The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-08-30 00:00:00

RAILWAY MEETINGS LAST WEEK.

The half yearly general meeting of the Birmingham and
Glocester Railway Company showing the receipts to be
£41,967 4s. 7d., while the expenses, with interest, amounted
to £40,000, which left a balance of £1,615 some odd shillings.
It appears that though the railway is not in a paying condi-
tion, the attention of the management is most sedulously
directed to that important point, and that they are using
every exertion to produce such a renovation as will speedily
effect a change. In the present condition of affairs it seems
that the traffic of the line is good, having increased, both .
goods and passengers, to an extent which was not antici-
pated.
The Taff-vale Railway has declared a dividend of 28s per
share on the original shares, payable out of the disposable
balance of the hal-year's workings of £4,376 14s 2d, while a
further sum of 22s per share is to be carried to the credit of
the old shareholders as capitalised interest, making the nomi-
nal amount of each share £ll6 14s lid. The receipts from
passenger traffic are stated to have exceeded that of the cor-
responding half-year, while the tonnage from the coal works,
although not equal to what the directors anticipated, has been
proportionately good.
At the North Midland Railway meeting a dividend of 20s
per share upon each whole share, a dividend of lOs per share
upon each half-share, and a dividend of 6s 8d upon each third
share, clear of income-tax, was declared, leaviug a balance of
£2,784 3s 2d, out of the £31,154 3s id stated to be the
amount of the net profits. The shareholders, who, it is evi-
dent, are not satisfied with the present management of the
undertaking, have instituted a committee of inquiry, who are
to be empowered to investigate and devise means for the bet-
ter conduct of the company, The directors in coming before
the proprietary attribute the decline in the traffic to the de-
pressed state of trade.
The half-yearly meeting of the Edinburgh and Glasgow
Railway was held in the course of the present week, and was
the first which has taken place since the line has been opened.
The results of the undertaking appear to have equalled the
expectations which the directors formed of it, notwithstand-
ing the unexampled depression in trade. The net profit of
working is stated at £33,716 16s. 3d., making every allow-
ance for the yet undeveloped state of the goods' traffic, while
expenses, with interest on debentures, loans, &c., are esti-
mated at £17,267 12s. ld., leaving a net profit of £16,449
4s. 2d. From this balance it was agreed that £1,449 4s. 2d.
should be carried to the reserved fund, and that a dividend
of 16s. Bd. per share be declared on the original stock, which
being for one-third of the year, was computed to be at the
rate of 5 per cent. per annum, payable on the 9th of Septem-
ber next, clear of the income-tax. The prospects of the con-
cern were ably demonstrated in the speech from the chair,
in which it was stated:that since the 30th June the traffic had
continued to increase. Since that date, up to the 20th of
August, the passengers had been 110,374, an average of
14,716 per week. The receipts are stated to have averaged
£2,324 per week, while, prior to the 30 of June, the average
was only £1,806, being an increase of £5lB per week. Dur-
ing the six months the railway has been open, there have
been carried 315,642 passengers, which nearly doubles the
Parliamentary estimate, which stipulates the carriage of
340,000 for the whole year.
The Bristol and Exeter Railway Company held their half-
yearly meeting on Thursday last, and the prosperous state of
affairs induced the directors to recommend a dividend of
£1
Os. ld. per share on all shares which £7O shall have been
paid on or before the 6th day of October next, for which date
the dividend is made payable. The report states, that 45
miles of the line arein active traffic, yielding under the lease,
a clear income of above £50,000 a year, with the prospect of
a considerable increase at every future opening. The prin-
cipal materials for the entire railway to Exeter are secured
at the present reduced prices, while the contracts for the
tunnel and several miles beyond it are satisfactorily let. The
disposable balance for a dividend was £170,000. At this
meeting the directors were empowered to borrow £450,00°
upon the loan notes of the company, at the rate of 5 per
cent., which will obviate the necessity of calling upon the
shareholders for the present for the £3O per share yet to be
paid as capital. The proceeding will not, however, it ap-
pears, preclude those shareholders who choose to pay up in
anticipation from receiving their 5 per cent, interest for sueh.
payments, but it is adopted in the present plenteousness of
money as a means to push forward the undertaking to a coo;
elusion, without unnecessarily pressing upon the pockets of
the shareholders.

THE INcoln TAX.—It has been decided by the Cora;
missioners of Taxes, that the carriage and horse of a medicalr
man, although required for the exercise of his profession' if
occasionally used by him or his family for pleasure, cannot
be deducted from his profits, nor will any deduction be made
for the assessed taxes on them.
It has been very currently reported in Dublin on the au.
thority of private letters received from London, that Arch-
deacon Pakenham, brother-in law of his Grace the Dnke of
Wellington, has been appointed to the vacant see of Meath'
and that Mr. T. B, Smith, the eminent Queen's counsel, i 9
to be the Solicitor-General, in succession to Mr. Jackson-
THE New PALACE INTRUDER.—This person is well
known in Maidstone, having for some time previous to last
week lived with Mr. Weekes, of the White Lion Inn' 89
ostler, in which situation, except when he indulged in drink,
which he did latterly to a considerable extent, he was alwaYs
a useful, well-conducted servant.—Maidstone Journal.