erecting Publis,Bnildings, Mansions, Villas, or
almost any descriptio-of Dwelling, where elegance and.
durability are required, are respectfully requested to in-
spect the numerAs Specimen?, and where every informa-
tion may be obtained relative to the same.

FRENCH BOOT AND SHOE EMPORIUM,
31, BOLD-STREET,
OPPOSITE THE MIISIC HALL.
SUMNERS, in announcing his return from Lon-
N-JI • don, desires to intimate, that he has personally
selected from the extensive and celebrated stock of Mons.
C. Lehocq, of Boulogne, and Regent-street, London,
several Cases of Promenade 'and-Dress BOOTS, and
has entered into an arra ~inent with Mons. C. L. for a
constant supply of b' rst-rate Goods direct to this Es-
tablishment only.
To those Gen etnen who prefer French Boots an op-
portunity is afforded of obtaining Lehocq's Boots, which,
for elegance and durability, cannot be surpassed, and on
the same terms as in London. viz., 15 per cent. off the
usual prices for ready money.
G. S. has also greatly augmented his Stock of Ladies'
BOOTS and SHOES from the first French Houses, to-
gether with an enlarged Stock of FRENCH LEATHER
and other Materials.
. _

--Ladies' and Gentlemen's Indian Rubber and other
GALOSHES, in great variety.

CHESTERFIELD, -)

TAGLION I,

WATERFORD,

WRAPPERS

AND

D'ORSAY,
WELLINGTON, and

WALK IN G COATS,

FROM 155. EACH.

M ELVILLE

AT B. HYAM'S
MANUFACTURING CLOTHING
ESTABLISHMENT,
63, LORD-STREET.

=~

1

A

TO THU

SHAREHOLDERS Ili-iti-g EDINBURGH AND
GLASGOW RAILWAY

• AND IN THZ
FORTH AND CLYDE AND UNION CANALS.
GENTLEMEN,
A LLOW tae to call your attention to the effects on
El. your respective properties of the ruinous competition
now carrying on between the rival Railway and Canal
routes, connecting Edinburgh and Glasgow ; a contest
which, if persisted in, must prove ruinous-to all parties.
The Union Canal Company ba this last year ceased
to pay a Dividend. The free evenue being barely suf-
ficient to pay a third of the Os. formerly paid ; the Di-
rectors recommended, a the Proprietary agreed, to
order no Dividend, b to apply the surplus Revenue to
carry on the presen ruinous contest, in the hope of
bringing the Railway Directors to reason.
The Forth and Clyde Canal Dividend has been gradu-
ally reduced, and is now less than a half of the amount it
was previous to the commencement of the contest, and
this with a traffic doubled in amount.
This state of the competing water routes no doubt
seems favourable to the rival communication, " the Edin-
burgh and Glasgow Railway," and parties trusting to the
representations made at the General 11leetings of our
Proprietary, as to the progressive increase of the Traffic,
might reasonably suppose the Railway Company to occu-
py an advantageous position in the contest with the Canals

-All.that is needful to show the error of this conclusion
is a cursnry examination of the Reports and Accounts
of the Railway Company. Such an examination must
satisfy every one that nothing but an arrangement which
will enable the Railway Company to return to remunera-
tive charges on their Railway can save that concern from
ruin.

The correctness of what I assert is manifest from the
following summary of the affa'rs of the Railway Company,
as exhibited in the last three Half-Yearly Reports issued
by the Directors to the Proprietary.
From these Reports I find,
First, That, while the Capital Outlay on the concern
has, in the period from January, 1843, to July, 1844, been
increased by loan, and the issue of or calls on Now Stock
to an extent of nearly £150,000, the gross returns of Re-
venue have not increased, but diminished. This is shown
by the following Tabular Statement :
CAPITAL.
aE s. d.

,2 a. cl

On Ist January,
1843,theExpen-
ture on Capital
Account was .. 1,513,396 15 4 whereof Borrowed 456,669 10 3
On 31st July,
1944, this Ex-
penditure had
been increased
byan Outlay of 136,126 16 3 whereof Borrowed 53,256 6 0

The Capital Ex.
penditure, as on
31st July, 1844,
was therefore £1,649,523 11 7 whereof Borrowed 50g,g23 in 3

REVENUE.

s. d

The Gross Revenue for the Seven Months endinr
31st July, 1843, was.. 68.84 12 1
0. Six Months 31st January, 1844, was.. 52,131 14 7
PP SP , 31st July, 1844, was.. 55,866 16 0
Prom the same Reports I find,
Second, That, though the Goods Traffic has more than
doubled during the last eighteen months, yet the gross
receipt for the conveyance of the larger amount was less
by 10 per cent. than the gross receipt for the smaller.

