The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-05-14 00:00:00

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

The event of last week in Parliamentary Railway Com-
mittees is the rejection, on Friday, of both the Harwich
schemes. We believe that next session will see a better
scheme than either.

Among the railways which have for some time been
suffering from undue depression, and into which the re-
viving spirit of the times is at last breathing the breath
of life and healthfulness, we number the Preston and
Wyre, the shares in which company, but the other day
unsaleable at £8 or £lO, are now, we perceive, verging
close upon £2O.

RATING OF RAILWAYS.—In the Queen's Bench, on
Friday. the court gave judgment, on the appeal of the
Grand Junction Railway against a poor-rate order on the
company. The court held, that the facts which dis-
tinguished this case from the South Western Railway
Company's case were not such as to alter the application
of that case. That the rate is upon the occupier, in
respect of his beneficial occupation, and not on any par-
ticular class of receipts, or particular holding. The com-
pany had admitted that a tenant would give a certain sum,
as lessee, of what the company possessed, and by consent
the court were to treat it as an entire line. The company
also admitted certain facts, out of which the court could
not go. They thought the South Western decisicn good,
and applicable to this case. They, therefore, disallowed
the appeal, and confirmed the rate.

SHEFFIELD AND LINCOLNSHIREJUNCTION RAILWAY.
—A. meeting of gentlemen interested in the welfare of
Sheffield was held at the Cutlers' Hall on Monday last,
when it was unanimously resolved, " That the proposed
Sheffield and Lincolnshire Junction Railway is an under-
taking highly advantageous to the town of Sheffield, and
deserving the utmost support of its inhabitants, and that
immediate means be adopted to obtain an act of Parlia-
ment for the construction of such a line of railway;" and
a provisional committee was appointed to carry the above
resolution into effect, with power to add to their number.
This line of railway will proceed from the Sheffield and
Manchester Railway-station at Sheffield, cross and com-
municate with the North Midland Railway near Wood-
house Mill, and proceed by way of Worksop and Retford
to Gainsburgh and Lincoln, at or near which latter place
it will also communicate with the intended line of railway
from Cambridge or London towards York. A prospectus
of the fine will be issued in a few days.
PUBLIC OPENING OF THE LIVERPOOL JUNCTION
RAILWAY THROUGH SALFORD.—WS line was publicly
opened on Saturday week, since which time the whole
of the passenger trains have run from the Victoria station
at Hunt's Bank, including the half-past three o'clock a:
m. mail train, a circumstance which must be of great
consequence to the post office. No stoppage is made to
take up passengers at the junction with the old line, at
Ordsall-lane, and the offices in Liverpool-road, so far as
the passenger traffic is concerned, are entirely closed.
The old station, however, is still the station for the Man-
chester goods traffic ; but goods coming from Liverpool
to Yorkshire, or from Yorkshire to Liverpool, are taken
to the Hunt's Bank Station. The new offices, waiting-
rooms, &c. of the Liverpool and Manchester Company,
at the Victoria Station, adjoin those of the Manchester
and Leeds Company, and are very neat and commodious.
There is now, therefore, one continuous line of railway
communication across the country from Hull to Liver-
pool, and the Irish Channel is thus brought into close
neighbourhood with the German Ocean.
NORTH WALES MINERAL RAILWAY, FROM CHES-
TER TO WREXHAM.—The bill for this line is in com-
mittee, and at present unopposed. The extent of the
railway is eleven miles ; and the estimated cost, in-
cluding branches to several iron and coal works, is
£120,000. The traffic returns exceed £20,000 a-year,
in pretty equal proportions for passengers and general
merchandise, and for minerals. Should the pro-
ject, emanating from Birkenhead, of a line from
Chester to Shrewsbury, be carried out, it will branch
from this line, and materially increase its returns. It
promises to be one of our most productive mineral rail-
ways. Certainly no part of the kingdom stands in greater
need of railway communication than the central district
of North Wales, which this line opens up. It abounds in
minerals, and is exceedingly populous. Of about twenty
furnaces in blast within a few years, not more than four
or five continue to work ; while the population, particu-
larly of two parishes, Wrexham and Ruabon, nearly
24,000 in number, are involved in the utmost poverty and
distress. The cost of carriage was of itself sufficient,
during the recent depression of the iron trade, to compel
these works to " blow out."—Railway .Record.

GRAND JUNCTION RAILWAY. —A special general
Meeting of this company was held at the Cotton. Sales_
room, od ma ,r
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chair
was occupied by
very numerously attended. The chairman said that the
directors bad not thought proper to make a report, as the
understanding had been, that a quarterly dividend should
simply be declared. He had merely to state, therefore,
that up to the Ist of April, there was a sum of money in
hand sufficient to enable the directors to recommend that
a dividend of £2 10s. per share should be paid on the
present occasion ; after which payment a surplus, including
the balance remaining at Christmas, would be left. He
thought that, considering this was the first and always
the worst quarter of the year, they had every right to be
gratified with the result. A dividend of £2 10s. per
share was accordingly declared, the same to be payable on
and after the 15th inst.--The new shares were not created,
in consequence of the bill, for shares between Lancaster
and Carlisle, not having as yet received the royal assent.
Another meeting of the company, for the purpose of
creating the shares, was appointed to be held at the Cot-
ton Salesroom on that day fortnight. In reply to the
question of a proprieter, Captain Huish stated that it
would be very convenient if those holding fractional parts

May 14, 184 t.

of shares could make up a whole share among themselves,
and send a joint letter to the office stating in what name
they wished it to be entered. If this could not be doqe
arm, he said, the office would endeavour to arrange iG
with some other party who was in a siroiliar situation with
respect to fractional shares. The chairman stated WO'
ally that nothing could be more satisfactory than the pre-
sent state of the Grand Junction line, and that the direc-
tors had made arrangements with gentlemen at Manches-
ter. who were engaged with others in making the Trent
Valley Railway, which would be carried out in the most
satisfactory manner, and on the best possible terms. Ho
observed chat a great many of the rumours afloat were
without foundation, and that he had no apprehension as
to any threats of rival lines. The meeting adjourned.
after the proceedings had occupied about twenty minute Sir