TABLE OF GOODS AND CHARGES FOR LAST EIGHTEEN
MONTHS. Average

Tons.

Gross Receipts. per Ton

Goods Carried in Seven
Months ending 31st
JO17, 1843
Goods Carried in Six
Months ending 31st

January, 1844

60,009 14,730 g 3 0 4 11

Goods (52;rried in Six
Months ending 31st
July, 1844
Each half year shows, it is true, an enormous increase
of work or business done by the Company, bnt accompa-
nied, alas! with an equally enormous decrease of remune-
rative return.

The reduction from an average of Ils. 3d. per ton to an
average of 4s. lfd. per ton on the Carriage of Goods is the
more striking while, even with the higher average, the
Directors found it necessary to explain to the Proprietary
the causes, and to express their regret at the lowness of
the Profits, attributing this unfortunate result to reduc-
tions forced upon them by the competition with the
Canals.

In the Report to the Meeting, held in August, IS4 , the
Directors say, " The quantity of goods carried (33,000
tons) is greatly increased, bra,_owing to reductions made
from time to time, in the rates of carriage, this branch of
traffic(the goods) has not been so profitable as might have
been otherwise expected."
Since this Report was issued farther reductions, agent,
as is shown by the foregoing Table, to more than 60 per
cent. on " these very rates of carriage" have been made
by the Directors.
I the profits were too small, " not such as might have
been expected," when the average charge per tori for car-
riage was 11s. 111 d., what must they now be when this
average is reduced to 4s. 11(1?
The Repo-rts show,
Tkirdly, That in ;he case of the Passenger Traffic the
average sum received from each pastenter
every. successive half year. In proof 1 refer to the fol-
lowing

PASSENGER TABLE.
Numbers
carried. Gross Receipts.

Average.

Seven months ending
31st July, 1e43 318,682 440,836 16 8 40 2 6 10-16
Six rnorths ending

Slat lantinry, 1R44..
Fix months ending'

334,688
~.41,722 7 7 0 2 3 11-I6

Slat July, 1844

331,578 28,897 14 11 0 2 4 2.16

How far this last average may be reduced in the next
six Months it is impossible to predicate. The Canal
Companies, after directing their efforts chiefly to the pro-
tection of their Goods Traffic threatened by the Railway
competition, have, within the last three months, made an
attack on the Railway Passenger Traffic, and have com-
pelled a reduction on the Railway Third-Class Fares from
4s. to 24., and, within the last month, to ls. 6d. The
average receieed per passenger on the Railway is thus
every day getting lower—what it may heat the end of the
present six months it is impossible to say !
Fur the last eight weeks the average per passenger is
Ild.

While the receipts per passenger and per ton of goods
carried along the Railway diminishes each half year, the
capital account or money invested in the carrying depart-
ment, of the Company's business, increases in a ratio with
the diminished profits.
Eigbtee.n .months ago, or on Ist January, 1843, the
amount of capital invested in locomotive engines, car-
riages-vans, trucks, horse boxes, and other moveable
property necessary for the carrying department was up-
ward's of £112,000. In the last eighteen months this
capital has been increased nearly £lB,OOO, by moneys bor-
rowed or obtained by call. on new shares, so that the
capital invested in the carrying department of the Railway,
in moveable and perishable properly alone, was, on 31st
July lest, upwards of £130,000, independent of the very
large amount invested in warehouses, stores loading
places, and other fixed property necessary fur this depart-
ment of business.

The following Table gives the amount disbursed from
capiral for trucks, •carriages, locomotives, 5c.3., as stated
in the three last Half Yearly Reports, also the average
sums received per passenger and ton of goods in these
three periods, and shows that as the receipt from passen-
gers and goods decreased the capital outlay increased;
TABLE.

Outlaid PT Loco- Receipt per Receipt
motive Engines, Ton of per
Waggons, &c. Goods. Passenger.

Period of 7 Months.
ending July 31,18134E4,736 11 5 X 0 11 3i 10 2 6 10.6
Period of 6 Months,
'ending Jan. 31, 1.344 5,317 8 3 0 4 11 0 2 5 4.16
Period of 6 Months,
ending July 31, 1844 7:37 18 10 0 4 1i 0 2 4 2-16

..'17;5g1 19 6

•
The fact it, that but fora great reduction in the rate of
interest, laet half year, the dividend, though diminished,
could not have been paid. In the half-year ending 31st
July, 1843, the debt being £450,&..9 10s. 3d., the interest
paid was £12,168 6s. 3d. ; while in the half year ending
31st July, 1814, the debt being increased to £509,925
16s. 3d., the interest paid was only £9,272 16s. ; showing
a saving, or rather a diminution in the amount of interest
paid of nearly £3OOO.
The 'Gross Revenue for the Six Months ending
31st July, 1844. was .455,866 16 0
The Expenditure charged to Re-
venue was £20,157 1 8
The interest for the Half Year, the
Debt being 4E54)0.025 16s. 3d. was 0,272 18 0
The Dividend ordered was....

.- 54.742 7 8

♦lleged Surplus .e1,:24 8 4
Had the interest been paid at the rate of evert four per
cent., instead of a aurplus, there would have been a defi-
ciency of corns hundred pounds.
Lenter into the foregoing details, as to the Railway
matters, to show to the Proprietary the results of the pre-
sent ruinous contest.

To the Canal Proprietors no such statements are neces-
sary, the results are such as they must feel--the caseation
of dividend by the Union Canal, and the diminished divi-
dend on the Forth and Clyde, must arouse them and show
them the desirableness of some mutual arrangement.
Could either of the parties in the present contest hop.
to drive their opponents from the field, and obtain clear
possetsion of it themselves, there would be a justification
of the contest. The experience of the lust two years (in-
deed the experience of all such cantests) proves the im-
possibility of effecting any such end.
is then this ruinous contest to be continued ? Will the
Canal and Railway Proprietors sit quietly and see their
properties squandered in a contest which, had the Manag-
ing Directors of these undertakings been more prudent,
would never have commenced, far less continued till
the present time )
with the Canal or Railwid3aaoy whether the fault lies
naDeiti:cstYo;s, or with both ; but I
let, the contest beruin
88y, ,tocritheeind to, unless the Proprie-
tors desire to see the
Raihr, respective undertakings.
I call on the Canal and Shareholders to bestir
themselves, and to compel a cessation mad contest
now going on. If, the Shareholders illstoioarifro:stinearneawpl be an
instant rise in the value of their
.e s
of
fach trade undertakingthen mna fln
greater than those of the Railway.
possesses in its own legitimate roam
of indeMnifying its Proprietary, if the Directors will only
turn their eneigies to the developerrient of these resources
instead of seekin,, alone the injury of what they Consider
a rival and hostile undertaking. .
I am, Gentlemen,
Your most obedient Servant,
A SUFFERING SHAREHOLDER.
Glasgow, 26th September, 18-14.
P.S. The Extension of the Railway to the North Bridge

is held out to the Proprietary as a certain source of In-
creased Revenue and Diminished Expenditure. As to the
latter, it is asserted in the last Report, " That the expense
of cartage is still a great burden on the carrying business ;
but that, from the progress now making towards a direct
Railway Communication with Leith and Granton, a large
portion of these expenses will be but of temporary dura•
tion." Now, the entire sum paid for cartage at Edin-
burgh and Glasgow, &c., in the year ending 31st July,
1844, was £4420 10s. 2d., of which. at moat, a fourth
might be applicable to goods going to Leith and Granton.
To save this small outlay the expenditure of between
£70,000 and £BO,OOO is being incurred to prolong the
Railway nearly two miles—net to Leith and Granton—
but to the terminus of annther Railway leading to these
places, The tonnages on the Leith and Granton Railway
are, 1 believe, 10d. The extension may be a convenience,
but it cannot save expense.

IRKENLIEAD AND ITS DO

Hail ! wondrously improving place !
Soon shall thy shores and fields be seen
Enfolding, in one vast embrace,
A mighty mercantile marine.
May your generous rivalry benefit both sides of the
Mersey; may you equal us in the amount of our sales,
influenced, too, as ours is by the
Aura Popu s.
Wonderful is the influent Dress, and creative is the
power of Him who dispe es it, we can Clothe with ele-
gant simplicity the inn .enee of
IILD1100D;
We can add respectability and comfort to
OLD AGE;

We can give new graces
TO THE LOVER.
Fond youth ! if you the maid would win,
Fear not when counsell'd thus:
Ere you prefer your suit, look iu,
- And buy a suit from us.
EARP AND CO.,
TAILORS AND OUTFITTERS,

LORD-STREET.